We're Getting Good at This

It was a struggle to get all the things done this week in order to leave Friday morning. It did not help that we had the hottest week of the year so far and everything we did was slow and sweaty. In addition to the heat, our lives get busy with kids that is for sure. Pierce had his last soccer game in the heat as well on Wednesday. The league cut the skills portion out and just played the game. His coach ended the game with a water balloon fight.

Susan ended up leaving work earlier on Thursday so she could get the grocery shopping done and get a head start on the packing. It was still so hot and we ended up trying to wait until the sun would be lower to get the bikes on the boat. When I finally grabbed Susan's bike that was hanging in the garage  I noticed her front tire was flat. Yup it had a hole! It was already after 8 and all of our bike shops where closed. Quick trip to the local Walmart and we were back in business, however, this delay was enough to give the mosquitoes a jump on us. As soon as the sun went down it was on and we were still putting the bikes on the boat. We quickly finished up covered the boat and called it quits.

Friday morning we ended up getting out about 10:30am. I wanted to clean up the boat's hull and polish some of the repairs I had done. Once that was done we where on our way. We ended up taking a back route to Green Bay to avoid road construction. Around 11am tummies began to rumble. We ended up stopping at a truck stop and getting some food in Forest Junction. The thought was to eat now verses waiting until we get there as we had much to do once getting to Sturgeon Bay.

Once we arrived in Sturgeon Bay we called Center Point Marina to get our slip assignment. After getting into the slip Susan and I had a plan on how we where going to get the boat back together and entertain the boys.  Remember the heat index was well into the triple digits on this day!!!! Once we got into our slip we started re-installing the canvas and electronics. The original plan was to have Susan take the boys to the pool once the canvas was removed from the cabin and in place. Not completely installed just pined in place. I needed to get the electronics on the arch before we can zip the canvas into place. It went so smooth that the boys helped out and everything fell into place quickly and we all went to the pool afterward. 

On a very positive note: my Sister and Brother-in-Law offered to watch our dogs because of the conflict that my parents had. This was a wonderful surprise and we appreciate it very much. It was amazing to not have the dogs amongst the chaos that ensues when we have to put the boat back together.

Day 6 - Egg Harbor and the Best Behaved Dinner

After a night in Fish Creek of storms wind and rain we woke up and had breakfast at Pelletier's after there was a break in the weather.  Pelletier's is straight up the road from Alibi Marina where we stayed. As we left the boat I said to Susan, "Should I go back to boat and grab the rain gear?" as it was starting to rain, but not that hard.  Her answer was "no, it is not that bad." At the time is was just sprinkling and honestly it was hard to tell between rain and the blow off of the trees we were walking under...As a side note we have been gifted really nice rain gear and it hung in out closet on the boat as we walked through the rain...Then of course as luck would have, it down poured while eating breakfast which made me regret not grabbing it even more as I thought we would be getting wet. But as luck would have it again it stopped raining just as we were getting ready to leave.  We walked around the town and went in one or two shops and decided to get back to the boat and get ready to go.  As we sat there we checked the radar and winds to see what we should do. When we left for breakfast the wind was causing white caps on the bay and was not looking very good. We took our time getting ready to go and while we disembarked two boats arrived just as we where leaving and waited for us to leave the marina, as this marina is pretty tight maneuvering.  Turns out the first of these two boats was being directed to our slip.  We did not leave until after noon and the normal check out is 11am.  The deck hands were held up in the harbor house playing a game of Monopoly as the marina was not very active on a wet cold day.  They never came down to see if we actually left and just assumed.  As we were leaving Susan I chuckled thinking how funny it was that we almost caused an issue and timed our departure perfectly.

Our destination was the next harbor south about 6-8 miles away, Egg Harbor.  We stayed at the renovated municipal marina.  Egg Harbor redid there Marina about 2 years ago and did a very nice job.  I must give great praise to the city for rallying and investing in this gem on the the water.  There was much debate if they were going to put the necessary funds to rebuild it, as it was basically condemned a few years ago. When we got to the dock we checked in immediately, set our lines, power, water and cable and shoved off right away to the beach. It is right outside the break wall of the marina.  This allowed us to take everything with us to the beach and allowed Pierce to go up to the beach (what he likes best) and Peyton to play with the dinghy and swim in the deep (which he likes best). Actually, we did not leave immediately.  I had taken Peyton aside and have a conversation.  We were having some major issues to this point in the vacation with the boys behaviors.  I basically said to him - Susan and I plan these trips with great intentions of building great memories and so far this trip the only memories we sharing is having to discipline and yell all the time. If this continues we will not plan anymore of these type of trips....When Peyton and I got back from our sit down on the edge of the dock Susan started her message with both of them as audience and to my amazement was almost verbatim to the talk I had just had with Peyton.  I think this talk worked, because after playing on the beach we went to Trio, an Italia restaurant Susan found on Yelp, and we had the best dinner as a family I can remember.  Peyton suggested he sit next to Pierce promising it was going to be fine. Susan and I had our doubts and do not allow this as they fidget and fuss with each other and cause more stress for us. To our surprise it went off with out any issues.  Best Dinner Ever!

Egg Harbor Marina