One fine Saturday last April we packed up the Subaru with teddies and blankies and diapers and cookies and various other necessities and headed to St. Helens, Oregon where Wondertime was moored. We were spending our first night aboard. We aren’t going to leave the dock of course, but we did enjoy a lovely 75 degree Spring weekend on the Columbia River with Leah, 3, and Holly, 5 months, in tow.
Leah and Teddy, ready to board.
The girls are on deck...we (and our vast quantities of "gear") made it.
It's official, she's ours!
Wondertime is a custom 38' ketch designed by Jay Benford and built by Miller Marine on Bainbridge Island, WA. From what we can gather, her hull was laid up in 1978, she was launched in 1985, and finally finished in 1998. She is just the right size for us, has the perfect layout for four, and is in such excellent condition we couldn't pass her by.
The DVDs come out while mom and dad unpack and check things over.
Holly falls asleep right away. A good sign!
Little stars
This has little to do with staying on the boat, I just love this photo, taken while exploring the town of St. Helens, OR. You do know that 3-year olds are entirely responsible for dandelion repopulation? On an entirely different note, I had no idea we were in one of the towns the movie Twilight was filmed in until I saw a girl run excitedly down the street saying "OMG! Is there where so and so was chased down? OMG!" And here I was thinking we were just in a plain old small Oregon town when it was practically Hollywood.
A playground! All is well. This is likely the first of many playgrounds we will explore by sail.
Even Holly is having a good time.
Leah snug in her bunk (she finally fell asleep, um, 2 or 3 hours after this photo was taken).
Holly is asleep! Yay! (No, we didn't leave her to sleep there. That would not be an AAP approved sleeping venue). She did sleep with Sara in the double bunk, probably not an AAP approved sleeping situation either now that I think of it.
Breakfast-time. Yes, those are chocolate-chip cookies. We do what we can to keep everyone happy in times of potential chaos.
Do they make childproof locks for faucets?
A self-portrait. Ok, I wasn't really reading. I only had enough time to take this photo and suddenly naptime was over. But if I could, this is how I would have loved to spend my morning!
Holly napping (again!) in our bunk. This is going well!!
Leah reading under her rainbow-maker (i.e. deck prism).
So cute.
Ready to go home. Leah protested the whole way down the dock (I wanna stay on the booooaaaat!). Hooray!
