Dearest Friends and Family,

Happy Holidays to our dearest friends and family!

Since we didn’t send out any ChaliGrams this year about our (ho hum) adventures in the Chesapeake Bay, it’s been a long time since we’ve corresponded with many of you!! So….. just want to send you our best wishes for a very happy holiday season where you can enjoy your beloved family and/or friends, and hope that it is not too stressful nor impoverishing!

I’m happy to report that Chuck and I are mostly in good health. Chuck is now seeing a super duper chiropractor who also tends to the needs of the Washington DC football, baseball, soccer, basketball and ice hockey teams. (i.e., He’s GOOD!!) He’s getting help for his aches and pains from arthritis, pinched nerves and scoliosis. Just this morning he said he’s feeling a whole lot better! 2016 didn’t start out all that positive though. Gosh, January 6 seems so long ago… but that’s the day I was diagnosed with another round of Breast Cancer, this time, IDC-stage 2. Ay Caramba! Not AGAIN!!! But happily, a lumpectomy, 6 weeks of radiation and an estrogen-blocking pill for 5 years, and I’m good to go. In fact, I was good to go JUST IN TIME for the boating season. YAY!!!!

The high point of our season was fairly early on when our beloved cruising friends from the Mediterranean, Martin and Sandy onboard “Mystique,” sailed north from North Carolina and joined us in the Chesapeake for about 5 weeks of buddy boating, crab eating, and other fun activities. By early July they had put their boat on a truck to ship it back to their home waters in Seattle, WA….. so our pals were all gone. :-( ChaliVentures’ new home is in a lovely marina in Deale, Maryland, on the Bay, but it aint exactly Barcelona! or Cartagena or Valencia or Nice or Cannes, or, or, or…. ya know? But, it’s only a 40 minute drive from our apartment in Alexandria, VA to the boat, so we did quite a bit of back and forthing to have visits with grandkids, kids and friends. Curiously, when we DID go out sailing in the Bay, I have to say that the conditions were far superior to the 10 years we spent in the Med!!! We actually PURE-SAILED most of the time, whereas in the Med, we probably motored or motor-sailed most of the time! Sometimes it was so hot and humid last summer that we didn’t even WANT to go out and anchor in some lovely, quiet anchorage just to be miserable in the intense heat. So we just stay tied up in the marina through the hottest times and stayed plugged in with the air conditioner running!!! rough. very rough. After 10 years of living onboard in Europe, it just felt more normal to be living in our tight little space. Sometime in July/August, a sailboat pulled into our marina that looked… familiar. And the people looked….familiar too! We couldn’t put our finger on it right away. We both ran through our recent destinations and hit on Cartagena, Spain!!! Sure enough, Mei and Kevin, Aussies onboard “Whisper HR” who had wintered in Cartagena Spain as we did, had sailed across from Spain last winter, and managed to get up to the Bay. I just LOVE these small world stories! So, of course we had to introduce them to the culinary delights offered up by the Chesapeake Bay: Steamed Crabs, crab soup, Rockfish, oysters, etc, etc….. lots of good times, and it was especially nice to reconnect with some folks from “over THERE.” Other “over THERE” adventures in 2016 involved our dear Dutch sailing buddies Ineke and Albert who we met in Crete back in 2010; they flew over and came to visit us in OUR home for a change! YAY!!! it was superb!

By September, weather conditions started to ease up, and Chuck, Zoey and I went out for a multi-week Fall Cruise. And then ….. it happened. The very worst event of all of 2016 in our family. On the 2nd day of our cruise, our precious little companion and best friend of almost 18 years and our crew mate for 13 of those years finally said enough was enough. As many of you already know, our beloved Zoey is gone. I still get choked up just writing this. Having her for so long with us, and especially sharing our tight quarters on the boat really made us the "Inseparable 3.” She was our little ambassador when we were abroad. I mean….. no one could resist her sweet little face that always seemed to say, “Hey, do you want to be my new best friend.” With her giant ears and her tiny body, she was quite …. memorable. Chuck and I have had a pretty rough time adjusting to life without her. It’s been 3 months now, and it still feels weird to just get up and go without arranging for a babysitter and/or without all the Zoey paraphernalia (diapers, bag, blankets, food, water, poop-bags…) It’s rather amazing how much of my daily thoughts/worries/concerns/activities centered around our li’l lamb. Many of you met her along the way, so you know how lovable she was….. well…..as long as you were a human, and not another dog, cat, squirrel, fox…. Yea yea yea, she WAS a bit of a princess, but that was our fault, not hers. My laptop screensaver now scrolls through all 937 of her pictures. And of course I made an APPLE-printed, i-Photo picture book of her life that stands next to the wooden urn with her ashes.

So, that was 2016. In 2017, Chuck and I are heading abroad again…. but this time via an airplane, trains, airbnbs, B&B’s, etc. At this point, all we know is that we’re flying into Frankfurt, Germany on May 1 and flying out on June 30th. 2 months SHOULD give us enough time to explore Germany, see our friends in Luxembourg, see our friends near Amsterdam, as well as visit some destinations in Poland and Czech Republic. Right now, we’re reading all the travel books from the library, and I have to admit we find it all a bit overwhelming. SO MANY PLACES!! If any of you have any suggestions for MUST-SEE places in Germany, Poland and Czech Republic, we’re ALL EARS!!! PLEASE! Another happy event in 2017 will be the marriage of my little sister Jen Lechuga. YAYY!!

Happily our 4 children and 4 grandchildren are all thriving. We are living vicariously through their various adventures, and we anticipate some exciting developments in the next month or so.

Although last year’s Christmas email suggested that we might buy a place in downtown Baltimore, we changed our minds. So, here we are, still in Alexandria, VA, just outside of Washington, DC. In case any of you are thinking of visiting the area, PLEASE let us know! We have a guest room!

We are very, very, very lucky people.

Chuck and I send you our most heartfelt wishes for your good health and happiness, and hope that you enjoy the holidays with friends and loved ones.

Love, Alison & Chuck