Headed Back to the Loop

Sunrise over Puget Sound, New Years Eve:  not tropical, but sure pretty!

What a wonderful time at home for the holidays! We had a great visit with daughter Adrienne and soon-to-be son-in-law Justin who flew up from Denver for a week. Christmas Day included the two of them, son Ryan, sister Lynn, brother-in-law David, niece Leslie and her kids Sophie (7) and Harrison (5) from New York City, and Adrienne’s childhood best friend Maggie.

Christmas Day was lively, though we missed having Mackenzie, Matt and Jaime with us.

We enjoyed many meals with a couple dozen other relatives and friends, including overnight visitors Beth, Phil and two teenagers for New Years Eve (above and below), our 17th shared NYE celebration.

The night included the traditional Hip-Hop Dance performance by the boys to help us stay awake until REAL midnight (not Looper Midnight, which is only 9pm).

This was a record-breaking year for the Orca Whales in Colvos Passage on Puget Sound. We had 4 sightings of Orca pods on 3 different days, all within a 12-day period. This is by far the highest activity level we’ve seen in such a short period of time in the 8 1/2 years we’ve owned this house.

Now we’re preparing the house for our departure, catching a late afternoon ferry to Seattle to spend tonight at Mackenzie and Matt’s house to catch a cab to the airport tomorrow. The good folks at Dog River Marina will pick us up in Mobile tomorrow night, and we’ll be back on “Next To Me” where the weather is much colder than when we left in mid-November.  It’s cold all along the Florida Panhandle where we expect to travel east 300 miles in the next couple weeks to arrive at Carabelle and stage for The Big Gulf Crossing. We’re glad we made the trip home, and ready to get back to Looper Life.