Please Visit Our New Blog

All future blog posts will be made on our "Oregon Adventures" blog site - look for "Our Oregon Blog" in the sidebar to the right or click on this link www.jubileepdx.blogspot.com.

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To view the sailing portion of our travels, check out the "Blog Archives" section of the sidebar and click on entries dated June-2007 through May-2008. All these entries were posted during our time aboard Jubilee.

Thanks for visiting!

Back at it.... back to work; back to school

It's the first day of school! This also is the first post to our new "Oregon Adventures" blog (see link in sidebar).

It was off to 4th grade this morning for Jake & Emily; the first day of middle school for Drew; Day 2 of work for Dad; and Day 1 of a strangely quite house for Mom.

The Jubilee Crew was up early making sure backpacks and lunchboxes were ready to go. No chance of being late today!

Jake recently read a article about a "backpack fairy" who apparently visits some homes on the night before the first day of school. He decided to try leaving his pack out, as did Emily, and sure enough... tic-tacs and gum were found this morning from a source unknown.

Pat has altered his mode of commuting downtown from bus to bike. He loves the exercise, plus there's lots of "gear" involved!

Here are some photos showing how we spent our last weekend of summer... it was a chilly one, but included a trip to the Sauvie Island Corn Maze and the "Art in the Pearl" festival.

Back at Home

We've been back at home for two weeks now... plenty of time to remind us just how much we enjoyed the pace of life at sea!

The list of chores hit Pat the hardest... bedrooms had to be painted, furniture moved, boxes unpacked, school supplies purchased, suits & ties located, lists and schedules made, etc, etc... Emily offered up an "ocean waves" CD to help him pass the hours painting trim, but he was less than soothed by the familiar sounds. He'd much prefer scraping barnacles v. base boards!

We have all enjoyed the opportunity to reunite with neighbors and friends and to rediscover items packed away in storage during our travels. For the kids, it's been like Christmas unpacking their favorite toys.

Our first weekend back in Portland was highlighted by one of our favorite annual neighborhood events... the Multnomah Days Parade. It's one of those events that really brings home the saying "Keep Portland Weird"!

Here's a photo album of the parade, the kids hanging out with friends, and Emily proudly showing off her new "green" room.


A note about our post-trip blogging plans: We will be creating a new blog soon, linked to this one and updated periodically with photos of the kids school activities and our family weekend adventures. You can rest assured the Jubilee Crew will not let our now limited free time impact our commitment to fun and adventure!

Timothy Lake Reunion

We surprised the kids with a stopover at Hoodview Campground on Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. They thought we were just "driving through" to say hello to one of dad's work friends before we pushed out the final 70 miles home. Instead, they discovered that a dozen or so of their friends from Bridlemile "just happened" to be camping with their families!

We were thrilled to be able to wrap-up our cross country drive with this surprise reunion and enjoyed catching up with old friends. We were treated to quite a feast, as you'll see from these photos!

Boise to Baker City

Here's a quick photo album from the final fews days of our travels - through Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon.

We're homeward bound!

Moon Walk

Passing through the Idaho Falls area, we couldn’t help but make a quick stop at the Idaho Potato Museum... that’s definitely a place you only go once! An adult admission to the museum comes with a complimentary box of "dehydrated hash browns" (yum), so at least we got breakfast out of the deal... sort of. The kids got potato-shaped lapel pins, which was a bit of a let-down. They had their hopes set on potato chips.

The day got better when we reached Craters of the Moon National Monument. Here we discovered some incredible landscapes, both above and below ground. Here are some photos of our “moon exploration”.

The kids loved our hike to the top of a cinder cone on a very windy afternoon to look over the miles of lava fields... talk about a harsh environment!

Drew was especially happy to be able to utilize the hard hat and knee pads he got on his caving tour at Mammoth Cave to lead his very own “wild cave” tour through the Monument’s four caves. Despite very hot temperatures above, one cave still had ice covering much of its floor.

Grand Teton

WOW! This is exactly what we’ve been looking for. The days we spent in Grand Teton National Park were by far the best of our trip. If it had been our first stop, we probably would never have left! We’ll definitely come back. We even liked the campgrounds... that’s a first!

Here’s a photo album from our time in Grand Teton. On our first day in the park, we took an amazing 10-mile hike that passed alongside Two Ocean Lake, through fields of wildflowers, and up to a fabulous viewpoint, Grand View, from which we could see all the peaks and valleys of the area.

Afterward, we stopped by Jackson Lake Lodge and Lunch Box Hill to watch for elk and moose in the early evening. Jake was the first to spot two moose in the distance.

Our second big hike took us from Jenny Lake up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, then on into the canyon where you really get a sense of just how massive the mountains in the Teton Range are. This time our moose sightings were up close... one in a stream and another feeding on a hillside just above the trail.

White Water Rafting on the Snake River was a huge hit. Drew and Pat got to serve as “lead paddlers” for our 14-man raft. Jake and Emily and I sat between them in the front row as we passed through several Class 2 and 3 rapids along an 8-mile stretch of the river. One wave knocked the sunglasses right off Jake’s face!

Thankfully, Pat had encouraged everyone to put on their wetsuits for our rafting adventure... the water was really cold and we got really wet. For obvious reasons, we were not able to take photos. (Note for our next trip... invest in an underwater camera!)

Yellowstone

We had a blast exploring Yellowstone’s many thermal features. Forget about Old Faithful... Grand Geyser took the prize for best blast in our book. See for yourself in this photo album.

Our timing was good the day we visited the Old Faithful section of the park. We arrived about 1:30. Old Faithful went off within minutes; Daisy and Castle went off within an hour; and Grant was set to put on its show anytime... within 2 hours of 2 pm, according to the “schedule board”. Grand, “the tallest predictable geyser in the world” wasn’t to be rushed, but finally erupted at 3:58... right on schedule! It was worth the wait.

At the West Thumb Geyser Basin, the kids learned all about scat and how to track animals from Ranger Eric as part of the process of earning their Junior Ranger Badges. They can now tell you with confidence who pooped, when, why and what they ate for lunch.

We were all surprised to find scat right next to some of the thermal “paint pot” areas since the ground is so volatile there, but apparently, the smoke acts as a natural insect repellent.


No bear sightings yet... but lots of buffalo, some deer, elk and a marmot or two. We apparently just missed the wolves the day we camped in the Northern part of the park. We saw the “Wolf Ranger”, who drives a very distinctive yellow SUV, pulled over near a meadow with his telescope out. Unfortunately, by the time we found a place to pull the RV over and walk back to him, the wolves had gone into the woods.

The kids decide to pose as elk one day as we were hiking along a roadside just to see how passing cars might react. One couple actually stopped to thank them... apparently it was the only “wildlife” they had seen all day!

The “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” and its two spectacular waterfalls was another favorite stop for us. We hiked the 350 some steps down from the canyon rim on Uncle Tom’s Path to get a great view of the lower falls, which is said to be twice as high at Niagra.


The kids didn’t care so much for the mud volcano area. They found the sulfur smell unpleasant. On the other hand, they were glad we visited since we got up close and personal with a number of buffalo on the way there.

Drew recently purchased his first fly fishing pole and had a couple of opportunities to try it out during our time at Yellowstone. He hasn’t yet caught us dinner, but it’s not for lack of effort!

Close Encounters in Wyoming

While hiking at Devil’s Tower, we didn’t see any aliens (we rented “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” the evening before our visit), but we did encounter a number of prairie dogs.

We “circumnavigated” the tower base (about 1½ miles around) and the boys did a bit of boulder climbing to get closer to the monument itself. Jake, who has always had a thing for climbing, described this activity as the coolest thing he’s ever done... so far!

We took a lot of photos. Here they are with a few from Sturgis too. It’s amazing how many different perspectives you can get of what is basically just one big rock... actually, crystalized rock - the core of an ancient underground volcano.

Jake made Pat promise he’d bring him back on his 18th birthday... either to climb it or parachute onto the top! Pat happily agreed to do either.

Wild West Weekend

We spent the weekend in Cody, Wyoming. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do any real Western camping, here’s a photo album that will give you a sense of just what an adventure it is.

Okay, so that wasn’t really us. Those photos were borrowed from an exhibit we saw at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center, “the Smithsonian of the West”. We happened to visit the Center on a holiday of sorts... National Day of the American Cowboy. As a result, the kids got to participate in some special mock-rodeo activities and won free tickets to the Cody Nite Rodeo.

Cody Nite Rodeo takes place every day for 90 consecutive each summer, providing a forum for cowpersons of all ages and skill levels to practice their sport. It wasn’t exactly a professional-level competition, but it was definitely entertaining. We weren’t keeping score, but we’re pretty sure the cows won!

Here’s the real photo album from our time in Cody.

Stay tuned for some pictures and blogging on our time in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons . . .

Mount Rushmore

Three states in three days... Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota. Our stops have included Cheyenne, Scotts Bluff, Agate, Custer, Rapid City and Sturgis. Here are some photos. (Map not included.)

Western Nebraska turned out to be an interesting drive... there was just so much NOTHING out there! At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument we hiked through a sea of prairie grass that went on for miles as far as you could see.

South Dakota’s Black Hills were a pleasant surprise. We enjoyed our visit to Mount Rushmore, but had no idea how much more there was to see in the surrounding area.

We visited Rushmore in the evening because we had heard the nightly “lighting ceremony” was a great way to see the monument. It was. We were shocked by the standing room only crowd in the amphitheater for a Tuesday night.

We had our first real (non-Walmart) boondocking experience after the show... we made our own spot at a parking area near a Black Hills National Forest trailhead on the advice of a campground host at a nearby campground. He saved us $23, plus the aggravation of having to back into a camp site at 10:30 a night!


We spent the following day checking out all the wildlife at nearby Custer State Park. At 71,000 acres, it’s apparently one of the largest state parks in the country and boasts one of the largest herds of free-roaming buffalo you’ll find anywhere. They also have a few dozen VERY FRIENDLY burrow!

Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountain hi! We spent 4 days exploring Rocky Mountain National Park from Grand Lake to Estes Park. Here are some photos.

It was a very busy weekend in the Park. We had to opt for a nearby National Forest campsite our first night, but then managed to find a nice spot within the Park for the remainder of our stay. Turns out one whole campground is closed due to spraying and hazard tree removal related to a pine beetle outbreak that is devastating trees in the area. The damage was incredible.

We did most our hiking in the area of Bear Lake... at 9,000 feet elevation, it was a nice and cool. The kids enjoyed the snow in the Park’s higher elevations, but found hiking that high up a bit too chilly!

We didn’t see as much wildlife as we had hoped to, but did come across several deer, some elk and a few other furry friends. Also, at the Fall River Visitors Center, the kids were able to complete another Junior Ranger program... this time they even got to try on Park Ranger Uniforms!



Our next stops: South Dakota for a look at Mount Rushmore & Devil’s Tower, then Wyoming where we’ll spend some time at Yellowstone & Grand Teton.

Colorado National Monument

Here’s a photo album from the day we spent hiking in Colorado National Monument.

The rock formations were cool, but the temperature in the canyon that day was not. We started on the canyon rim and hiked down to the floor. It was only a 5 mile hike and about 600 feet down, but what goes down must come up... that was the part that really got to us.

The kids had sucked down 3/4 of our water supply by the ½ way point in our hike, so it was a long and thirsty trip back. We recovered with a drink-intensive lunch and a stop at the Visitors Center where the Drew, Jake and Emily each earned their 15th Junior Ranger badges. They’re goal is 20 before we get back to Portland.

Delayed in Durango

We spent a couple of days in Durango recently. This wasn't a planned stop, but when Jake lost a filling and one of the shocks on the RV broke, some minor repair work was in order all around. We found a great pediatric dentist and an excellent RV mechanic, not to mention a really good pizza place, brew pub, playground, etc... Here are a few photos.

The road from Durango to our next stop in Grand Junction proved to be one of the most scenic byways we've ever driven on. The only down side was having to make the trip in the "big rig". Pictured above is a little comparison of Pat's view v. the rest of us!

We're updating the blog today from Cheyenne, Wyoming, in route to South Dakota and Mount Rushmore.

Coming soon: photos from our time this past week at Colorado National Monument and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Mesa Verde

We decided to turn North instead of West from New Mexico and make our way to Colorado.

Because of the 100+ temperatures we'd been hearing about in the Grand Canyon area - not to mention summer crowds and our lack of reservations - we opted to get our canyon fix at Mesa Verde and Colorado National Monument.

Here are some photos from our Mesa Verde explorations. It proved to be a great stop!

We Have Lift Off

We couldn't leave New Mexico without trying again on the hot air balloon ride... this time we achieved lift-off! Here's a photo album from our flight. The kids loved helping get the balloon set up and packed up almost as much as they loved the ride!

Life Imitating Art in Santa Fe

Here's another photo album of the kids enjoying the Santa Fe art scene.

We had so much fun on our last day there that we found the parking lot shut down when we returned to our RV. Luckily, a tool box worked just as well as a passcode would have... it just too a bit longer!

Reports from the Field - Jumbo Edition: Art & Science from St. Louis to Santa Fe

Jubilee field reporters have been busy gathering news, but their “publisher” got a bit behind. Here’s a triple edition of what they’ve seen and learned on our journey West, as well as a photo album of the kids exploring the Santa Fe art scene.

Let’s go to the Kansas Capitol Dome, by Emily, your tour guide
Welcome to the Capitol Dome. It was built in 1885. On top of the Dome there is a statue of a warrior named Ad Astra. Ok ready to walk the 296 steps to the top of the Dome?

There are two domes in the capitol. In-side is a glass dome. Out-side is a coper dome and on the outside there is a little deck. You can see the hole city from up there!

St. Louis Zoo, by Jake
Hi, its Jake. I went to the St. Louis Zoo and did you know that the zoo has 800 speices of animals and 8,000 animals? I saw: 10 kangaroos, 6 giraffe, 20 warty pigs, 2 Okapiz, 20 wild ass, 2 tigers, 2 red pandas, 2 tigers, and a lot more which equals more than 64 animals.

Oh wait, before I go I still have more to tell. When they were feeding the giraffes they put pills in the leaves so they would be healthy.

P.S. I also saw 6 orangatans.
P.S.S. You can see the hippos under water.
P.S.S.S. Go there!

The St. Louis Arch, by Drew
The St. Louis Arch is 630 feet high and 630 feet acrossed. It is located in St. Louis, Missouri and is right on the Mississippi. They put the Arch in St. Louis because it is where Lewis and Clark started on their journey and it was the gate way to the West.

The Arch was designed by Eero Saarinen and he won his design over 154 different designs by other people. You can take an elevator up to the top of the Arch, and there are also little windows you can look out of. When you go back down there are movies about the Arch and Lewis and Clark. Also there is a museum that tells you the history of the Arch and the Oregon Trail.

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While in Santa Fe, we had the opportunity to visit several art galleries, as well as the Georgia O’Keefe Museum. We were very pleasantly surprised by how interested the kids were in what they saw...

Georgia O’Keefe, by Emily
Georgia was born in Wisconsin. She moved to Virginia with her family and moved to N.Y. with her husband, but her real home in her hart was New Mexico.

Georgia was a painter. She painted nature, like flowers, trees landscapes, but instead of the hole thing she did a little part of it. My personal favorite piece of hers is The Black Iris painted in 1926.

Hiroshi Yamano, Glass Blower, by Jake
H.Y. is from Japan and he’s traveled to the US and Europe and he gets his ideas from all the places he goes. He loves to make fish in bowls out of glass, and he says he is like a fish.

What he makes is heavy, but small and they might weigh 80 pounds. It’s very, very, very dangerous work and you get so hot you can die. Also he has a big group of people who help him.

Lane Timothy, by Drew
Lane T. is from Salt Lake City Utah. He is a young and unique artist that paints old but make it look new. The people in the gallery explained his art as “modern nostalgia”.

The girl in all of his paintings is his own wife. Every time he gets an idea for a painting they go to a vintige clothes store and buy the clothes that will look good and match the painting. Lane then takes photos and then paints from them. His art is very big and very expensive. Each piece tells a story and he gives them interesting titles.

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In addition to bringing you news from their travels, the kids are continuing some lessons related to the natural sciences and scientists important to the field. (Sshhh... don’t remind them that it’s summer break in some places!)

Jane Goodall and her Chimp Friends, by Emily
Hi. I am here to talk to you about Jane Goodall. When she was little she read storys about Dr. Doolittle. Then when Jane grew up she whent to Africa and studied chimps for 40 years! She learnd that chimps were a lot like humens. Chimps had feleans, love and care. Chimps use tools, sticks, grass, that tipe of stuff. I think Jane let humens know a lot about chimps.

Elijah McCoy, by Drew
Elijah McCoy was an engineer. His parents were slaves that escaped to Canada on the underground railroad. He was always amazed by motors so when he was 15 he went to Scotland to study them and when he came back he worked on trains. He’d oil the engine every few hours so he came up with the idea to make a cup which dripped slowly on the moving parts. This invention made him famous and is why people even today sometimes say “It’s the real McCoy.”

John Muir, by Jake
Hi it’s Jake. A man named John Muir loved trees and nature and he studied them a lot. He told President Teddy Roosevelt he should make national parks and forests to protect them and he did it. This is why Yellowstone was the first national park. There is a place in California named “Muir Woods”. It was one of John’s favorite places so they named it after him to say thank you for protecting it. The End.

Up, Up and... Not Our Day!

Hello from Santa Fe, NM. Here are some photos from our visit to Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, home to the world’s longest aerial tram, as well as a ballooning adventure - unfortunately, that was someone else’s!

Our stop in Albuquerque proved to be a bit of a bust. We decided to surprise the kids with a ride in a hot air balloon, waking them at 5 am for this special treat. First there was too much wind for a safe take-off, but after an hour and a half wait, things seemed to be turning in our favor.

We all enjoyed watching ours and another ballooning company unpack their gear and begin the inflating process; that is until a tear was discovered in the top of our balloon. That quickly put an end to our launch plans. It also made for a rather grumbly trip up the road to Santa Fe. So much for surprises!

We’re now camped in the Santa Fe National Forest just a few miles from downtown. The kids shook off their morning disappointment by pitching the tent our friends Tom & Ashley loaned us in Oklahoma. They spent the afternoon inside it, organizing and reorganizing their sleeping bags and stuffed animals... who knows, maybe they’ll actually sleep in it too!

More Norman

Here’s another photo album of our time in Norman, OK.

Drew got a chance to reunite with his “oldest” friend Pablo,(the two first met as babies at McFarlin Daycare) as well as another McFarlin friend Samantha and their families for an afternoon swim.

We also enjoyed a visit to Lake Thunderbird - our old sailing grounds - with the Hartleys and a trip to Kidspace which Pat, Drew, Tim, Di and many other volunteers helped build in 1999 shortly before Jake & Emily were born.

We left Norman the evening of July 6 in route to our next stop Albuquerque, NM, via Amarillo, TX. There’s a feed mill just west of Amarillo that was full of more cows than we’ve ever seen in one place. Thankfully, the Hartleys had warned us to close our vents! When Emily learned what really happens there, she decided to become a vegetarian. She made an exception about 15 miles later when Drew ripped open a bag of beef jerky.

The kids now have an outline map of the US to color in each time we visit or pass through a new state... it’s getting pretty colorful!

Behind the Blog: RV Resorts & Other Camping Oxymorons

We’ve learned a lot in the last 30 days about RV living and much of it has surprised us... especially in comparison to our life aboard a sailboat. Somehow, we just weren’t expecting the two modes of travel to be so vastly different. For example...

Reading A Guidebook
Oh, how we miss Skipper Bob! His handy “Guide to Anchorages along the ICW” has been replaced by a directory the size of a large telephone book... “Woodall’s North American Campground Directory - the Complete On-the-Road Guide for Today’s RV Enthusiast.”

Clearly, we do NOT meet the criteria - whatever it is - for “RV Enthusiast”, because we have yet to find the directory descriptions in our Woodalls book helpful.

Coming from Skipper Bob, phrases such as “close to shopping”, “laundry”, “Internet” and “bus-stop nearby” were good things. Not so much coming from Woodalls. Now that we’re on an RV, those descriptions translate into three words: “Don’t go there!”.

Our most recent example of a guidebook-gone-wrong fiasco happened in Santa Fe. This is what we read in the full-page color ad in Woodalls: Top Rated RV Resort in Santa Fe, 4.5 miles from Plaza, Swimming Pool, Play Equipment, Close to Shopping, Bus Stop Nearby, High-speed Internet. Woodalls rates the place 3 out of 4 stars for both services and recreation; cost per night was $34 per vehicle.

This is what we saw when we stopped their to have our propane tank filled: a gravel lot with no distinguishable boundaries or borders between camping sites. There was a tiny pool located just inside the park boundary, just off a busy 4-lane highway, and we did see a small patch of grass on which it appeared a game of horseshoes might be played. We got our propane. We didn’t stay!

We opted instead for a lovely spot in the Santa Fe National Forest just a few miles out of downtown... lots of trees, hiking trails - actual nature for just $10 a night! The Woodalls listing for this campground was in fine print.

Camping Lingo
We’ve learned some new terms now that we’re Rving.

Big-Rig Friendly = Run Away! There’s probably a casino nearby!

Pull-Through sites = see Big-Rig Friendly

No Hook Ups (aka Dry Camping) = We will probably like it!

Dispersed Camping = This is the term for a make-your-own-spot kind of dry camping on public lands. We will probably like it, plus it will be free!

Boondocking = Similar to dispersed camping, but could also include sleeping over in a Walmart parking lot. Believe it or not, we do this frequently and prefer it to KOA (or as we call it K - No Way!) and other RV “parks” and “resorts”.

A few of our “Bests” & “Worsts” so far...
We NEVER thought we’d find a reason to like Walmart, but it has happened. We love their parking lots! You can stay overnight for free; you can almost always find one; and though it lacks ambiance, you don’t have to worry about running out of cereal or toilet paper!

Best Boondocking Experience: Walmart Parking Lot in Albuquerque... there was a Whole Foods Market right across the street and a Blockbuster Video next door! (Note: The kids highly recommend Spiderwick Chronicles. The parents highly recommend the Sockeye Salmon.)

Best Campground Experience: Lake Norman State Park in NC... it was way off the beaten path and we were practically the only ones there.

Best Campfire Moment: Shrimp & Sausage cooked over the coals... so good we made it 2 nights in a row!

Worst Campfire Moment: Emily laughing herself right off her chair and into the fire ring.

Best Road: Kansas Turnpike... so smooth, our gas milage jumped from 8 all the way up to 10 miles to the gallon. Too bad we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Worst Road: Cobblestone street that seemed like it was never going to end in St. Louis.

Best RV-related Investment: Walmart Road Atlas. Our “Nuvi” GPS unit is great, but sometimes “Yolanda” (it’s a woman’s voice that tells us where to go) leads us astray. It’s nice to have a good old fashioned map, plus this one helps us find State Parks, National Parks & Forests, and Walmart parking lots in every state!

Worst RV-related Investment: KOA Campgrounds membership card. We used it once and that was one time too many! I think it was the corn cobs squirrel feeders strategically located on the tree at each site to attract “wildlife” that pushed us over the edge.

Best Thing about our Driving Days: The kids tend to take naps.

Worst Thing about our Driving Days: The kids tend to fight. Also, Pat really misses his autopilot!

Best RVing experience to date: tailgating on 4th of July in Norman

Worst RVing experience to date: tagging a fire hydrant in St. Louis while trying to turn around at the end of a dead-end street. Yolanda’s name was mud that day!

4th of July at Reaves Park

Here’s a photo album of our time so far in Norman, OK.

It’s been fun to reunite with our good friends Diana, Tim, Tyler and Sarah Hartley and to celebrate another Independence Day with them. We’ve been together for the 4th of July many times and in many locales, but it’s hard to top the great fireworks show at Norman’s Reaves Park. We had a particularly good view this year from the top of our RV!

There were some post-fireworks pyrotechnics which took place at the Hartleys, which included the lighting of a roll of 2,000 - yes, 2,000 - firecrackers. If you're wondering how long something like that lasts, it's about 2 minutes. (Of course it felt like a lot longer at midnight in an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood!) In honor of his recent high school graduation and bright future as a University of Missouri freshman, Tyler got to light the fuse.


We also got to spend time yesterday with some other old friends, Tom & Ashley Schurr, and meet their growing family - Astrid, Aleah and their latest arrival, one-month-old Timothy Liam.

St. Louis & Topeka

Here’s a photo album of our recent visits to several Midwest must-sees.

Our stops in St. Louis, MO, included the Arch, Jefferson Expansion Museum & National Park Site and St. Louis Zoo. The kids loved the 60s-era pods that take you to the top of the Arch and seeing it at night was really cool (as well as crowd-free). Also, being very familiar with the "end" of the Lewis & Clark Trail, it was fun to see the "beginning"! One thing we didn't see is much of the St. Louis waterfront given that it is currently underwater due to flooding.

We were excited to visit Topeka, KS, for a reunion with our friends John, Elizabeth and Micah Floyd and very much appreciate their gracious hospitality during our stay there. We had a wonderful time with the Floyds visiting the Kansas State Capitol for a Dome Tour; the Monroe Elementary School which is now home to the Brown V. Board Museum/National Park; and the Gage Park pool with it’s many diving platforms and water slides. Topeka is a lovely city!


We're now in Norman, OK to celebrate 4th of July with friends here. Hope you enjoy the holiday weekend!

Indiana

Click here for photos from our time last week visiting family in Aurora, IN.

The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousin Kaylee, attending the Dearborn County Fair, swimming and participating in a backyard family photo-shoot. We managed to sneak a few photos in over the photographer's shoulder, as you'll see in the photo album included here. We also got to see Uncle John's latest home creation.

We're heading West again... our itinerary for this week includes St. Louis, MO, Topeka, KS, and Norman, OK.

Reports from the Field: Mammoth Cave, KY

Jubilee's field reporters may have changed their mode of transportation, but this has not hindered their investigative reporting skills. Whether by land or sea, they will go to any height - or depth - to bring you their stories. Here's what the crew had to say about Mammoth Cave.

True or False, by Emily
1. Mammoth Cave was made out of carbonic acid and limestone.
(A. TRUE. Carbonic acid eats limestone.)

2. Humans die from carbonic acid.
(A. FALSE. It's the same as soado, but soado is 1,000x stonger than the acid that formed the cave!)

3. You can canoe in Mammoth Cave.
(A. TRUE. At high water the green river flows in to a part of mammoth.)

4. The new entrens of mammoth cave was just bilt.
(A. FALSE. It was bilt in 1920.


Intro. to Caving, by Drew
We visited Mammoth Cave National Park. It was awsome. There are many different tours you can go on with a ranger. We went on a tour called Intro to Caving. It is three hours long and you go off the trail and climb and slide and crawl in the mud.

Our ranger's name was Miss. Dr. Janet Smith and she was in her 70s and she kicked my butt at caving! It was so FUN. We had a blast. If you ever go to Mammoth Cave, you should do it. You have to be 10 or older, so me and my dad only did it.


Mammoth Cave, by Jake
Hi, it's Jake. I went to Mamoth Cave, and did you know it's the longest cave system in the world. So far the rangers have discovered 367 miles of cave and are still discovering more. They map a few more miles every year.

Back in the olden days people took 15 hour tours and walked about 10 miles. Now our tour covered about 4 miles of the cave in 4 hours. If you really want to see the cave, you can go on the Trog, Intro to Caving, Grand avenue or Wild cave tour. If you do, have fun and enjoy your stay! Also, watch your step! The End.

On the Road Again: Great Smoky Mountains & Mammoth Cave National Parks

We’ve traded in our Crocs and flip-flops for some proper hiking shoes and have been enjoying some great trail adventures... both above and below ground. Here are two new photo albums:

Click here for the Smoky Mountains.

Click here for Mammoth Cave.

The kids set a new “personal best” by hiking the Alum Cave Trail in the Smoky Mountains - an 11-mile trek that included a change in elevation of more than 2,800 feet. It took us over 6.5 hours to make it up and back with just a stop or two for Goldfish and juice.

Emily made the journey slightly injured... two nights prior she fell off her chair and right into the fire pit at our campsite. Fortunately, the only damage was to her shin, where she is now sporting a burn/scrape.

You may notice a new face in some of our blog photos... Neela the Cow. This was give to Emily by Neil, the salesman from whom we purchased our RV. She promised to show Neela a good time and lots of interesting sites on our travels across the country so you’ll be seeing her in photos from time to time.

At Mammoth Cave, Pat and Drew participated in an Introduction to Caving tour that included 3 hours of climbing, belly-crawling and more; their only light source being head lamps. For obvious reasons, the camera was unable to join them underground, but let’s just say they had a BLAST!

We all enjoyed the “Grand Avenue” tour which covered about 4 miles of the 360+ miles that make up the Mammoth Cave system. It was amazing how spacious some of the sections we toured felt, considering we were about 250 feet underground. For more info. about the cave, see the kids’ latest reports from the field.

Next stop: Indiana

Bon Voyage Jubilee

We've now said farewell to Jubilee. What a great boat she was for us. We were sad to leave her behind in Oriental, North Carolina. It was a FANTASTIC year aboard!

Congratulations to Sean and Margaret, her new owners. They’ll soon be taking Jubilee to their home - and one of our favorite places to sail - Cape Cod. We hope they have many good times and great sails in the years ahead.

Click here for a few parting photos.

We are now on to our cross country tour back to Portland. We'll of course be posting pictures of our adventures in the many National Parks we plan to visit along the way.

Stay tuned . . .

SV to RV

Hello from Oriental, NC. Click here for new photos.

You haven’t heard from us lately because we’re “moving”. Our transition from “sailing vessel” to “recreational vehicle” has been an interesting one. The two modes of travel are incredibly different, and driving on the open road after a year at sea is going to take some getting used to.

As far as transitions go, so far, lots has gone well. We picked up a 27' 1999 Gulfstream Yellowstone in Titusville, Florida earlier this week. It required a 12-hour drive south of our current location, but after much searching all along the southern East Coast, we were happy to find something clean, in good condition AND in our price range!

The dealer from whom we made the purchase was very helpful in getting us oriented to the inner working of an RV and making sure we were set-up well for our next adventure.

Also, the marina/boatyard where we’re staying in Oriental in order to move off the boat has been wonderful. They have great services for cruisers, including haul-out. Pat finds scrubbing the bottom of the boat much less pleasant in the murky water of the ICW than he did in the clear waters of the Bahamas, so we opted to have it pulled for cleaning this time!

There’s a pool which the kids are thoroughly enjoying; incredibly friendly people, including a few other boat kids; the town of Oriental is lovely; and as luck would have it... there’s a RV hook-up right in the marina parking lot!

Yes, that’s correct... for the past few days we’ve been living in a grassy patch between the parking lot and the marina owner’s mom’s house. We’ve made countless trips back and forth across the street carting our things from Jubilee to RV. It’s about a 100 degrees here right now, so air conditioning as been a welcome change! As for most everything else about RV living, we still have a some adjusting to do.

There’s a behind-the-blog story coming soon on that topic, but for now, we hope you enjoy our most recent photos. Despite a long drive and lots of work to do, we have found at least some time to play, explore and enjoy our final weeks on the water.

Our Provisioning List

This is a fairly complete summary of our provisioning list, based on a family of 5 spending 5-6 months in the Bahamas.

After the list is a summary of what - in our experience - was easy to find in the Bahamas v. what was either hard to find, ridiculously expensive or both!

A few notes about our eating habits: We ate virtually all our meals aboard. I baked bread almost daily. We were able to catch quite a bit of fish and lobster which helped stretch our limited supply of meats. With the exception of canned tuna, we are not canned food types and living on a boat did not change that.

lemonaid/gatoraid powdered mixes 20 containers
beer 18 cases
wine 14 boxes
coffee 8 lbs
tea bags 10 boxes
bottled water 4 lg jugs
peanut butter 20 jars
honey 3 x-lg jars
vanilla 2 bottles
flour 10 lbs
sugar 3 lbs
powdered sugar 1 lb
yeast 1 lg box
syrup 2 lg
bread crumbs 1 box
boullion cubes 1 lg jar
lemon juice 2 lg
olive oil 5 x-lg bottles
salad oil 4 x-lg bottles
balsamic vinegar 1 bottle
white vinegar 1 x-lg jug
dry milk 1 x-lg box
parmalot milk 15 boxes
tuna 60 cans
chicken 12 cans
canned veggies 8 cans
pastas 16 lbs
dry beans (lentils) 3 bags
dry sauces (pesto) 5 pkgs
canned tomatoes 12 cans
pasta sauce 12 jars
ramen 30 pkgs
jiffy corn mix 15 boxes
rice 3 x-lg bags
flour tortillas 15 pkgs
saltines 7 boxes
other crackers 8 boxes
granola bars 4 lg cases
Clif bars 3 cases
pistachios 4 lg bags
trail mixes, dried fruits/nuts 20 pkgs
oatmeal 2 boxes
couscous 5 boxes
baking soda 1 x-lg bag
baking powder 1 lg box
cereals 10 bags
pretzels 5 lg bags
salsa 1 lg box H&H mix
tortilla chips 5 bags
goldfish 4 lg boxes
black beans 4 cans
artichokes 4 cans
olives 6 cans
chiles 4 cans
pepperoni 10 pkgs
parmesean 7 chunks
onions 1 bag
eggs 6 dozen
powdered eggs 1 x-lg container
cheeses 6
cabbage 2
apples 2 dozen
oranges 3 boxes
carrots 2 bags
butter 8 sticks
potatoes 1 lg bag
soy sauce 2
marshmellows 4 bags
popcorn 2 lg bags
chocolate bars 15
graham crackers 4 boxes
chocolate chips 2 bags
nutella 4 jars
cocoa powder 1 jar
parchment paper 3 rolls
paper towels 50 rolls
toilet paper 50 rolls
paper plates 800
ziplock bags 6 boxes
foil 2 rolls
propane 12 @1-lb
AA batteries (for GPS) 300
C&D batteries 200
handiwipes 25
sponges 10
hand sanitizer 2 lg
dish soap - Joy 2 lg
lighter sticks 4
shampoo 5
toothpaste 5
rubber gloves 1 box
insect repellent 5
sunscreen 5
chlorox 1

freezer:
3 flank steaks
6 lb hamburger
3 bags chicken breast
2 turkey breasts
6 bags of veggies
frozen OJ cans
2 hotdogs

other:
condiments
spices
toiletries
first aid & medications
spare parts
lots of motor oil

Relatively easy to find in Bahamas:
romaine lettuce
green peppers
onions
carrots
eggs
butter
bananas
apples
flour
oatmeal
most basic fruits in places like Nassau, Georgetown, Marsh Harbor

Expensive:
any paper products
any convenience foods (chips, crackers, peanut butter, powdered drink mixes, etc)
Parmalot

Hard to Find:
meat that didn't look like it had freezer burn

Kept very well w/o refrigeration:
parmesean cheese
pepperoni
cabbage
most fruits placed in hammocks
jicama
carrots
all condiments

Glad we took:
cast iron skillet for campfires
large pot for steaming lobster
french press
"Cruising Cuisine" cookbook

Wish we took:
Valentine/Easter candies for the kids
even more peanut butter & crackers

Myrtle Beach, SC

A quick hello from Myrtle Beach. Today got off to a chilly start due to a passing cold front, but thanks to the water temperature being quite a bit warmer than this morning's air temperature, we got to see several alligators swimming along side our boat.

Have a look for yourself.

Memorial Day Weekend & Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto Festival

We had a fun weekend in Charleston over Memorial Day Weekend with Grandma Janet and Grandpa Carl. Let’s just say the kids took full advantage of their situation - hotel sleep-overs, trips to Starbucks every morning, etc...

Here’s a photo album from our time in Charleston, including our participation (sort of) in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston's local version of Spoleto USA. The sailboat that was to be a part of an opening night performance taking place at our marina - by a group called Aqua Mundi - had engine trouble. As a result, Jubilee accompanied the trawler sent in at the last minute as an “under-study” for an evening sail so that the performers could make an appropriate entrance for their opera/poetry reading.

Our role was rather minimal, but the boys got to ride on the trawler with the Italian performers which they thought was quite fun (apparently, there were cookies). Also, it was a lovely evening for a harbor tour.

Georgia Coast & Southern South Carolina

Here are photos taken as we have traveled from North Florida to Cumberland Island, Georgia, and on to Beaufort, South Carolina. We’ve had a great time revisiting some favorite spots as well as exploring new ones.

The kids especially enjoyed their return visit to Cumberland Island to see the wild horses and turkeys. They also loved stopping off for a visit with Uncle Sam and Aunt Joy in Beaufort where they got to swim and test-drive various 4-wheeled forms of transportation.

The Georgia/South Carolina portions of the ICW are incredibly scenic and we’ve had great weather in which to enjoy the views - windy enough most days to deter the pesky no-see-ums and horse flies that are prevalent this time of year; amazing sunrises and sunsets; and a lightening show or two from thunderstorms that have passed just far enough north or south of us not to be an issue.

We had one rather “mucky” day near Fredricka, Georgia... Pat had to rescue Expedition and his crew from the dinghy dock at Fort Fredricka which becomes “dry” (really mushy mud) at low tide. The tidal range in Georgia is 7-9 feet in most areas, so you really have to pay attention to the time. That’s hard when you’re in the midst of earning a junior ranger badge!

We’re especially grateful to the Davis’s who live nearby and allowed us to use their private dock - one that stays mud-free - to reunite so that only Pat had to get knee-deep in the muck.

The same goes for the couple we became acquainted with last Sunday when we were anchored near Doboy Island. What with theirs being the only home in sight, Pat was very hopeful that Ms. Jackie, the shrimp boat tied up at their dock, would have a spare bolt we desperately needed to replace one that sheared off our alternator that morning when Pat was tightening a belt - it did!

These and other great people we’ve met have been a real complement to the scenery.

Up the Florida Coast

Here is a photo album from our travels up the Florida coast, from Vero Beach to Titusville to St. Augustine and stops in between. We’ve seen lots of wildlife - dolphins, manatees, and even a wild boar.

We met up with our friends Don, Heesook and Christopher from Patience V in Titusville and have continued our north-bound travels with them during the past week or so.

Mothers’ Day was quite a blow-out... there were sustained winds of 25 knots with gusts as high as 40 on the ICW! The weather calmed down the following day, but lessons were canceled none-the-less... Jake & Emily celebrated their 9th birthdays and asked for the day off.

We did manage to sneak in a social studies lesson... a field trip to Fort Matanzas where the kids earned yet another set of Junior Ranger badges and had a great time.

Reports from the Field: Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge

The last time we passed through Titusville, Florida, we visited Kennedy Space Center. This time on our way through the area, we decided to check out NASA’s neighbor... the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. The two entities share land in a strange but effective partnership between nature and technology. Our field reporters took the opportunity to research some local wildlife and bring you these reports from the field.

Turtles, by Jake
Hi, I’m Jake. Did you know five of the eight types of sea turtles live in Florida? Turtles can live to the age of parrots - that means old! Turtles lay 40,000 to 70,000 nests in Florida annually. Some travel thousands miles to feed or nest. Once they lay eggs they have to incubating for two months. Then the two inch turtles hatch.

When they hatch its clean up and lights out if you live near a beach so the turtles don’t get mixed up or blocked on there way to the water. Did you know that the heat of the egg tells if there girls or boy? It does - warm = girl and cool = boy. The End.

Manatees, by Emily
Hi. I am Mary the Manatee!!!! Millions of years ago I was a four foot long land animal, and I sher ate a lot, but on land I got to see my closest reletiv... the elephant! Now here is my friend Emily. She will tell you some facts.

Hi. I am Emily. Manatees have a lot of morlers - that’s teeth for manatees. Do you know what the morler march is? Manatee teeth grow back to front and once their at the front they fall out. Manatees eat lots of sea grass. They eat for 8 to 10 hours a day. They have to breath air every 3 to 5 minutes so they swim to the surface for that. The End.

More about Manatees, by Drew
The manatee is a relative of the elephant. It was around 1,000 years ago. The manatee is a herbavore that lives mostly in Florida and Georgia. When they surface they look like logs or rocks. Sometimes people in boats hit manatees when they surface. If the manatee is hurt, it may have to go to a manatee hospital to get nursed back to health. In a year, it takes $27,000 to feed one of them.

People could save a lot of money if we take care of the manatees by going slow in manatee areas and not polluting the water they live in. If we take care of the manatees we take care of ourselves too. Manatees and people need the same things to live - clean air and clean water and healthy food to eat.

Behind the Blog: Homeschooling

It sounds so simple, in theory, just a few hours of lessons each day; the opportunity to really customize your children’s learning experience; explore their special areas of interest; and best of all - lots of field trips!

Theory is easy; application... not so much. Here’s the text book version of homeschooling on Jubilee -

The kids wake up and do their silent reading for 30 minutes, without having to be reminded (or bribed) and without “watching the clock”.

Next comes math, which we have indeed customized to meet the needs of our class of three very different learners.

Jake sometimes sits in with Drew for math. He’s all about speed so he’s hard to keep busy! Plus he’s quite good with numbers... something Drew finds quite useful. Drew is also very good with numbers but none the less enjoys it when Jake shouts out the answer to things like 7x9 before he has to come up with it on his own.

Emily has checked out quite a number of different “strategies” for learning her multiplication tables (e.g. skip counting, fact families, various types of grouping). She’s still searching for right strategy!

Lesson three is either grammar, spelling or writing. Jake & Emily do their grammar together, but it’s easy to tell their workbooks apart... Emily prides herself on her neat penmanship! Jake, no, not really. Drew tends to opt for spelling if given the choice; he finds almost anything more interesting than direct objects and simple predicates.

We finish up with a group lesson in social studies, science or geography using Drew’s textbooks and focusing on the places we’re visiting as much as possible. Dad’s the science guy. I handle most the other subjects, calling him in as needed for small group study. (Pat says he’ll be stepping up more once the kids start studying the death penalty in America; that or sail trimming - whichever comes first.)

That’s it... 4 lessons a day. Our motto: If it takes more than 3 hours, you’re wasting your own time.

Okay, so here’s where the theory breaks down -

Sometimes the kids wake up and reach for their Nintendo DS’s instead of their books.

Sometimes in lieu of compositions, we settle for postcard writing because it’s way faster and less painful for everyone.

Sometimes we take days off for no apparent reason.

Once, Pat taught a math lesson that equated to teaching the kids to play blackjack. Not sure how that’s going to help them on a standardized test, but it does have some value as a life-skill.

Sometimes the kids do not actually apply what they are learning in one area... say spelling and grammar... to what they are doing in another such as their writing. I often wonder how many hundred more times I’m going to have to explain what a Proper Noun is and why it deserves to be CAPITALIZED. I can’t even talk about possessives without feeling the urge to poke my eyes out with the kids’ pencils! (Note my use of a plural possessive here.)

Often, we wonder what other boats might overhear if they are close enough to catch the conversations coming from our cabin some mornings...

“Yes, Jake, today is Saturday, and yes we are still doing lessons.”

“Yes, Drew, we’re going to multiply fractions AGAIN today... maybe even tomorrow.”

“Emily, honey, let’s not worry so much about art to go along with your story title... let’s focus on the story.”

“Finish your math, or I’m not making pancakes!”

“Pat, direct objects... look it up if you don’t remember what they are! It’s not like I’m asking you to diagram the whole sentence!”

Is it time for a field trip yet????????

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

Well we finally made it back to the good old U.S. of A.!! After checking out a great Bahamian festival at Green Turtle Cay, we decided to start making some tracks westward toward the states. Here's a photo album from Green Turtle's 5th Annual Island Roots Heritage Festival, where the kids competed quite successfully in a number of games.

As it turned out, the weather was really favorable the day we left Green Turtle; the winds were in the right direction; and the States kept getting closer. So, we just kept on going. We left the Abacos on Sunday morning at about 6:15 a.m.. When we next stopped, thirty plus hours later, we were 180 miles along and moored in Vero Beach, Florida.

Since Jo and the kids were down below during most of the night, I spent the 30 hours at the helm. It is not like anyone really slept though. The seas in the Gulf Stream were still a bit lumpy and everyone was pretty anxious given that this was our first overnight sail on the boat. Yes, it was as exhausting as it sounds. But we got in to Florida at about noon and after a three hour nap the family had me up and running out to Nino's Pizza in Vero for our first really good meal out in four months.

During our crossing of the Gulf Stream we marked the approximate middle of the stream and launched another message in a bottle. The picture at the top of the post is of Emily working on the note and preparing the bottle. Jake was awake at 3:30 a.m. and so he got to toss the bottle overboard into the stream.

Hopetown to Green Turtle

Hello again!! We're still in the midst of our whirlwind tour through the Abacos. It is definitely a different scene compared to the Exumas. The Jubilee crew is convinced that the Exumas are a lot more our style. Things are more developed up here and opportunities to fish and snorkel just haven't been presenting themselves as easily as they did in the Exumas.

But, we still have been seeking out the beaches and many of them have been gorgeous. Sailing in the Sea of Abaco has been another big plus. The water is relatively calm and we've been able to have some fantastic sails (ie. reading a good book with the autopilot on). Yesterday we passed through the Whale Cay Channel. It is one of the more challenging spots in the Abacos. Luckily the weather and tides were right and we slipped down the channel along with quite a few six foot rollers. Not book reading conditions but a pretty fun sail.

We'll be checking out the heritage festival being held on Green Turtle Cay today and then we'll be deciding on where to head next. With the calm weather predicted ahead it looks like we may be making our jump back to the states pretty soon. As always, we'll keep you posted. And for now enjoy some more photos from our trip.

Reports from the Field: Hopetown

PART I
While in Hopetown earlier this week, we visited the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum. The museum was established by the community of Loyalists who settled in Hopetown shortly after the Revolutionary War. The kids learned a lot about the history of the Abacos, as well as various ways early island residents attempted to make their living. Here are their reports.

Elbow Cay Light House, by Jake
Hi, it’s Jake. Now here is my story. The light house is 89 feet tall with 98 steps. The light can shine 17 miles and flashes 5 times every 15 seconds. It was built in 1863.

OH! I forgot Franklin! He’s been the light house keeper working there for 40 years. OH! I forgot this too. The light runs on kerosene and there’s only three in the Bahmas that do this. He has to crank a weight up to the top to keep it going but he has to do this every 2 hours even in a hurricane - no, no, and no break! That’s it from Jake on Jubilee.

Turtling, by Drew
When the British Loyalists landed in Hope Town in 1765 they looked for ways to make money. Also they needed food. One thing they discovered was turtling.

They did it by making an iron ring with neting in the middle. They would look for a turtle to surface, then would throw the ring on them. The turtle would try to get out but would tangle it self instead. When it got tangled it would be towed slowing in to the harbor. Then still alive it would be killed and butchered and sold immediately. Otherwise the meat would go bad in the midday sun, because of lack of refrigeration. If they caught a girl turtle that had eggs it would be highly prized.

Though they don’t do it as much today, it is still a tradition in some islands to catch turtles.

Sponging Experts, by Emily
Sponging was a sport and a big business too back then in the 1700s. They would take a big boat out with 4 dinghies. They’d go to a plase called they called “the mud”. The men anchored the big boat, put the dinghies in the water, got in them and patl’d away.

They would put a glass bottom buckit in the water and paint it black insighed so there would be no glair. They’d find the sponges and pick them up with 3-prond focks. Then they let them drie for 3 days. They’d do this for 3 months then come back to port to sell their sponges.

PART 2
Next our field team is going to tell you what they know about biomes. This was the topic of a recent science lesson at Jubilee Elementary.

Deciduous Forest, by Emily
Red, Yellow, Orange... I am walking deaper in to the Deciduous Forest. Then I stop to smell the good air. Suddenly I notice the air doesn’t smell that good then I see a mommy skunk with its three babies. Then I see a hawk flying in the blue sky. I see a cardinel peking at a dead leaf. You see a lot of animals in the Deciduous forest like hawks, cardinels, crows, gardner snakes, bees, deer, raccoons and skunks.

Deciduous means decay = good soil. Leafs fall then there dead and the soil sucks it up and it makes good, good soil.

Deciduous forests are in the eastern USA. Some of these pretty, pretty forests are geting cut down for towns and cities, but some are National Parks. The End.

Taiga, by Drew
The taiga is a type of biome located in Europe, Asia and North America. It is a neighbor to another biome named the tundra, so it is very cold. Many birds live in the taiga in the summer, but they move to warmer places in the fall.

If you walk around up there, you might hear a chain saw or two because the taiga is one of the sources for our growing world’s timber.

Grassland, by Jake
I’m a lion. I live on grassland. There are a bunch of animals like gazelles, cheataz leaping through the air, zeabras, elephants, tigers, giraffes, water bufalos abd they’re all in my neighborhood in the savana.

It’s amazing that me and all these animals are in a small place living so close together, but the land that I know as grassland is also farming land and it keeps geting smaller because farmers are taking it to graze their cattle.