Winter 04/05

When last updated, back in September 2004, we were busy getting New Dawn back in the water and ready to sail south for the winter. As October approached, our good weather windows got smaller and smaller and we got crabbier and crabbier. Then, after much deliberation and seesawing, we decided to wait a year to go South. All of a sudden the boat was fun again; Ross and I liked being in the boat and we liked living with each other again.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Wooden Boat Festival in September in Port Townsend. We went to seminars and watched craftsmen & women at work demonstrating their sailing skills and the art of sea craft. I was busy being a volunteer in the beer garden checking ID’s and watching for accidents on the windy boardwalks. One woman tripped and fell in. Luckily she was okay, just wet and cold. Ross worked on the boat. (We were still thinking we were leaving at this time)

Ross and I auditioned and were cast as readers in a series of 4 Pulitzer Prize winner plays with Key City Players. Ross was the young doctor, Jason, in W;t. I played Catherine in Proof. I loved that our rehearsal time was nil and that there is so much talent in Port Townsend. What a creative and fun theater community.

We then traveled to Seattle to shop for Christmas presents, the excuss to visit a new marina and to be closer to the airport for our whirlwind holidays of family visiting. Our first stop brought us to Clinton, Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving with Aunt Judy, Uncle Ron and Mary Fussell. We had a grand time! We slept in an old Victorian house with several golden retrievers and one lab to entertain us. We walked through beautiful gardens and by fishponds. We stayed up late to play games and talk about the world… and politics. (who knew I would every stay awake for politics) We spent two different days in New York City. We saw three museums. The Frick was our favorite. The long galleries of a home with 3 or 4 Turners- wow! We ate lunch at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Guiegenheim (sp?) and toured the MET. Ross fell in love with Van Gogh and the other impressionists. I always love them too and El Greco. There is nothing like seeing art live the enrich the soul and imagination. We had dinner in a Greek hooka bar with Mary and her daughter, who is attending New York University. We also managed to squeeze in a Broadway play, a revival of a 1980’s play called Reckless. The play was funny and sad and … we loved it! For our actual Thanksgiving dinner, we had an Italian Thanksgiving feast. Everything was delicious!

We traveled back to Seattle to see our vessel safe at dock. It actually snowed on us. The snow did not last long. I turned 31 and we celebrated by going out to Wild Ging

er, an Asian/Thai restaurant in Seattle. WOW. The different curries and appetizers... I still salivate. With Christmas fast approaching, we frantically bought or made presents and sent them off to Alaska or packed them for train travel to San Francisco, CA to spend the holidays with the Emerson side of the family. We rode the Starlight Express from Seattle to San Francisco. It was romantic and fun, though we were 5-6 hours late in our arrival time. We did see Mount Shasta in the distance at 3am. It was an eerie sight to see this white mountain "floating" by our window.

Glad to get to San Francisco and the whirl wind of family. Taylor and Matthew, Ross' sister and brother in law, had recently moved into a new place in Noe Valley. Completely cute Victorian. Taylor had gotten us tickets to a choral group to listen to Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve. The name of the group has run out of my head. Totally Fun and rockin'! The place was packed with standing room only in places. They sang a rendition of "Deck the Halls" to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The next morning we awoke and walked over to open presents with the family. I love the quiet moments of family, the joys and surprises of Christmas and of being together. I got my annual 1000 piece puzzle and had the whole family involved in helping me complete it. We went to the Sony theater and saw the "Where the Wild Things Are" exhibit. How FUN! I can't wait to go again with our nieces and nephews. The creative imagination of the author in 3-D and touchable art is really fun. We also saw the film House of Flying Daggers. What a visually lovely film. Then, we visited the MOMA. Even after viewing the Sister Wendy BBC series on modern art- I still do not get most of modern art. a painting of a red square... hmmm... though I did enjoy the Georgia O'Keefe and Frida Khalo. My favorite memory of the holiday is the lemon cake that Taylor made. WOW... I dream about eating it again. The memory is tied to the whole family salivating and getting such joy from eating a great dessert together. Ross loved the espresso/chocolate milk shakes at Barneys. Needless to say, we had a ton of laughs, great food, card games (pinochle anyone?), family bonding (bicycling in the rain in hill country), shopping (we only had hole ridden boat clothes) and presents (charts to Alaska).

We had a long long and very late train ride home to repack make sure the boat was still there, celebrate Ross' birthday with fellow live aboards, John, Marsha & Forrest Nagy from the vessel Lionheart and Clarence, Teresa, Evangelina & Sammy Unger aboard the vessel Gentle Wind. (I am eternally grateful for the dinner, cake and company that first night home. Sorry if I botched the spelling of your names) Both families have become dear to us and we look forward to seeing them on the journey. Our next task was to take a bus up to Port Townsend for auditions for a play. We then turned around the next day to hop on a plane to visit my side of the family in La La Land (aka Palm Desert, CA). We had another whirl wind of family and fun. Hiking in the near by mountains and at Joshua Tree National Park was lovely. The rich colors so different from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, not to mention we were in t- shirts and shorts which was great too. Ross and I had our first golf lesson. We had a lot of fun. Tiger Woods does not need to watch out- but we did manage to get a fair number of balls down the fairway. We were quite sore the next day, after using muscles that are not active on a sailboat.

We arrived home to our boat and left our downtown slip in Seattle to return to Port Townsend again to rehearse and perform as Babe and Barnette in the play Crimes of the Heart. We continued to work on the boat and get her ready for the open ocean. We were in a Ship Wrights Regatta with a crew of friends, fellow live-aboard sailors. We did not win. We had a ton of fun trying out our sails and playing with trim.

Sept.- Nov. 2004

08/16/06

An Internet Emerson Update