It’s a Small World

Year in Review

Milestones

• Reached our 20th wedding anniversary! Totally blessed! Frankly I never expected we’d make it this far because, well, why us? I had a strangely morbid idea I’d be a widow by now. Note to self, you are not a prophetess, thank goodness.
• Ran my 1st (and 2nd) 1/2 marathon. Never would have imagined THAT 10 years ago. It’s a delightful way to torture oneself.
• We got our girl! Brooke, Mrs Forrest is a grand edition to our wild and woolly family. 5 months in and she still hasn’t been admitted to a mental institute, so we must be doing ok.

Travel

• 49 flights (not trips, flights) taken. 2 more scheduled for Dec 31st.
• 21 Airports in total. Ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being beyond disgusting and 10 being perfect.
  • Kos, Greece 8 (only 8 cause we always have to get return flights. If I could stay it would be a 10. Or 11)
  • Munich, Germany 8 (10 until they decided we needed extra security screening)
  • Washington DC 7
  • Lake Charles, LA 6
  • Lafayette, LA 7
  • Dallas, TX 4
  • Denver, Co 6 (low for delays, slightly higher cause of that one good restaurant on the second floor)
  • Phoenix, AZ (Mesa 9, Sky Harbor 5)
  • Chicago, IL 8 (high because we have global entry and never get stuck in customs lines)
  • London, UK 7
  • Athens, Greece 5 (should get a 10 for entertainment while waiting in endless queues. Nothing quite as funny as old Italian women who try to cut queues)
  • Larnica, Cypress 6
  • Tel Aviv, Israel 8
  • Cairo, Egypt 3 (this rises to a 7 if you have personal security detail, as per our last trip through.)
  • Sharm el Sheik, Egypt 5
  • Sarasota, FL 9
  • Seattle, WA 7
  • Paris, France 6 (queue, queue, queue, freezing cold)
  • Newark, NJ 4
  • Minneapolis, MN 6
  • Sioux Falls, SD 10

• Miles Sailed: 615 miles or to use the correct lingo, 534 nautical miles.
• Drove to Washington State to visit friends and pick up a boat, car camping all the way there and back. Highly recommend! There’s gorgeous spots to park and sleep, listening to rivers, surrounded by woods, 110% better than any motel. Bathrooms and showers are overrated.
• Big old Bartel gathering at Madge Lake, MB. Good times! Tho paddle boarding in a cold Canadian rain is not as magical as I hoped. It was actually just miserable.

Daily’s

• Combined Running Miles year to date 1,332.8. A bit on the low side thanks to an injury.
• A beloved black cat joined our life for 3 months, only to perish or leave. Note she was beloved only to me. Everyone else thought she was dumb. I never named her in case it would jinx something and she would disappear. Maybe I should have. Maybe that’s why she didn’t stay.
• I grew magnificent weeds in my vegetable garden this year. No time for a proper garden, but I thought I’d at least keep it weeded. That was the original idea anyway. Nice while it lasted, which was maybe a week.
• We go to work anytime we’re not out adventuring, still doing the same old thing at Iroquois Ironworker. Having a steady job is nothing to sniff at.

Unusual Events

• Getting stuck in Israel during the swift and violent war with Iran in June. Living with bombs flying overhead is, well, different.
• Heath and Zach hiked the Escalante route in the Grand Canyon without me. We could hardly believe it. They say they will take me back. Apparently it was difficult, wild and filled with unprecedented beauty. Meanwhile, back in Phoenix a hen party commenced with great enthusiasm. Finally, finally I was reunited with our ex mission teacher MJ and we spent 3 glorious days together.
• Running out of gas in Israel and making our “guests” push the van 1.1 miles to the gas station.
• Getting into windsurfing with Zach. It’s quite unusual the amount of times I can go flopping into the drink for no apparent reason.
• Seeing a shark right next to the sailboat in FL.
• Going on my morning run through the woods near Madge Lake and dodging large fresh piles of bear poop. Needless to say I sang loudly for the duration of the run. I’m sure it didn’t look weird at all.
• Finding a pine tree growing in our wakeboard boat. That’s what comes of buying one off ebay, sight and condition unseen. You get a boat with good bones, a blown engine and a little pine tree. A seed must have landed in a crack in the seat and with great enthusiasm it grew into a sweet little tree. This boat was from Seattle. Once again we realized how harsh our own SD climate is. Here with great nurturing and toiling we can maybe grow a tree in the yard. In WA they pop up in vinyl seats. Hardly fair.
• Finding out Whipper-wills are some of the most annoying birds ever to tent near. Those creatures yell all night long.
• Sailing up the intercostal waterway in South Florida and calling the draw bridges to allow us passage. You get within sight and hail the bridge on the radio. “Blackburn Point Bridge, Blackburn Point Bridge, Blackburn Point Bridge, this is Southbound Sailing Vessel Latitude, requesting permission to pass”. And then you commence to discuss details, and maybe joke a bit and they stop traffic and slowly, slowly the bridge swings up and through you go. I can tell you that there is a certain thrill in stopping lines of traffic just so you can pass under a bridge. Occasionally they had set open times, like every 1/2 hour, but most of them were on demand.

Memories Forever Etched On Our Minds

• The amazing underwater world in the Red Sea. Snorkeling solo and suddenly coming face to face with a pink jellyfish. Screaming sounds funny and muffled through a snorkel.
• Zach and Forrest tipping their canoe that was fully loaded with bedding and food one early May day when we were out exploring the Missouri River. They did a marvelous job of catching all the floating things and were barely worse for the wear.
• Missiles and Interceptors cluttering the sky above our heads
• Our son and his bride on their wedding.
• Sitting on the top of a WA mountain with some of our favorite people and our new little godson, the sun shining down, the Strait of Juan de Fuca spread out below with its ships and islands. Tea and cookies, conversation and beauty. Absolutely unbeatable.
• The first real look at Santorini from the Sea.
• The warm and beautiful feeling of Shabbat with our Israeli friends.
• Coming out of the Latitudes hatch and seeing an enormous alligator just lying in the water looking at the boat. Swimming was deferred.
• The heat. The impossible, nearly unbearable heat of South Florida in August.
• Trying to battle the blaze of our neighbor’s camper burning. He lived in there with 5 kids and it was the quickest, most devastating fire I’ve ever witnessed. We may live only a block from the fire station, but that doesn’t do much good in a time like that. It was in January and all our water hoses were put away or frozen. Heath managed to get one going and used it to keep the propane tanks cool so they wouldn’t explode. When it was all over, he realized he had done it all in his socks. I can assure you, we ran when we saw the blaze, but some of us apparently were more concerned about ourselves than others. Everyone was safe, and that’s all that matters.
• The wild, beautiful, messy blue Aegean Sea when the wind is blowing and the sails are full. This plays on repeat in my mind, pretty much 12 hours a day. I may be walking among you, but my soul is hearing the waves, walking on rocky trails and smelling the herb tinged scent of a Greek Isle. Pathetic, but true.
• Saying Goodbye to Heath’s dad. He was buried end of January. While funerals and endings are so sad, the people and memories are absolutely heartwarming!
• Sitting in Fadwa’s yard in Jericho , the first time since the war broke out. The fruit trees had grown big and were full of fruit. The mountains were silhouetted against the night sky, and the sisters brought out the most delicious dessert ever called Lebanese Nights. We ate, drank sage tea, and reveled in the beautiful hospitality of our Palestinian Friends.

And so ends another Year. Was it good? Yes! Yes, it really was. We have so many good friends, so many reasons to be grateful.

Merry Christmas to All!

Our love,

Heath & Jeanie