Harder Aground

We left you in August visiting family and Friends.  Since then, life has given us some choices...we could head from Virginia to the Bahammas in September like some sailors we met or take the inter coastal again to Florida and spend most of the winter in the Keys...and cross for the Bahamas in April with some wonderful friends for a couple of months...or we could help our 21 year old son, Aaron, get back on track and back in college and go back to work full time to make a cruising kitty that will give us more freedom.   Guess by the title you now realize what choice we made. 

With in a few weeks we found a job (it was between starting our own place or working together at Jon's place of employment of 35 years-they won), found an apartment in Utica, went to New Jersey for our friends wedding, drove to Virginia to put Quicksilver on the hard, winterized her and prepared her for shipping, bought furniture (TV, dishes, pots, sheets) and moved ourselves and son in. 

Every day we second guess our choice, especially after one of those ten hour work days. We are enjoying being close to our family and our friends.  We love exploring all that living in central New York can offer. So, for a while this blog might be some of those adventures...This weekend it's back up to the Adirondack Mountains for fall foliage..I know there is some hockey in our future and snow shoeing..

feel free to comment and leave us suggestions for adventures close by. 

Quicksilver all ready for bottom paint and shipping. 

Our dear friends..Lynda and Kelly..finally legal!!!!

My godson's daughter, Claire and her Uncle Ben. 

   

Our son, Aaron and our niece, Grace. 

Jon doing the hard work of preparing quicksilver for winter and shipping..boohoo

I wonder why we were a little slow!

And why our knot meter wasn't working

Mast and rigging secure...love zip ties. 

  

      The new apartment 

        October 3rd view

 Grace and I on her first day back to school 

Chittenango  Falls in Chittenango, NY

Old fashion Italian Feast in Utica

A visit to Henderson Harbor on Lake Ontario.  

Jon and I after work..homemade pizza

Wood Peckers, Pine Trees and Pickles

You know you are in central New York when you see the beautiful green mountains, pine trees, wood peckers and homemade dill pickles.  

Jon and I have been enjoying the familiar sights and sounds of our home towns. It is wonderful to catch up with family and friends after being away for a year.  Being vagabons gives us the opportunity to spend some quality time with our loved ones...you are practically living with them..oh wait we are living with them. Haha.  We traveled to Croughan, NY close to the Adirondack Park Preserve to see my best friend and her mountain man husband.  We then went to my sister and husbands house (which I grew up in) located in North Bay, NY.  It's great because my parents are up from Mississippi.  Now we are at Jon's brother and wife's house in Utica where we had lived for 35 years.   Can't get enough of our sweet niece, Grace, and our Son Aaron. 

After being in the big city it was nice to be in the country....I'm serious, my friend Brenda and Russell live on a dirt road in the side of a hill in Croughan, NY.  They have wood peckers, humming birds, frogs and turtles in the pond and an occasional bear that visits. It's way up in the Adirondacks. Their house is powered by solar and wood energy. A perfect way to unwind. If you can't live on a boat, this is the next best thing.  

At my sister, Lina and Tim's house in North Bay, we help prepare for our yearly family reunion /fishfry, sailed a little Snark in Oneida Lake(this area is so small we made front page news -pic below) and made dill pickles. You heard right..we made pickles. Jon washed the cucumbers, dad sliced them, mom and I and the six other people my sister roped into it, packed them and Lina  added the brine and sealed them.  These are pickles that one waits for all year.  We've got ours stashed away already. 

Lucky as we are, we were able to sail with some friends, Patty and Ron, on lake Ontario and catch up with many friends from that area. So much fun. 

This is driving on NYS Thruway toward Adirondacks. 

Humming birds...there were about eight

Friendly wood pecker

Lowville, NY

Our friends Brenda & Russel's. He built his house and the cabin we stayed in. 

Just a little change from NYC. 

Path to the cabin worn by their visitors

         Simple beauty

  Brenda tries to hold the wildlife..Jersy and Laramee. 

My mom with rain boots from her grand daughter. 

So pretty in central New York 

Our cat Stella at new home..she loves it

       Lots of deer

Beautiful sunsets in North Bay on Oneida Lake

Sailing Oneida Lake in a Snark (our very first boat)

Notice caption...you know what Jon was really saying. 

        

     Ha ha. A closer look. 

My sweet little girlfriend, Adrianna. 

Pickles is a family thing!  My dad(Ward), mom(Nellie), brother-in-law(Tim), Jon, my sister (Lina), Marguerite and some of the best (New York State Fair Blue Ribbon winning ) pickles. 

Returning to Lake Ontario- Fair Haven, NY

Our friends, Patty and Ron, on Free Spirit

I keep trying to capture the beauty of central New York's hills and mountains. 

Jon and his brother, Bob. Happy birthday!