14 Months 3 Weeks - Getting Back Our Land-Legs

Kairos - Our aquafied home

"Dingy on out! - Coming back from exploring the hiking trails of Reid Harbor, Stuart Island, WA
Grandpa, Bettina, Mommy & Ava

Well, although we have some great pictures and some lovely memories, Grandpa's 36' Selene troller isn't the best place for babies. They had a difficult time sleeping aboard the boat and getting enough exercise took a couple of days of trial and error before we finally got a little routine.

Good ideas:

rowing ashore every morning for some beachcombing and general hiking around.

man-to-man coverage; "zone" doesn't work for very long - they just end up fighting over who gets Mommy and they are getting too big for Mommy to hold them both at the same time for very long.

separation with one on the flying bridge and the other down below on the main deck while under-way is best. Aunt Ainsley and I took turns, she up on the flying bridge with one child just watching the sea go by and me doing laps around the first deck with the other one, like a hampster on a wheel, getting in our exercise and waving to other mariners and practicing new vocabulary like "Bye, boat." (BTW, new words this week are "Nonna" - Italian for 'Grandma', "Grandpa," and "boat.")

Bad ideas:

1. crossing the Strait of De Fuca across the tide (very choppy!)
2. spending more than 3 hours on the boat without a stop into a harbor and jaunt along the docks/shore.

We did come across another pair of twins while in Friday Harbor. They were just 10 days younger than our girls and not walking yet. Their parents, a German dad and American mom, were visiting from Indonesia and boating as well. They weren't having the same issues we were simply because their girls didn't insist on walking and climbing everywhere. Out on Spencer Spit on Lopez Island, we met another family with 3 kids: 6 years, 3 years and 14 months (2 weeks younger than ours) who were traveling on a sailboat. I chatted with the dad and exchanged a couple of great ideas for baby-proofing a boat, strapping the kid into a carseat, for example, that may have helped us out. However, trying to figure out where to place 2 sets of carseats seems daunting in its own right.

We survived the 5-day trip and visited some of our childhood favorite harbors: Deer Harbor on Orcas Island the first night, Friday Harbor on San Juan the next 2 nights, Reid Harbor on Stuart Island the 4th night and Spencer Spit on Lopez the last. We are glad the trip is in the past, but will always look back with fondness and nostalgia - the 3rd generation to take on the aquatic tradition.

Tomorrow, we go back to the Islands, but this time to explore on foot. The girls' Grandma is our companion this time. It was her family that started the tradition anyhow sometime in the 1950's. I have brought part of Grandma Betty (my mom's mom and the person for whom Bettina is named) along with me in the vial in which I received part of her after her death. I think we will release her into the San Juan waters since it is such a dear place to us, as it was to her.