One More Day with the Lucketts, and I Get to Sail!

Our final night at Eden Place B&B, now on the king-size bed, was somewhat of an improvement over the previous two. The bed still sucked (she really should take her ill-gotten earnings, even if only from us, and buy some new mattresses!), but this broken down mattress had more padding on it, so the springs didn't hurt so bad. We also had a window that opened and a fan, so we didn't have to run an AC to get some air circulation. I still didn't sleep well, but when it came time to get up for another dreadful breakfast, I opted to attempt to catch a few more winks instead.

Terry and Erin joined the other guests, and reported that Ethyl had served some nearly inedible peirogi-type device, I guess in honor of her Polish missionary student guests.

We packed up and said goodbye to Ethyl, and she had brochures, business cards and such all prepared for us to give to our friends, and told us to be sure and come back. Yeah! I'll be sure and do that -- not!

One more stop at Oliver's for coffee. Elizabeth and Erin were heading home today, so we all headed back to the chalets for some more family and beach time before they had to take off.

Terry and I went back down to the beach, and it wasn't long before Dan asked if anyone wanted to sail. I, of course, jumped at the chance.

I headed off with Dan, and Terry joined Bob. After a while Dan started explaining the theory and practice of reading the winds, using a clockface as an analogy -- then handed me the ropes! So I controlled the sail while he controlled the rudder, and we sailed back and forth between the big island and the shore, and even around the tiny island a few times.

It is so much fun! I love the zen aspect of it -- that you have to pretty much focus your attention on just what you're doing -- it takes your mind off anything else you may normally be thinking about. Very relaxing. Kind of like painting.

Dan and I and Jim all tried to encourage Terry to consider getting a rig like this...we'll see how that goes. With the zero extra time we've had over the past 3 years, I'm not going to get my hopes up...or maybe I will! Things are changing with my job situation, and hopefully, it will be less dire financially and time-wise than it has been, now that I'm leaving Austin Regional Clinic for much better paying free-lance illustration work.

In the afternoon, we went back up to hang at the chalets, and I talked to Joleigh for awhile. She told me some wild stories of her youth at UT in Austin, studying under the radical John Henry Faulk, and getting involved with the Young Communists.

Later someone suggested a game of "Settlers of Catan." I normally don't do games -- generally, I find them too boring and a waste of time, but Terry joined the game, and I sat at his side as it began.

What a great game! It was anything but boring, and we played for hours (one game). Folks had to tear us away to eat dinner, and we were so reluctant to pause playing, we missed the guacamole that Nancy and Libby served up. :-(

Dinner was fabulous; I got lucky and got some of the salmon and other fish, but as soon as we could politely tear ourselves away from dinner and clean-up duties, we were back at the game.

We were very nearly in a four-way tie, each of us only 2-3 points (out of 10) away from winning. Gigi had been behind (by a point), as she had started with the worst board position, but after another maybe 45 minutes of play, she whupped us all! It was a really fun game, and we're trying to figure out which of our friends we may be able to rope into getting addicted with us.

Terry and I spent our final night at the family reunion sleeping in one of the rooms in Joleigh's cabin. Finally, a comfortable bed!

As I look back over the past few days, I'm so happy that I got to spend more time with all the family folks that I did. What a great, kind, wise, and loving family -- I am so lucky to have become a small part of it.