Jib Notes

There was still a lot to do in our last couple days in Paris. I had arrived in France with a huge list of things to see and I was determined to do the important ones. Laura and I dragged our boys out of bed to breakfast at a restaurant nearby. Jeremy decided he would surprise me and pick up my ring at the jewelers where it was being sized to fit my finger. While we waited for our breakfast he claimed to need to use the restroom and disappeared. The whole plan began to backfire when the jewelers turned out to be really busy.

Jeremy and I had an apartment rented in Paris for the week of the conference. I admit I had been looking forward to this. It is nice to have a place to leave our bags and I had been dreaming about an actual bath tub for months. Once off the train we rushed across town to the apartment and nearly missed Fabien, who manages the rental. He was very understanding, but he was late for another meeting and gave us a very quick run through of everything. This became problematic later when I attempted to use the washer/dryer.

I have been looking forward to writing these blogs the whole time I was in France and now that I am here in front of my computer in an American coffee shop I feel a little overwhelmed. Where does one start?! From the beginning, I guess. I will split it into 3 parts in order to avoid the world's longest blogs. This blog will contain more than the usual number of photos. However, I feel the need to state that the pictures simply don't do justice to much of what we saw. France was an amazing adventure and I am glad I get to share it with you.

I really liked Block Island, but the pull to keep on moving hit. (along with the desire for a cheaper place to keep the boat). We headed out with Salem, Massachusetts in mind as a final destination. I had researched the area thoroughly when I thought I had a job opening there and it was very affordable.

If you have ever listened to the words of the Billy Joel Song, Downeaster Alexa then you would have heard of the places Jeremy and I have been getting familar with of late. The area is filled with choice locations that are well known summer destinations such as Montauk, Greenport, Block Island, and the Hamptons. It was a difficult decision to choose our next destination, but in the end we decided to head over to Greenport.

Jeremy, Micah, and I emerged through a thick fog into a land of lighthouses, mooring fields and quaint houses by the sea just like a scene out of book. You probably could not choose a more mystical way of entering Mystic, Connecticut if you tried. We spent much of the gray morning trying to find a reasonably priced marina or mooring field that wasn't full up. It was more of a challenge than we imagined. Connecticut is the most expensive area we have seen yet. We finally found a marina slip that was expensive, but wouldn't break the bank.

Life seems to be coming at me pretty fast things days. One second I was signing up with a traveling company in Baltimore, and the next thing I know I am flying home to Oregon to go to my grandmother's funeral and my good friend, Jake's wedding. I suddenly find myself one year older with one grandparent left, sick, still no job, and a pile of things in the corner of my mind that I thought I would achieve during this trip.

I apologize that I have not been keeping Jibnotes current. I will attempt to catch up on our adventures throughout the next couple days. We are slowly, but surely making our way up the East coast. Along the way we have been visiting friends, trying new things, and realizing that reaching Maine by June 1st is probably a pipe dream. At this rate it looks like we will be lucky to reach the Baltimore area in time for the annual APTA(American Physical Therapy Association) conference June 10th-13th.

We always love to get back to sailing after being stuck somewhere for a while. However, this time we left our last port with some sadness. Marathon was the perfect environment for making new friends with all of Boot Key Harbor's scheduled events and steady boat traffic. It was almost guaranteed that we leave behind some connections, but we never imagined we would meet such great people.