Sayonaras, Sailing & Sunny San Diego!!

Wow!! What a Summer it's been!! The kids recently started in their new schools (insert loud cheering here) so I felt it fitting that I spend some time reflecting on the last three months and all that we've done in this time. So  much has happened, so I will try to keep it brief but I can't guarantee anything, so go and make a cup of tea/coffee and put your feet up and enjoy looking back with me at the Summer of 2013.

Towards the end of the school year Nick was recruited for a job that was going to be a great opportunity and after quite a bit of deliberation, he decided to accept the new position just one week before the school year finished - we were off to San Diego for our next adventure! Wow - we really couldn't believe it was actually happening - the new company, Invetech, is an Australian consulting company, and they wanted him to start work immediately. We had our Summer vacation already booked so we decided to continue with our plans and then aim to be in San Diego immediately after our holiday.

The last week of school was a huge mixture of emotions. We were thrilled to be finishing off school, easing up on homework, for Polly she completed her violin exam and passed with distinction then passed her Mandarin exam and both kids tested and passed their next level belts in taekaondo...we were excited about Summer finally arriving and looking forward to the relaxed routine. Then reality hit and we realized that each year here in Munich, we say "goodbye" to our good friends that are leaving for their next adventure. The last several months of school involve farewell functions and all the emotions are difficult for us all in saying "farewell" to people that have become family to us here. Then we realized that this year, we are the ones leaving. Happy, sad, scared, excited, anxious...the list goes on and on. In a way it was good to only have a week to say our "goodbyes". We had been in Munich almost 3 years and had made so many wonderful friends and so many treasured memories that saying "goodbye" was extremely painful so the quicker the better. Our friends are from all over the world - will we ever see them again?! We sure do hope so ... but who knows. It was hard for all of us. Lots of tears. Lots. Did I say lots? Lots. The last day at school was heart wrenchingly difficult. I am blessed to have met so, so many wonderful friends that I hope will be in my life forever, wherever we all live  in this big wide world, and it was tearing me apart to leave them. They had become my family. Hard times for us all. It was a welcome relief to know that the next day we were off on our summer adventure. Our last European holiday for a while.

Breathtaking views ... & there's our yacht, Pwyll, in the background!!

This year, we decided to explore Greece. After hours of research of accommodation, Nick found this site: http://www.ratherbesailing.org and we were instantly excited about a new adventure ... we had struggled to find that perfect accommodation that was right on the blue, clear water yet peaceful and picturesque without all the tourists so we decided to charter a yacht and spend two weeks with our Captain sailing in Greece around the Dodecanese Islands in the Western Aegean Sea. Wow. What an awesome trip!! I'm not gonna lie, I was

Mmmmmm....dinner!!

nervous. I am the sort of person that likes to be clean and have clean clothes so 2 weeks on a tiny 44ft yacht had me nervous!! How wrong could I be?! Our Captain was awesome!! What a tremendously inspirational, strong, funny, welcoming, talented woman!! Such a great role model for our kids...and man, can she sail a yacht!! We flew into the old fortress city of Rhodes and spent one night exploring this ancient city that we would return to at the end of our sailing adventure. We stayed in a delightful bed and breakfast in the middle of town and enjoyed the warm sea breeze and hot sun and one of the best meals ever! We ate at a tiny local restaurant where you are invited into the kitchen where all the fabulous aromas swallowed you up; here, the daily dishes were displayed in their stainless steel containers and you chose your meal - we chose small amounts of everything and every dish was mouthwateringly sensational!! What a great way to start our holiday!! We were already excited to return in 2 weeks to further explore this gorgeous ancient town of Rhodes...and to return to our favourite restaurant!! The next day, we caught a high speed catermeran to the small island of Leros. We were so excited to meet our Captain and start sailing; the catamaran was huge and very fast ... and super rough ... we were all sick on the catamaran which made us all extremely anxious about how our weak city stomachs would handle our holiday on our little yacht!! ...and for 2 weeks?!?! What the hell were we thinking?!

Four long, rough, exhausting hours later, we were sooooo relieved to disembark the catamaran and have our feet on solid ground. Captain Christy met us at the dock and after a brief stop for lunch, she took us to Pwyll, our new home for 2 weeks here in the gorgeous Greek Islands. Our fears about being sea sick were quickly put to rest as Captain Christy advised us on how to handle our "funny tummies" and she said we would start out slow and easy with the sailing until we all got our sea legs and true to her word, she looked after us in so many ways that we all were feeling fabulous in no time. Captain Christy was born and raised in Colorado but spent many years living in Italy and obviously learned a thing to two about cooking whilst there because the meals she produced in the tiny galley kitchen were top quality restaurant meals that we looked forward to each day!! By late afternoon, we were anchored with wine in hand and delicious snacks to enjoy while watching the sun set. Then, my favorite part of the trip, the

stars....wowowowow....soooooo many stars ... Captain Christy has crossed the Atlantic twice in a sail boat and said that the stars she saw on those trips were absolutely mind-blowing, which was hard for me to get my mind around. Our days consisted of early mornings enjoying drinking coffee and eating Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit overlooking calm seas while listening to the soothing sound of calm waters gently lapping against the side of the boat. From then on our days were pretty stressful; jumping off the boat to experience a peek into the life under water, enjoying spotting star fish, octopus and sea urchins, then we would lay around in the warm Greek sun and talk, rest, play games, eat some more and then when the sun would heat us all up, we'd jump in again & repeat until the warm sun set over the horizon. Then we'd indulge in a wonderful meal prepared by our Captain then we'd

Henry was all about the skinny dipping!! "It feels SOOOO silky!" 

all find our respective positions and wait for the stars to appear ... and wow ... what a treat the evening stargazing was; such a highlight for us all. I have never seen so many stars and Captain Christy knew them all - amazing!! Once our eyes became heavy staring into the night sky, spotting shooting stars, we headed to bed with huge smiles on our faces. We never wanted this holiday to end. During the course of the 2 weeks, we did visit a couple of ports and while we definitely enjoyed our time on the land, exploring the historical white washed buildings of the local towns, our preference was to be anchored at gorgeous secluded cove overlooking the seemingly endless crystal clear, turquoise ocean. What a tremendous experience this holiday was for us as a family. It really was fabulous to spend so much wonderful quality time together ... time to bond before we commence on our next adventure. During the transitional times of these big moves, it is imperative for us to stick together as a family because it can be tough at times and we need to lean on each other, and this trip really allowed us quality time together which was so fabulous.

One of our many favourite swimming spots!!

Everything about this trip was sensational and far exceeded my high expectations. The water color and transparency was the highlight for me. I think Nick and kids would count a highlight as learning how to sail a boat we were very lucky to have Captain Christy as our fabulous teacher!! Words could never describe the feelings I experienced during our two weeks on board our boat. I was worried how it was all going work out. We are not talking a luxury yacht here by any means; day to day life was kind of like camping. Limited clothing options, small spaces, bumping into one another, bathroom challenges, etc. and yet, the views, sounds, swimming, snorkeling, time to relax, far outweighed any challenges we experienced elsewhere.  Captain Christy was the perfect captain for us. She is bursting at the seams with knowledge and experience - and her cooking skills are phenomenal!! she knew just the right balance of instruction and freedom with the kids and it was totally her doing that made this trip so memorable for us all. She is a super strong woman, sailing her boat , looking after her guests and is excellent at what she does.  we will be forever grateful to her for providing us with such a memorable holiday. It was an absolute pleasure and honor to meet Captain Christy and her delightful husband, Michael. I will let the photos do the talking from here. There were tears as we said "goodbye" to Captain Christy; who started out as our Captain and ended up as our dear friend. 

After arriving home from Greece, the kids and I had 3 days to re-pack and get back to the airport to fly to San Diego - our new 'home'. Crazy days indeed. We arrived in San Diego on Friday July 19 and we bought a house on Saturday July 20. C R A Z Y!! Nick spent an extra week in Germany tying up all the loose ends (of which there were LOTS!!) and then joined us in San Diego. We promptly bought 2 big American cars (a HUGE change from our little VW Golf in Germany!!) and more importantly 2 surfboards ;-) Next was enrolling kids in school and sorting out all the paperwork involved in buying a house ... oh yeah, and right about this time we decided to sell our house in the East Bay of San Francisco so we were doing that at the same time. The days were long and exhausting!! Less than a month after buying the house we moved in! Yay!! We quickly painted the kids rooms before our shipping and storage arrived ... we are now "in" ... not exactly "settled" but "in" for sure. We are now in the process of arranging a kitchen remodel and then we'll be all sorted ... so book your flights and get on over here!! While we will miss Europe for sure, especially all our good friends there, the ever shining sun and cobalt blue sky of San Diego are most welcomed and the ocean being 25mins away is pretty awesome too!! Here's to new adventures in sunny California!!! Watch this space!!

Snorkeling

Hard day ashore...

Hard life on the boat...