We spent just over a month at my mom’s house in Buffalo.  Besides a few chores it felt like vacation.  The water comes out of the tap when you turn on the knob, the toilet flushes with the push of a lever, Mom has a big spacious refrigerator, couches to lounge on in the evenings, air conditioning inside and a pool outside, and a nice big washer and drier in the basement.  Who could ask for more, all the comforts.  But now the vacation is over, time to get back to work.  Eric left a week before the kids and me so he could take care of a few boat projects without interruptions from the peanut gallery.  On the way out he came across the Glenn Curtiss museum.  Apparently he is one of Eric’s heros in aviation.

Once back at the marina, Eric dove into fuel tank installations.  Many years ago on our old boat, he had to dig a leaking fuel tank out from under the engine buried in the keel.  With that memory permanently etched in his mind and knowing our tanks were at the end of their life span, replacing the tanks is at the top of the to-do list. Luckily, Makai’s designers provided easy access to the two aluminum tanks.  After removing the tanks, Eric found a small hole in one of them, whew it was a good thing they’re being replaced.

With help from some of the neighbors Eric was able to remove the aluminum tanks and drop in the new ones.  Eric requested several features on these tanks after talking to Tim on Jetstream.

The tanks have two huge inspection ports so you can get in there and clean them out.  They also make it easy to see the fuel level.  How much fuel we had in our tanks was always guess work because the gauges were never accurate.

Meanwhile back in Buffalo the kids and I were playing with friends, getting school work going, finishing up with Dr. appointments, and helping mom with chores like garage and basement cleaning and closing the pool for the season.  On the last day it poured but since I cleaned little girl debris up from all over the house, they were banished to play on the side porch.

Finally we headed out in a rental car.  Our first stop is 5 hours away in Penn State, Pennsylvania. Remember the family we met in Delaware at the end of July?  They were on vacation at the time and when we headed north to Buffalo, we stopped by for brunch.  We had so much fun, I could barely tear the kids away, so we made plans for a sleep over on our way back to the boat.

 

In the morning while the boys were out fishing, the girls all went to see KayLeigh’s cows.  KayLeigh (16) shows cows with the 4H, and after listening to her tell me about the work she does on her uncle’s farm caring for these critters, I was super impressed.

KayLeigh answered my cow questions and I learned all kinds of stuff about breeding and maintaining the herd.

We also learned about electric fences.  We worked on proving the idea that a short blade of grass laid on the electric fence will give you a shock.  This myth was confirmed.

The afternoon was spent at a cool playground around the corner from Penn State’s football stadium.  The kids tried out disc golfing.
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And the playground equipment.  We all had a great picnic lunch and then returned home because all the girls wanted to do was play.

Play, Play, Play.  The playroom is American Girl Doll heaven.

The boys were content with video games and TV.  Thanks to Jodi, Kristi and all their family for a wonderful weekend.

Bright and early the next morning we continued down the road for another 5 hours to Maryland.  The pre-dawn air was crisp so everyone bundled up in blankets.  I got a big cup of coffee for the road trip and everyone napped.  It was a wonderful drive through curvy roads with farms on either side and beautiful little houses with gardens the size of my boat. I selected a route that took us a little out of the way to avoid Monday morning traffic in some of the bigger cities, but we still had to pass by Washington D.C.’s traffic.

It’s time to get to work on the boat.  We really love the marina.  It’s small, clean, has a great pool, bar/restaurant with dollar beers 4-7pm, nice showers and an air-conditioned lounge.

My projects are mostly sewing for right now.  Eric got me a new Sailrite sewing machine for canvas work.  I spent years struggling with my old Pfaff 150 but the new boat deserves a new sewing machine for better looking canvas.

The hard top we had installed in Fort Lauderdale needed side curtains to keep the sun out when it’s low in the sky.  So that was my first project.  I did most of the sewing at Mom’s house and finished it up here.

Our new favorite hang out is the upstairs lounge.  We’ve been having a heat wave here this week so theair-conditioned lounge is the place to be. This room is right in front of the boat, it’s upstairs and has a great view.  In the morning we do our school work up here and in the evening we watch TV.

Here’s Roy with his middle school math book.  It’s the biggest book our homeschool has ever had.