Yet, another side of cruising. We are taking a little break from the water and are enjoying a visit to our home in northern California. As you can see, there is firewood to be chopped, and Elisabeth is doing a stellar job with her little “Lizzie hatchet”. You can easily tell that we are in the US. Just notice the multitude of warning labels on the hatchet. Two things make me very embarrassed about being from the US. One is George Bush, and the other is the silly warning labels on nearly everything one sees here. People often talk of the culture shock they experience when they return to the states from cruising. Until the warning labels, we had not really experienced any shock. True, there are cultural and geographical differences. One difference is simply the wide selection of choices to have lunch while out and about. Last week while visiting our good friends Utkan and Berna in Oakland, we enjoyed lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Everett and Jones Barbeque. It is still wonderful, and we hope to visit again before we return to the boat

A few of the fun activities we are enjoying while here are chopping the wood of course, playing music in my home studio, hiking in the local hills, and skiing! We are going skiing soon! Then, there is catching up with old friends and trying not to gain weight whilst doing so. The Corvette needs to be driven, and I am happy to oblige. Don’t let me forget to mention replacing the hot water heater. Yes, on Thanksgiving Day, we discovered a minor lake in the garage. A quick call to our local plumber and we had a beautiful new water heater – complete with many warning labels.

We are happy, the fire is warm, Gibson SG (my guitar) is an old friend I am getting acquainted with again, and the boat parts shopping is done. Soon, we will have a little New Year’s video ready for you. For now though, we send our best and wish you all the happiness you can stand!