On our way

I'm currently sitting peacefully at anchor a few miles from Astoria, OR and enjoying every minute of it except for a missing Anna. She was supposed to be here today but the day before our scheduled departure, something happened that landed my poor dad in the ER. He's doing great and we made sure of that before continuing with this trip, but because of the pains that our crew took to make this transit plus the excellent weather forecast, we very much wanted to proceed on schedule. It made for a crazy hectic day, but thanks to our utterly amazing community of friends and relatives, we were able - in the span of a few hours - to make other arrangements for four days of babysitting and kid delivery to Seattle. Incredible, you people are. We love you.

But, Anna had to be with the kids tonight and couldn't make the river transit today, even though I thought she should go and leave me with the kids. Luckily she's able to meet us in Astoria tomorrow when we pick up Chris, which will complete our crew for the rest of the passage.

Today we had a fun glide down the river and got in with plenty of daylight and enough time to take care of a few small projects. After all of the work that was done, the engine is running great and the boat feels excellent. Chad and Lloyd were awesome and tired by the time we anchored and they've been asleep for an hour. Sissies. Listening to the sound of water lap at the hull has me feeling especially grateful. A lot of thank yous are in order to the people that made this new lifestyle possible.

First, thanks to Cathy & John, Cater & Earl, Erin and Diane who helped us with the kids on such short notice and also to the others that would have done so if called upon.

Props to our crew members helping us out with this transit: Lloyd, Chad and Chris. You're a rare breed of competent party monsters.

Infinite thanks to Anna, Asher and Liberty for sharing this dream with me and enduring the hardships required to make it happen. My life is so much richer because of you.

Super thanks to all of those that support us in any way we need: my brother and Cloud, Paul & Liz, Jasper & Kristin and others. We're really, really lucky to have a community like you.

But mostly, I couldn't possibly thank my parents enough. Hardly a day goes by that they don't help us with something: babysitting, dinner, advice, anything. My dad has spent hours and hours helping us with boat work and while my mom is a little bit nervous about life on the water, she's awesomely supportive. I can't imagine a life in Oregon without you anymore.

And now I'll go before I cry or make you sick, if I can sleep with all this snoring. I love you all!

XOXO

(No, we didn't take the picture, but my cameramen are asleep so shut up.)