Dearest Family and Friends.

Gosh! It's been quite a while. In fact, we were enjoying our last day in France (late September), when I sent out my last ChaliGram. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED since then!

As I write this, we have been back in Barcelona, Spain for 2 weeks after spending just 2 months back in the States...... a much shorter visit than usual, but then how often does one get the opportunity to live in the best city in the Mediterranean, Barcelona, for a few months? Besides, we paid a much higher price than usual to keep the boat here, so we figured we might as well enjoy it. Right? Happily, the weather is much milder than Alexandria, VA. Almost every day for the last 2 weeks has been sunny (except for toDAY!) and in the mid to high 50's, with nights in the mid to low 40's. I'll TAKE IT! It's also a good thing we came THIS year, because unhappily, this perfectly situated marina, right in town with the epitome of convenience and access to all, is going to be torn apart and turned into a SUPERYACHT marina. We'd never be able to get in again. I wish I could tell you that we've been running around doing all kinds of exciting things, but I can't. We're just..... LIVING. Walking Zoey; going to the market and/or supermarket every day to buy dinner; Going to the bakery every morning to get a fresh baguette; Going for a walk to explore a new or different neighborhood in this wonderful city. Since dear little Zoey can't do real long walks anymore, Chuck and I pretty much take turns doing our exploratory walks, while the other stays back on the boat with Zoey. There's a fair number of liveaboards staying here for the winter, and in fact we had a dock party last Sunday. We've been out to eat a few times, either at our favorite neighborhood tapas place, "La Bombeta" enjoying "bombas (potato croquettes), steamed mussels, fried calamari, and sauteed mushrooms usually, OR at a really good Indian restaurant. It's a real treat being in a city that actually has a few ethnic restaurants. That's not the case in most countries that we've visited. I've mastered the art of preparing a Tortilla Española (SORT of a cross between a potato and onion omelette --without the fold -- and a quiche -- but no crust. We're eating lots of fresh fish -- mostly dorado, and fresh veggies, especially the extraordinary large and sweet brussels sprouts. So.... our cholesterol doctor would be happy. We have a little radiant heater to take the edge of the cold at nighttime, and we actually sleep BETTER on our foam mattress, in the cold air snuggled under our comforter, than we do back on our traditional bed in Virginia.

We've done 3 things that have made our stay here less expensive: 1/ I'm getting 2 dental crowns done here instead of the USA, and am saving about $1400!!! 2/ With the purchase of a smart phone (HTC-android), we are able to insert a local pay-as-you-go Spanish SIM card with unlimited data, which then enables our smartphone to have a Personal WIFI hotspot that both of our laptops can use to access the internet. 3 for the price of 1! This equates to 16 €/month for unlimited data, vs 20€/month for 1GB of data!. And we have the phone and SMS features besides! and 3/We got a new credit card from Capital One that enables us to charge stuff in euros without incurring that persnickety 1% transaction/currency conversion fee that we've been paying for the last 7 years! oh well, better late than never.

Now.... to back up. We went back to Virginia on November 2nd just in time for me to buy a dress for the wedding on Nov. 12th of our youngest daughter Alex (the artist) to Barret DeMarzo. The wedding took place in Wilmington, DE at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts. Since Alex and Barret live in Philadelphia, Wilmington is pretty close. Plus, Alex teaches some classes there and so even received a little employee discount on the rental fee. Thanks to the generosity of Barret's mom, who is an executive at one of the premier catering companies in Philadelphia, all the food and service were provided for. Barret's company donated most of the booze, and Barret himself decorated the place, so their wedding was really quite a splendid event! It was also a very FUN event, and an opportunity to see lots of family and Alex's friends. In between the wedding, Thanksgiving and Christmas, visits to Boulder, CO (Chuck) and Knoxville,TN (me), plus lots of friend visits, Chuck and I went to about 100 doctor's appointments, tests, procedures, yadayadayadayada and have clean bills of health for another year of cruising. yay. We were so busy for 8 weeks, that we needed to come back to ChaliVentures in order to REST! Our daughter Sammy and her boyfriend Jason are staying at our apartment, and it was GREAT to have so much together time. We were both trying hard to not get under each other's skin -- which frequently happens between mothers and daughters -- and I think we succeeded. *sigh* Sammy is using her time off between semesters (she's pursuing her PhD full time now) to participate in a Spanish language immersion program in Nicaragua. From what we hear she's having a ball. Our other 2 kids, Christina/Dean and Jon/Hatty and kids are all doing well. Our youngest granddaughter, 6 month old Eliza Spinney Turner was having some sleeping issues -- much to her parents' chagrin -- but that's resolving itself now. 6 year old granddaughter Claire stole the show at Alex and Barret's wedding doing some extraordinary dancing! She is thriving in 1st grade. 6 year old Ben loves snakes and creepy crawly things, and 3 year old Sienna loves being a ballerina. We think they both enjoyed seeing their grandpa in December.

As far as our future plans..... nothing hard and fixed. Since we're in repeat mode, we're trying to come up with some places over here in the Western Med that we can cruise to that will still offer some new destinations. Although we've already been to Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, we haven't been to ALL the coasts of those 3 big islands. So, chances are we'll just mosey around them at a leisurely pace for the season and perhaps end up in Sicily for next winter. With no hard agenda, our #1 objective is to rendez vous with our good friends Martin and Sandy (our cruising buddies we met back 2006 in Salerno, Italy, and spent 2 years in Turkey together.) In the Fall, we'll have to make a quick dash to Tunisia to restart our EU Vat clock (we only have 18 months in any/all EU countries at a time before we'd be liable to pay a fat VAT tax on our boat. No thank you. Fortunately, the laws are not specific as to the minimum time OUT of the EU, so we'll probably just go for a few days then come back to Sicily. probably.

Well, that's the latest from the crew of ChaliVentures. Since the most exciting adventure we've had for the last 3 months has been Alex and Barret's wedding, I'm including a link to just a few (22) of the wedding pix. It's a combination of photos taken by professional photographer Mindy Tucker (the best ones!), as well as by Jason Hutto and myself.

https://picasaweb.google.com/alisonspinney/Top22WeddingPix?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN7puOOrpM7kJQ&feat=directlink

Love, Alison, Chuck and Zoey, who just LOVES curling up in front of the heater with her blanket on her!