Dec 3 we arrived in California. Since we crossed the dateline from west to east on our trip 'home', we experienced Dec 3 twice (Home is hard to characterize as we become even more nomadic than when we are on the boat). From LAX, we shuttled to Long Beach where Virginia's mother graciously stores our van and offers us a base for further excursions to visit family & friends. We divided our time between Long Beach (Virginia's siblings all live in that general area), La Mirada (to visit Dennis' mother), Santa Barbara (to visit our son, his family, and other friends) - generously housed by Tom and Deanna Robbins, with a quick trip up north to see Dennis' siblings and additional family & friends. Highlights included:

Frequent trips up to Santa Barbara to see Darren, Carrie and our granddaughters Kira and Devin, including attending their jogathon, watching them receive academic awards, a trip for all of us to the Santa Barbara zoo and a special 8th birthday celebration where Devin spent the morning with Grandpa J and Grandma J bowling, winning tickets in the arcade, and lunching. It was a bright, sunny, warm winter day, so then we were joined by her 10 yr old sister Kira for enjoying the remote control cars they had gotten for Christmas. Grandpa brought along his own car (a present to himself)....so you can guess who lobbied for that particular gift for the girls. We were happy that Kathleen (Grandma P) was doing so well after her ordeal with breast cancer and joined us several times.

We were disappointed that weather prevented us from arriving in Australia in time to fly back to spend Thanksgiving with family but end-of-the-year holidays were soon upon us and our time was well spent with family during Dec. We went out to dinner in early December with Dennis' mother for her 92nd birthday then were in Long Beach with Virginia's extended family for Christmas Day. We celebrated with our son's family the following weekend and took a trip up to northern California around New Year's to see Dennis' sisters, with his brother accompanying us. We experienced the full gamut of California winter weather on this trip; from freezing daytime temperatures forcing us into our ski parkas in Placerville, to an outrageously warm day in San Francisco wishing we had shorts on, to finally running the gauntlet of snow and sleet on the Hwy 5 Grapevine as we slipped back into LA before they closed the route behind us.

Schedules magically fell together and we were also able to catch up with our multitude of friends at the various holiday parties for our boating club, Dennis' Rotary club, and Virginia's former office/staff.

Dennis' knee surgery. Weather having kept us in New Caledonia longer than planned, we missed the pre-op appointments for Dennis' knee surgery that were scheduled in June before we left to resume our voyage from Tahiti. In addition, what was wrong then was not wrong now. The loose tissue that was floating around his knee had lodged itself somewhere so that his normal walk would become occasionally so painful he'd have to stop and sort out the knee to continue. Missing those appointments provided an opportunity for a new consultation with the surgeon to discuss the best new course of action. The earliest the surgery could be rescheduled was late in January, not providing much time for recovery before the scheduled flight back to Australia. He had an arthroscopic treatment, so it is possible that recovery will be quick and we can return to Australia on Feb 5 as originally planned. But if not, we will just postpone our flights. The boat will be in the work yard when we return, ready for us to start our projects such as re-rigging, in which Dennis will be ascending the masts in addition to just walking up a ladder to get on and off the boat. Kathleen joined Virginia for the 2 hour wait in the surgery family waiting room and they had a great chat. A gentleman, John Wiley, was waiting for his wife and joined in on the conversation as he found it interesting that he and his wife were on a retirement adventure that was similar in some ways to ours. He is a pilot. They bought a plane and have been visiting all the states in the US, all territories in Canada, and are deciding on the next area to tackle. We exchanged blog addresses. It is now 4 days post-surgery and Dennis is doing well. His mom took good care of him those first days! He's anxious for his appointment later this week where the decision will be made....to travel or not to travel on the 5th.

Relocating the dogs. We have had two great friends care for the dogs to date. Bill Abel took them the first year. April and Jeff Reeves had them this past year. In our search for a new home we were approached by one of Dennis' fellow Rotarians who is the Executive Director of a senior living community. They had been in communication with the local shelters, searching for some house dogs that were older, calm, friendly, healthy, etc. -hmmm sounds like Coco and Kiwi! That type of situation hadn't crossed our minds. When we visited Garden Court it seemed like it could be a wonderful situation for both the dogs and the residents. We have spent a lot of time transitioning the dogs, taking them to the vet for their routine shots, getting teeth cleaned, purchasing a supply of food and supplements, etc. And the dogs have been at Garden Court since January 9th as a trial. The residents voted yesterday to keep the dogs. There are a couple concerns that we need to address - keeping them out of the dining room and keeping them from running out the front doors and into the street. Since we aren't living there we can't provide the consistent training needed so we decided to hire a professional trainer. We are all optimistic that things can work out. They seem very happy there; they get lots of attention!

On our trip to northern California we toured Sutter's Mill near Placerville, went to the Science museum in Golden Gate Park, walked the Mission District of San Francisco to see some of the more than 500 murals that adorn walls/fences/garage doors, went to Punchline Comedy Club downtown SF, visited Dennis' niece and family on their new ranch (they are so happy to have the horses with them instead of boarded elsewhere), and visited our friends Elaine and Michael in Atwood to see their new house.

Of course the needs of the boat have been on the backs of our minds during our stay in CA. Before leaving the boat, Dennis dismantled the steering gear at the helm which had been showing some wear and turned it over to a machine shop in Santa Barbara for some refitting. He's also been procuring a variety of parts easier to obtain here (watermaker filters, autopilot drive motor, sailing hardware, etc.) that we will have to figure out how to bundle up in our baggage for the flight back. He's also purchased over 60 dvd movies to add to our already handsome collection.

Cyclone Oswald has hit eastern Australia, including Bundaberg where we have our boat stored. We heard from the marina that our boat is fine. None of the boats in storage have had any major damage; a couple (not ours) just had some tarps and covers damaged in the high winds. We have some friends there who are staying on their boat in the marina and say it has been a wild ride. The marina is on a river and the river is flowing at 40 knots. They saw a house float by one day and were told that a pig farm was flooded and they might soon see about 2000 pigs floating by, sadly. They may be asked to get off the boat if the water gets any higher. Our plan is to do some boat projects when we return....may be doing a bit of land travel first and projects later - have to assess that when we get there.