Red Rover

It’s funny. We’ve had a number of people who read our blog ask us if we have kids. I guess they haven’t made many appearances on this blog. Sorry kids.

So we do have kids. Two of them in fact! Mike is 27 and lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Jenny. Mike works for a tech company that supports Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Kirsten is 21 and is a senior at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, majoring in Sports Management and completing her final year as a D1 athlete on the Tennessee rowing team. Mike and Jenny and Kirsten and her boyfriend Sam (who is from Nashville, TN) arrived on the day before Thanksgiving and the festivities began! Now six adults plus one dog on a boat in the cold weather can be cozy, but it works out and we had a ton of fun!

Expanding our stomachs with nachos at the Matador in anticipation of Thanksgiving dinner. With our unofficial but much loved child, Delphine, Kirsten’s long-time buddy.

Like good cruisers, we spent Thanksgiving day… driving. And cooking and eating, and catching snowflakes. We left the boat at 6 am in two vehicles (we no longer have my “crew mom” big SUV) and headed to Kevin’s parents house in Wenatchee, WA (on the eastern slope of the North Cascade Mountains) with the turkey in the back of the Jeep. Kevin’s Grandma joined us for dinner and for our annual birthday celebration! Mike, Jenny, Kevin’s parents Sue and Darrel and Grandma all have November / early December birthdays. This year was particularly special as Grandma is turning 100 (yes 100!) on December 8. We had pie and chocolate cake to celebrate.

Happy birthday November Jeffries – and almost to 100 Grandma Rohlman!

After cleaning up from dinner we headed toward Seattle in a snowstorm. As Jenny and Sam had not been to Leavenworth, Washington’s Bavarian Village we had to stop in to see the lights and get out in the snow. Gorgeous and festive! Driving home to Seattle involved snowy mountain passes, torrential rain and a long slog back to the boat.

Jenny, Zoe, Mike, Sam and Kirsten in the snow in Leavenworth

On Black Friday we decided to #optoutside and take a quick trip over to Bainbridge Island in the midst of 3-4 foot waves and a small craft advisory. Barely felt it on Red Rover. While we didn’t see another boat until we approached Bainbridge, suddenly there was Safe Harbour and our friend Sam Landsman, his girlfriend Anna, his mom and two dogs. Fun! Sam took a much better photo of Red Rover than the one I snapped of Safe Harbour. Thanks Sam! I’ll do better next time.

Kirsten, Sam, Jenny and Mike humoring me about how they need to appear in the blog. You have a blog, they ask?

Awesome shot of *Red Rover* by friend Sam Landsman (different Sam, Sam of Slowboat fame Sam)

*Safe Harbour* heads into Bainbridge for a mom drop-off

We wandered around town sampling the merchant experiences (and perhaps annoying said merchants), took walks, played with the dog, sampled various bourbons and beverages and went out to dinner with our friends Matt & Carrie. A relaxing and lovely day all around.

Sam, who met us for the first time on Wednesday getting into the spirit of the crazy Jeffries family

Oh hey Kirsten, let us be a part of your selfie?!

On Saturday we cruised home on flat water and did a drive-by of downtown Seattle which resulted in many selfies and portraits from the parents and the 20-something crew. Mike and Jenny headed home on Saturday evening and Kirsten, Sam, Kevin and I went out to a fun dinner before returning to the boat to eat pie.

46 degrees – a little chilly for the Tennesseans

Mike learning to drive the boat. Very dramatic as well.

Jenny rolling her eyes at her silly husband.

Patagonia commercial. We may have to print this one – what a nice photo!

Zoe wants to know if that is a giant ball, or what is that?

Another nice shot of Kirsten and Sam with the Space Noodle

And now, on Sunday Kirsten and Sam headed home and Kevin and I have been manning the washer and dryer. Zoe isn’t sure where all of her buddies went, and keeps looking in various staterooms where she is thinking they might be hiding.

With Thanksgiving over, it was time to add the tiny Christmas tree to the hoat!

A great holiday weekend with the kids, Zoe and Red Rover!

And there it was. The posting from PAE requesting photos for the 2019 Nordhavn Calendar along with the deadline. Ugh! Our trip north was planned late this year. Not much time to get some good shots in great spots! So we were on a mission – get north and find some awesome anchorages. This meant every time we left the boat we tried to tick off the to do items… Close the back doors, make sure the crane is in a good spot, etc. And then take photos! And did we. This usually involved taking photos as we headed to shore or out exploring. And another round of photos on the return. Typically we’d do a semi-circle around the boat taking a dozen (or more) photos trying to capture Red Rover in good lighting and an interesting background. So we quickly had hundreds of photos to review. About forty made the first cut. Many were easy to pitch. Wrong lighting, some blurriness or just not “calendar worthy”. Then we went thru them again and we were down to 25. After two more rounds we decided on 15 photos to submit. And those 15 are below.

Please let us know which is your favorite!