A Visit Home

After we dropped Mommy off at the airport we got an uber back to the main old part of Charleston. We walked through the City market. There were lots of cool things but not the kind of things you want to keep on a boat such as nik-naks and random decorations.

 The only things we did get were a mug for Daddy and hats for Owen and him. After that we walked through the French Quarter to a place right on the water called White Point Garden. All the buildings in the French Quarter were from the 1700’s and the roads were made out of stone or brick. 

 From there we walked along the seawall to a taco restaurant.  Charleston has a long history and during its earliest days there were fortifications.  The location of the ramparts and fort walls have been lost and the city encourages people to report any sightings while doing construction work.  We passed one spot where a road was dug up to expose the old wall.  Another thing we saw on the seawall is the pineapple fountain.

The taco restaurant, called Ruru’s, had the best restaurant tacos I’ve ever had. Once we ate we walked to an ice cream shop to get ice cream then walked back to have dinner on the boat. Before we had dinner Owen and Daddy finally got the control panel for the bathroom drain pumps working. It had stopped working in St. Maarten and we hadn’t fixed it until now.

The next day we didn’t do much except eat, sleep, get a package and go to the grocery store. The day after was the same, but the day after that was the big move. We had to move the boat to the marina.It was definitely harder to dock the boat with only three people. Luckily our neighbour came to the rescue. After we had gotten our boat tied up we set off to pick up a rental car. Now that we had the rental car we went to the sail loft to see if they could put a sun proof strip to the outside of our jennaker. They weren’t open so we went to a barbeque restaurant for dinner (surprisingly they didn’t have ribs).

After we had our yummy dinner we went back to the boat to add more lines and blow up more fenders. We had got new blow up fenders that were actually big enough, so this was the first time we got to use them.

( There are eleven fenders and six dock lines)

There was a lot to do the next day to get ready for the flight to Vancouver. There were three main things to do to get ready. 1) We needed to drive our jennaker to the sail loft because we wanted to ge a uv layer on it so we wouldn’t have to put it up and down every time we wanted to use it. 2) We had to throw out all the food that was going to go bad or was already. We also ordered a lot of special containers for all the produce so it won’t go as fast. 3) The most important thing is to pack. We were going for two weeks so we had to pack a lot. It was a busy day so by the time we were in bed we were tired (or at least I was). WE knew that the next day would be even busier than that day, but we weren’t expecting it to be like it was. 

The day of the flight we got up at four in the morning when it was still dark out. We were at the airport by 5:45 am and through security by 6:10. We hadn’t checked what time we were supposed to bord that day so we weren’t completely sure. We thought it was supposed to board at 6:05 and take off at 6:35. It turns out that it boarded at 5:35 and leave at 6:05. As a result we were walking up to the gate as the plane was backing up. We had missed our plane. The person at the desk gave us tickets for new flights. First to Washington D.C, then to Denver C.O, then from there to Vancouver. When we got there we learned that our bags were still in Chicago. The reason why is because when we missed our plane our bags didn’t, so they went to Chicago. They had plenty of time to be put on another plane but for some reason they didn’t. In that case we were going to have to wait until the next day to get our bags.We didn’t have p.js so we went to Walmart to get some. We waited until the next day and still no bags, so we went to a real clothing store and got at least two outfits each because we were going to Victoria for the weekend! 

When we got to grandma and grandpa’s house we had dinner and after dinner we had to change Simon’s bandage on his thumb. We put on gauze, a finger cot and an elasticised bandage wrap.  Before Mommy  left for Vancouver we had guests over. As the kids were playing Simon was getting up from sitting on the stairs and he used his thumb in the hinge side of the door. Simon did this just as somebody else was slamming the door. The result was Simon getting a pretty deep cut going across his nail and on either side. (It looked pretty gruesome)This is when it has already healed a lot.

The next day we took a ferry over to Victoria to see Nanna and Mommy for the weekend. When we got there we went to our rental apartment( it was across the street from our Nanna’s apartment). Mommy and Daddy went to a Christmas party so the rest of us went to a Christmas parade with Nanna. We could walk to it because it was only a few blocks away. The little kids liked getting lots of candy from people in the parade. The day after we went to a breakfast restaurant then in the evening to the Oak Bay light up. The Oak Bay light up is where you go to see all the lights on Oak Bay Avenue get turned on at the same time for the first time that year. Afterwards we had dinner with one of Daddy’s friends (I’m sad that I didn’t get to see one of my friends). On the last day we went to the audiologist for the boys to get the inside of their ears moulded so they can get new hearing aids because their old ones were getting too small for them. After that we went to our favourite bagel shop to get some cinnamon bagels. Then we said our goodbyes to Mommy and Nanna and took a ferry back to Vancouver. On the ferry we got hot chocolate and even though I blew on mine, I still managed to burn my tongue and it tingled for 24 hours after.  For the next two weeks we did school on the weekdays (a lot of math), went to the pool every day (to get exercise and have fun) and Mommy came over every weekend.