I love all of you who follow us and write - we are still here - enjoying our holiday in the Pocono's. Heading to Cleveland tomorrow to spend New Years with our friends in Medina. Will post when we get home. Love and Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS DINNER

Jack and I are leaving for the Holidays but I HAD to have a Christmas dinner. We called it a simple Tuscan supper. Dakota greeted everyone at the door including her best friend Ranger. We toasted with Pomegranate Cosmopolitans (pomegranate juice is VERY good for you, you know!), ate salad, butternut squash ravioli with walnut sauce, delicious Rosemary and Olive Oil bread brought by Cathy - very Artisanal, with ridges made by her rising pans!!, and peppermint chocolate cake made by Alina. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the cake, Alina!) Cathy also brought home made dog biscuits! WOW! Wonderful food, the best friends, great conversation and Merry Christmas!!

CHRISTMAS BOAT PARADE

It's an annual event - always in Florida Bay off Key Largo. We had prime seats on the point at Sundowner's Restaurant - with the judges! It was cool and breezy but the wind had shifted from the North to the East so we were snug and cozy. AND - there was a full moon! The theme was GROOVIN' IN THE 60'S and the boater's were very clever. The first picture is of the boat that won first prize using the Laugh-In theme. The sailfish is chasing dolphin (mahi-mahi) and the sailboat with the peace sign is our friend Capt. Alan on Sinbad, a Morgan 41. Enjoy!

BEAUTIFUL DAKOTA KATE

She's still naughty but she does look gorgeous in her Christmas scarf!

LET THE PARTIES BEGIN!

We attended our first (of many more to come) Holiday parties last night. Lasagne, salad, garlic bread, Key lime pie.......maybe I should have titled this - Let the diet begin!

CAPT. JACK AND THE GIRLS!

On another perfect Florida Keys day, Jack took my friend Lisa and me to lunch (and a rum runner!) at Lorelei and then to the annual art show there. Lunch was great, the art show fun, the company - SUPERB!

BIRDS!

We had a wonderful day Saturday,birding back country in the shallow water skiff. It was one of those special, flat-calm days. The white pelicans are back!! We also spotted many osprey nests with both Mom and Dad close by, scolding if we poled in too close! . Did you know they mate for life and come back to the same nest every year? If it is a small nest they are newlyweds! If the nest is large - and they get large! - they are old married folks like us! Sadly, we only saw one roseate spoonbill back by the Bob Keys where we used to see hundreds. I hear they have now chosen to winter further North in Florida as our enviornment for them has deteriorated so much. We also went to our favorite rookery - it's a secret place - and watched as at least 6 Great White Herons built their nests. We think one already has eggs in it! The egrets were there, too, in full mating colors! And the cormorants, and the ibis and the snowy egrets.....what a fun time! Thanks, Jack - for going birding with me!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MINA!!

Yesterday I drove to Homestead to decorate Jack's Mom's apartment for Christmas. We had such a good time. I have the world's BEST mother-in-law!

JINGLE BELLS!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......we had decided not to get a Christmas tree this year as we will be gone for the Holidays, but.....I couldn't resist decorating a little bit.....and once you open the boxes....well.....other than the ornament boxes, EVERYTHING is out!

SUNSET

Almost daily we head out on the back-country skiff to enjoy sunset on Florida Bay. This is a picture of my Dad as we head down the canal to end our day with the colors of sunset!

Oh-Oh, Gobble, Gobble II

Both my friend Alina and I ate Thanksgiving dinner out and we discovered we didn't like not having leftovers! So, we deep-fried a turkey on Sunday - yummy turkey sandwiches today! Capt. Alan and my Dad were there with us - and Alina's Mother, Josephine - somehow I missed getting a picture of her.

GOBBLE, GOBBLE AND HO-HO-HO!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had - sharing the day with old friends, new friends and family! Now my thoughts turn to Christmas......the Thanksgiving wreath is down, the Christmas wreath is up, I started some holiday baking and I smelled the Christmas trees at Publix today! Mmmmmmmmm.

Where, oh where.....

As promised, I wanted to catch you up on the discussions re: our next cruise. Out of nowhere a new Explorer Chart appeared on my desk today............... for the Far Bahamas..............Cat Island, Eleuthra, San Sal, Samana, Rum Cay, Conception, Mayaguana, Inagua.........hmmmmmmmmmmm.

We believe!

ONCE YOU CHOOSE HOPE, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!

CHRISTOPHER REEVE

We took back America!!!!!!

Congratulations, President-elect Obama! As I stood on US 1 yesterday with my Obama sign I knew we were going to win. Middle-America was honking at me, giving me thumb's up, waving and shouting, O-ba-ma! Jack and I will celebrate with champagne tonight, looking forward to change in America - bringing our troops home from Iraq, beefing up Afghanistan and overcoming the Taliban, improvement in our economy, equal rights for women, lower taxes for the middle class, universal healthcare.....No matter your politics, Barack Obama will be our President and we all need to forget petty political differences (read: no Republican pouting) and begin to do our part to create this change. The work to be done by this remarkable man is daunting. We believe he is up to the challenge! And we look forward to watching it happen. God Bless America and may there be PEACE on earth - soon.

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillys. We need to now turn our thoughts to next Spring and Spring Training.....Go Marlins! But first, Happy Halloween tomorrow and then we will be thinking of Thanksgiving, then Christmas. I love this time of year! So much to look forward to. We are enjoying some cooler temperatures in the Florida Keys. We had what we call a cold front - not like the ones up North. The wind did come out of the North and dropped the temperatures to the 50's one night and now 70's during the day! Perfect. And we are wearing our winter clothes - socks with our tennis shoes!

WORLD SERIES

Oh, the poor RAYS. What an awful 9th inning. There's always tomorrow...........

OBAMA!!

I worked at the Democratic Headquarters today, making phone calls. I called at least 150 voters and all but 2 were voting for Obama. Landslide maybe???

Today I had the privilege of telling the RNC - calling our home in support of McCain - that the registered Republican in this house was voting for OBAMA! I am looking for a second sign for my yard - the first one says OBAMA/BIDEN - that says Republican for OBAMA!!

SAILING.....................

Since this is a log of the S/V Freyja I thought I should get back to basics - just briefly. Autumn has arrived in the Keys, the AC is off, the windows are all open and it is cool enough to work on the sailboat! I know, there is another post regarding this......but, add to that, we have started talking about where we will cruise this coming Spring!! Exumas again, Abacos, the West coast of Florida, the ICW?? I will keep you posted on the conversation!

TAMPA BAY RAYS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!

Here's my take on it. The Red Sox payroll for 2008 was $133,440,036. The TAMPA BAY RAYS (GO RAYS!) payroll was $43,820,598. Seems you can't buy a team to win the World Series. Seems to me you BUILD a team and stress team work and loyalty and a work ethic and to play the game with joy and expect that team to show gratitude for their opportunity to play baseball - gratitude to their owners, their coaches and their fans. Now, the Phillies' payroll was $98,641,598 for 2008. If winning has anything to do with payroll it seems to be the lower payroll team wins!! So, GO RAYS, beat the Phillies in 4!! And, oh-by-the-way - A Rod made more this last year than the entire Florida Marlins! Now what does that say?

There REALLY IS only one October. Come on, RAYS, you have to beat the Sox tonight!

THERE'S ONLY ONE OCTOBER!!!!!

Go Rays! Beat the Sox!

IT'S STONE CRAB SEASON!!!!

Jack and I had the first stone crab of the season last night. YUMMY!

Jack and I have been doing some volunteer work for REEF - the Reef Environmental and Education Foundation. Our friend, Lisa Mitchell, has recently taken over as Executive Director. Lisa and I go way back. She and I received our Captain's licenses together in 1983 (in a class of about 25 men!). She has been running dive shops in Tortola and Bonaire and has travelled around the world as a consultant. Now she is back "home". Sign on to www.reef.org and check it out. I think you will be impressed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALINA AND PAM!

CHICK TRIP!!

Alina and I just returned from a few days in Medina, Ohio, visiting our friend, Susan Bigley. She and I became fast friends as neighbors when we lived those years in Ohio. Susan is married to Todd and is mother to Madeline, soon to be 12. She also volunteers for Golden Retriever Rescue and besides adopting hard to place senior dogs into her home and loving them she fosters and finds homes for others. They live on a beautiful lake. These are pictures of her beautiful yard and the ducks swimming in the mist in the early morning.



Good Morning! We need coffee!

That is Ridley in Susan's arms. He was found by Susan on the side of the road in Akron, at a busy intersection. He found a home with a wonderful new family and Susan took us to meet him. That's Gauge, Susan' yellow Lab and Tanner, one of Susan's rescued Goldens that she adopted.


Here Susan, Madeline, Alina and I are hiking River Styx Park with two of Susan's Goldens, Tanner and Tucker. Jack and I used to hike at this park with both Schooner and then Indigo when we lived in Medina.



These are pictures of everyone having cocktails - and laughing! That's Alina, Madeline, Todd and Susan.



We had Cosmopolitans at lunch with imported key limes! When we left the restaurant we heard the waitress and bartender talking about "those are the girls from Florida who bring their own limes"!!. From lunch we went to Sephora. Make-up lessons for Alina!! Fun! It was a great trip - even pass-riding was easy (except for 0430 wake-ups!). And Alina and I enjoyed 60 degree days and 40 degree nights! But, we both agreed it felt good to step into that hot jet-way upon our arrival home in Miami!