McCall, Idaho
Greetings and Happy New Year! The dust has settled from our typically hectic holiday times and we finally have a moment to reflect on our peripatetic wanderings of 2025. Per the wisdom of J.R.R. Tolkien, “All who wander are not lost”. Perhaps this is our life motto.
Chapters of our lives are marked by major life changes, and this year was definitely the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for all of us. Our little bird Sophia has officially flown the nest, graduating from the Lawrenceville School and crossing the pond to Scotland to pursue a degree in Biology at the University of St Andrews. She is loving life as a young Scot, is very active in the local theatre and is embracing all the travel and cultural opportunities afforded by living in the UK. She also turned 18 just before Christmas and is looking forward to celebrating with her uni friends (legally) in the pub upon her return from break. We are certain that her days as a young child de facto growing up down under on Kailani prepared her well for this transition, at least as far as understanding the vernacular (alas, she no longer calls us “mummy and diddy”).
And, for the first time since building our home in Idaho, we spent the entire summer here. Sophia worked at the local burger and shake shop growing her bank account for college and travel. Meanwhile we slaved away on much needed home and garden maintenance projects. Contractors being unavailable, it fell to the two of us to repair a dozen leaky windows. For two weeks we worked dawn to dusk tearing off trim, installing drip caps and flashing, reinstalling trim, caulking and painting the lot, with most of the work on ladders at heights that could inspire bouts of acrophobia.
Then we turned our attention to landscaping, which involved repairing the ten-year dormant irrigation system for our grove of over 60 lilac bushes, planting eight new trees to provide dapples of color amongst all this pine tree green, and, as we like to call it, “gardening by chainsaw”, removing and limbing up frost damaged and older pines. Having landscaping that requires formal irrigation is new for us, akin to having a puppy or house plants. Some things are just hard to do when you spend your life literally wandering about the planet. But we are embracing this new phase with glee.
And as to this next phase as empty nesters, we traveled in January down to New Zealand to complete the sale of Kailani, our cherished home on the ocean for the past 15 years. Vowing to not even think of acquiring another boat until after Sophia graduates university, we returned home to Idaho and, after two weeks of contemplating life on the beach for the foreseeable future, made an offer on another boat that was located in … New Zealand.
When we told certain friends that we had bought another boat, there were varied reactions. One sent us an email, with the font supersized to four inch letters: “you guys are f***ing crazy!!!”. Others simply said “of course you did”. Who were we kidding when we sat on our couch and thought we were going to stay here while Sophia was off officially living abroad? We are leaning into it, embracing the fact that being on the water, being part of our special cruising community, traveling to new lands by sea, this is our happy place. Duh.
Our newly christened motor vessel, Dragonfly, is a wonderful platform to continue our cruising life, and we have ambitions of cruising her up through Japan, Alaska and maybe even the Northwest passage over the coming years. For now, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to spend our time discovering new destinations in New Zealand and Australia and maybe even one more pass through the South Pacific islands. Stay tuned!
When we weren’t traveling to / from New Zealand to organize our boating life or ticking off items on the ever-growing DIY repairs list at home in Idaho last year, we managed to get out and about to see family and friends. In May we took off in the Beast (our faithful truck camper) for a 6,000-mile six week road trip culminating in Sophia’s high school graduation from Lawrenceville in New Jersey. We pretty much stuck to the back roads for the trip east stopping at a couple of national parks and for visits with family and friends in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Somewhere along the way the two of us had our 22nd anniversary which was spent overnighting in a truck stop (well, at least it was a “Love’s”!) before visiting the ultimate honeymoon destination, Niagara Falls.
It was great to spend such quality time particularly with Jen’s relatives in the midwest, some of whom she had not seen for decades. And of course, we couldn’t allow Sophia to travel to the UK unaccompanied, so the three of us headed off to Scotland with a tourist/West End theatre stop in London. Truthfully, Sophia was more than capable of traveling alone, but we wanted to tag along, see the sights and meet up with good friends to cross off one of Jen’s bucket list items: a UK pub crawl. Done.
It is a bit exhausting to just add it all up but somehow in the past year we as a family have flown over 70,000 miles, driven another 8,000 or so (including visits to family in Oregon and Colorado) and for good measure managed a few hundred miles of voyaging on Dragonfly. We awake each day grateful for the experiences we have had, the things we have seen and, most importantly, all the friends we have made over the years. And for the next year we will endeavor to slow down … a bit. Maybe.
So here we are, at the beginning of our next chapter (“retirement”?), bravely going forward to write new memories, buoyed by yet more Tolkien wisdom: “The old that is strong does not wither”.
All the best for the coming year.
Anchor Ranch, McCall, ID
I dont think if I combined the adventures of ALL the people I know that they would equal even 5 % of your non stop gad about life.The ladder work was impressive and the joy seen on Sophia is a tribute to you three ultra unique folks. So happy that you chase your bliss.
Hope our paths cross again.
Looks like smiles all around! What a great year
Randall did a south bound on a Lagoon 440 and will crew on the northbound in the spring back to VA. For now in Boise till spring