Caution: May Cause Carsickness

Video by Kaleb, Enjoy!!

Sailing in the San Juan Islands

Did I mention that we took a five day vacation aboard our sailing vessel, Strait Walker? Karsten, the children, and I all living on 34 feet of wind powered fun. Some of the vacation was clouded by hyper-attentiveness to the wanderings of three little ones five and under, especially our fledgling climber who seems on the brink of self destruction! We moored off of Cypress Island in Eagle harbor. Oh man, would I recommend this spot a thousand times over. Pristine views of Mount Baker, no buildings, dark starry nights, hiking trails, a lake for swimming, and wildlife galore. It was so nice to be secluded and able to just focus on my husband and children. I am still amazed at how distracting day to day life is.



We had the privilege of getting help for an orphaned Harbor seal pup. The mortality rate for the poor things is 50 percent but after petting him and seeing those beautiful eyes I had to interfere. While "Pup Pup" was nursing on the side of our boat Kaleb said, "Momma, don't you think you could give him a bottle of your milk?" I could not fault the logic but after checking the boat there was nothing that would transport the milk from a container to Pup-pup's mouth, so I drew the line there. We hiked a four mile hike with the kids and found a wonderful way to get Mikaia to walk with us on her own. Karsten would walk in front of us and I in back with Mikaia in-between, then Karsten would hold a long stick back toward us and Mikaia would hold on to the end of it and follow. I think they do this technique with the blind but it really worked well for Mikaia.


The vacation left me feeling so thankful for some family time and yet longing for unmoving land. I ended up being sea sick for five days after returning home, now that sucked! However, Karsten and I grew so much closer and appreciative of each other, and anytime you do that, your vacation was truly a success!