The crunch is on – vacation is just around the corner and I am in a madcap scramble to get everything ready. Ironic isn’t it, the exhaustion of pre-vacation duties? Perhaps the net effect of checking off all of the details is that it makes us appreciate our vacation time even more.
No complaints, but for us, this means we get ready on both on the home front (scheduling the house sitter, paying some bills in advance of departure, etc.) and on the ‘boat front’ because we are heading off for our annual cruise to the waters of the San Juan Islands, in Washington and then, British Columbia.
Outfitting our boat is a very different process – think two plus weeks of floating camping. However, this year, our first week of cruising will be fairly easy. My bother and sister-in-law are chartering a boat and, with our mighty flotilla of two, we will all depart from Anacortes, Washington. Though these two have a boat in southern California, navigating these very different waters will be a new experience for them. Therefore, we’ll be in marinas for the first six nights. For us, this means we’ll be living high on the hog! (Marinas offer things like docks, which means easy dog runs to shore, little general stores where we can re-stock when our cooler runs low, and heck, even cafes for when no one wants to cook.)
The remaining nine nights, we’ll be exploring beautiful little coves and inlets in far away places. This is when provisions begin to really mean something. Gone are most of the fresh vegetable options, truly chilled drinks, and happy hour appetizers. By necessity, room has to be given over to food that is easily stored and prepared. (Fun fact – on one trip we actually lost a little weight. Daily hiking and limited food will do that to humans. Dogs, too! But not to worry, we have never been even close to starving.)
So, now that this post is finished, I’m back to my list. I have plenty of things to check off!