Finally…a relaxing day! 12.24.07

It was an amazing day – nothing broke, no grand adventures, wow – this must be what cruising is all about! :-) Today we had a truly relaxing day. We piddled around the boat in the morning, then headed up to the restaurant for lunch. Michael and I took off on a hike and Chad did some grocery shopping for dinner stuffs & headed to the boat for a relaxing day. Michael and I hiked for about 2-3 hours – took off on the Banning Trail and then headed over to Ballast Point. We estimate it was about 8-9 miles. If you follow this link…. the click on the link that says "Side 1 Zoom 1" you can see Catalina Harbor where we’re moored. I can't seem to link to that one, sorry. The on the right hand side of the map, you can see the Banning House Road which stops at the bottom of the picture. We hiked that whole road, then you can see Ballast Point, which we basically went from Banning House Road to Ballast Point and back again. There were some awesome views – check out our pictures (thanks to Chad for letting me borrow his camera!) Also, there’s a cool webcam of the Isthmus (the other side of Two Harbors, where we’re located) here…

Once we finished our hike, I took a shower at the showers on the island – 25¢ for about 5 minutes of hot water. It felt wonderful. I met Michael & Chad at the bar and we headed back to the boat for a home-cooked dinner of tri-tip, potatoes, salad, & bread courtesy of Chad. We’re planning to play a couple games of Rummikub and possibly enjoy a movie – I’m hoping to see Elf…since it is Christmas Eve!

Yesterday afternoon was also nice and relaxing. After Chad fixed the dinghy engine (Michael was very busy bilge diving for parts, tools, & stuff that Chad needed to fix it!) we headed into town with 2 bags of clothes and headed to the Laundromat. We laughed as we realized we had only been gone for 3 days and already we had 3 loads of laundry! We must be doing something wrong… oh wait, what I forgot to mention from yesterday’s fun was all 3 of us were freshly showered, in fresh clean clothes….before flipping the dinghy. So we had towels & dirty clothes in those backpacks too – and fresh clean clothes on….which now had to be laundered. Once laundry was finished, we visited with some other boaters at the bar & then headed home to the boat for dinner & a movie. We haven’t met any other ‘cruisers’ yet, but lots of other boaters hanging out for Christmas. In fact, lots of other boaters with young kids!

Michael took apart the digital camera and its toast. So we’re on the market for a waterproof digital camera while we’re in San Diego. Our ice maker isn’t working too, which Michael will take apart tomorrow. Hopefully he can get it up and running or we will have to resort to purchasing ice…. Haha…

We’ll update tomorrow, but wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We’re thinking of you all and love hearing from you all! We miss you lots…

More to follow – Cheers!!
Michael, Rene, & Chad