No looking back...

So far I feel that this is the hardest part of the trip.  We finally emptied the house Friday morning, packed up the suburban and headed out of town.  Looking in the review mirror with tears in my eyes remembering all the closeness of the neighborhood and the community that we will be missing while away.  I know we are fortunate to be able to take this time and do this trip, I know that we will be returning to our house the community in 2 years but it doesn't make this any easier for me.  I have always moved around ... A LOT.... and I have never felt a sense of home like I have in Lafayette.  I never thought that I would become rooted anywhere, but as I was leaving I realized I have.

I know that there are some that believe we are really making a bad and risky decision in removing our children from their home, education and what not... I want to thank all of you (my friends) who have asked all the questions and truly understood the amount of time Chris and I have spent in planning this adventure.  We are not just making an irrational, mid life crisis leap to get out of town and try something new.  We really believe that what we are about to take on will bring our family closer than we ever have, open the kids eyes to other cultures, and give them a sense of accomplishment and responsibility that they would never have gotten at home.  We are trying to show the kids that if you have a dream, with hard work and sacrifice you can make it come true.  Chris has always dreamed of  circumnavigating since he was in the sea scouts and truly fell in love with sailing.  We have been planning this trip for 10 years and seriously planning for the last 7... This is one of the biggest undertakings in terms of planning that I have ever gone thru... but hopefully will be the most rewarding.

This last week has been the most exhausting in terms of deadlines that we needed to meet.  We were suppose to officially buy the boat the week before last but one of the owners friends is a rigger and he had discovered some issues with the mast and rigging.  He advised us not to go offshore to purchase the boat.  We then had to scramble to get the mast taken down and repaired in the time frame that we had in order to purchase the boat before Chris leaves with Tristan on his 50 mile boy scout hike in Kings Canyon.   We had a week and a half to fix the mast, buy the boat and to move out of the house.  We always underestimate the time it takes to actually accomplish to projects we undertake.  The Tzortzis way is to take on as much as possible, give ourselves the shortest amount of time to accomplish it and then make sure that a bunch of stuff comes up to give us opportunities to problem solve.  This is of course good practice for us for the next few years.

My sister piper and her husband Josh came down and were a god send in helping us prep the house and move all the furniture.. Without them I don't know what we would have done.  Chris had to be at the boat prepping the mast and working on the boat while we had to pack up the U-haul and move all the furniture out of the house Friday and Saturday night.  Then OH THEM MESS that was left.  I can't believe after 6 months of Goodwill trips and dump runs we still had so much junk.... Packing the last of the house this week really sent the kids for a tail spin and again emotions have been running wild.  There were many late nights and trips to Oma's storage garage in the city, then dump runs and more Goodwill runs... It just seemed never ending...

The light at the end of the tunnel... we were able to get the mast up on Wednesday and take her offshore on thursday to officially purchase the boat.  YAY!  I can't tell you how good that feels to actually have a boat to go on this adventure with.  I know many of you have been asking for pictures but we were always afraid to jinx the process by counting our eggs to soon.  So in with said I will put some in now.

The boat we decided on is a Lagoon 470.  There are only 50ish of these made.  It is between a performance cat and a charter cat.  When Chris and I first saw the boat in Costa Rica we really felt she was perfect for our family.  Her layout is unique in the fact that she has 4 staterooms (one with a king bed) and 3 bathrooms.  She has been actively blue water cruised for the last two years.  It is a perfect senerio for us.  As with any boat, prior to leaving for blue water we will need make sure that everything is checked out and in excellent working condition..... and then you bring all the spares parts you can possibly bring.

Friday morning was a mad scramble to get all of the remaining crud out of the house or stored so that it is free and clear for the painters, new carpets and cleaners to come in and get the house ready for the new family, the Kricks.  We are now in Shasta at Oma's house while Chris and Tristan are hiking in this horrible heat south of Yosemite... When they return we will be living in the city and finally focusing on the boat to get her ready ocean ready for us.  The list is so long that I can't even begin to think of how much we need to do prior to leaving... so I am just going to relax and recover for a week up here in the fresh mountain air, go for nature walks, spend time reading with the kids, and swimming in the lake.  I may tackle inventorying our medical bag for the boat, making a shopping list for the items that we need to purchase for the boat and ordering the homeschooling supplies for the kids... I know it will sneak up on me and I want to be prepared for their first day of school.