The Big Picture
We decided life was short and we'd never regret the days we
spent not working, so we got the kids through college, quit
our jobs, sold the house, bought a sailboat, and are living
aboard as we explore the world.
Aurora has been our home for over two years. We've traveled over 8000 miles, and had the time of our lives.
As they say, all good things must end, and so it's time for us to say good-bye to Aurora and our sailing adventure. On November 6th, Ken flew from Annapolis to San Francisco to join me as we started anew in the Bay Area. The story of this exciting, but unexpected change is the subject of my final Journal entry, which begins below.
One Adventure Ends, Another Begins
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Last I wrote, I didn't know what the future would hold. We had decided that the cruising life was not a long-term life style for us. I mused about it, possibly we might purchase an RV and cruise the land or maybe just hang out on Aurora for a while longer or even get jobs and return to land life. Since writing that update, life has changed for Ken and me.
I just completed my first week of work! But I'm getting to the end of the story before you know what happened. So here's how it came to be that Ken and I moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area and I started working again.
After the Annapolis Boat Show, I flew out to California to visit family and friends. Ken stayed in Annapolis with the boat. It was a good place to leave him on his own with Aurora, easy to get around, lots of boating facilities and a comfortable anchorage. Plus he had a long list of boat chores to keep him busy for the ten days I was to be gone as we had decided to sell Aurora. So on October 15th I hopped on the local bus, headed to Baltimore/Washington International and caught my flight to SFO. Little did I know that I would not be using my return ticket.
Our Aurora updates go out to a variety of friends and family, including friends I worked with at The Learning Company. So it was not surprising that Craig, a previous colleague who now works at PlayFirst, suggested we get together for lunch with some of the old TLC gang when I was in the Bay Area. Turns out that several former colleagues work at PlayFirst, a casual gaming company headquartered in San Francisco. I was delighted to hear from Craig and, of course, said yes to the lunch invite with the TLC gang.
Craig asked if I was serious about returning to work in his e-mail. However, my mind was so far away from the work world at the time, I didn't give it much thought. It crossed my mind that it would be fun to work with Craig, Kenny, Solveig and Nick again, but my focus was on varnishing the slats, stripping the cockpit table and finishing up the boat work on Aurora. Also, I was looking forward to seeing my mother, brothers and daughter again. Ken and I had talked about returning to work, but it wasn't my focus when flying out to
California...
