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Happy New Year

By on January 1, 2018 in The Pearl
“I’ve come to know that what we want in life is the greatest indication of who we really are.” —Richard Paul Evans
Another year has come and gone…and I can truly say I’m glad to bid farewell to 2017. As the stressful memories of the past twelve months slip away, our blessing and good fortune from the year become easier to see. We have so many things to be thankful for in our lives and we look forward to the new adventures that await us in 2018. Happy New Year to everyone. I hope it brings happiness, health and prosperity to all of you. 

Looking Back at 2017

By on December 31, 2017 in The Pearl

“I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” – Oliver Wendell Holmses

January and February was spent emptying the family home I grew up in and visiting with friends and family.

In March we sold my Dad’s house and had more fun with family and friends before we headed back to The Pearl
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2017 Travel Stats

By on December 29, 2017 in The Pearl
Click here to go to The Pearl’s travel map.
(expand the drop downs on the right side of the map for more information)
This blog post is best viewed in web version.

Stan and I both keep logs of information about our travels. Mine are more about the places we’ve been and the places we’ve stayed, his are more technical. For information on where we’ve docked and anchored please refer to my Travel Logs. We didn’t put a lot of miles under our keel this year, so the stat’s haven’t changed too much from last year. These totals are from the time we left home in 2011 till the end of 2017.

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Merry Christmas

By on December 20, 2017 in The Pearl

I don’t ask for much…all I want to do is play with my grandkids, sit on the deck of my boat and watch the sunset in the evening. Life doesn’t have to be complicated.

 Wow…what a year 2017 has been. If people think we live a relaxed lazy life, they should have been with us this year. We started the year off by selling my childhood home and emptying it of fifty years of memories and a lifetime of stuff. Starting January 2, I went room by room sorting through things…putting things aside that family would want and hauling the rest to a donation sight and selling some items. 
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This Boat

By on December 15, 2017 in The Pearl
This song is by Howard Livingston & Mile Marker 24, a local group we heard about while in the Keys one winter. Some people have no idea how true these lyrics are…but if you’re a cruiser, liveaboard, lover of boats or someone that enjoys the simpler way of life, you’ll be able to relate to this song. Stan and I truly do and it’s something that’s hard to explain to land based friends. “Once those sails catch the wind, you can’t turn and go back again. It’s going to set you free and you can’t go back to who you use to be.”

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Biltmore Estate

By on December 4, 2017 in The Pearl

Most of the time when we travel to and from the east coast we have a schedule…the urge to return to The Pearl or the tug to our heart strings to see our family, especially our grand children. This trip on our way home from spending Thanksgiving with our family in Pennsylvania we decided to take a side trip to explore Asheville, North Carolina and the Biltmore Estate…we had a wonderful time.

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Facebook Photo Challenge

By on November 13, 2017 in The Pearl

Facebook has been full of black and white photos…part of a photo challenge. The instructions given to me were: Seven days, seven black and white photos of your life. No people. No explanation. 

I was also suppose to tag someone each day to invite them to join, but I decided most of my friends probably wouldn’t take part, so I just posted my pictures. I followed the rules other wise and posted my photos without an explanation…although it was a little difficult not to add a caption.
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Sept. 23 – Forks Farm Market

By on September 29, 2017 in The Pearl

Orangeville, PA

“Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.” —Pearl S. Buck

Regular blog readers know we love farmers markets…it’s our favorite way to spend a Saturday morning. We’ve visited large and small markets all over the country and I know I’ve said we’ve found our favorite in the past, but I think we’ve found another favorite. The market we visited with our son and his family in Pennsylvania is a true farmers market…it was located on local farm. Forks Farm hosts a farmers market about twice a month with the local farmers in the area. 
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Anchored Strong

By on September 27, 2017 in The Pearl
I saw this poem on a fellow blogger’s Facebook page the other day…it’s from a Hallmark card and seems prefect to share considering what so many of us have been through this fall. Things may be broken and out of place and lives disrupted, but we all stand strong with foundations that are deeper than the destruction on the surface. It’s a time for reflection on what really matters in our life and be thankful for the family and friends we have. 

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Sept. 21 – The Pearl is Hibernating

By on September 24, 2017 in The Pearl

Beacon Bay Marina

“It’s during the worst storms of your life that you find out who your true friends are.” –Unknown

We knew the cruising season was short up this way, but it got even shorter thanks to Hurricane Harvey. We lost half of August, all of September and the first weeks of October this year…a good seven or eight weeks of time we had planned to explore the Adirondack, fish for salmon, enjoy fall festivals and the changing of the leaves and especially spend more time with family. All those things can wait and we’ll definitely be spending more time in New York in the coming years.
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