Publish Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009
Location: Beaufort, South Carolina
Coordinates: 32° 25.677′ N 80° 40.967′ W
Sarah, Kenna, and I back together again!
Hey all! You may have been wondering why I haven’t blogged in the past week. Well… I’ve been in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado! My mom and I decided to take a trip back there for a few days to visit friends and family, and just see the town! I had a ball seeing my friends, and spending Halloween with my great friend McKenna! Here are a few ultimate highlights from our trip:
Kenna and I dressed up at the Pearl Street Mall
Halloween was definitely awesome! I was Hermione Granger (the brainy, clever, muggle-born) from Harry Potter — robes, wand, and all! McKenna was a fashion disaster, and she did a great job with everything from the funky suspenders, the majorly messed up makeup! We had a great time trick-or- treating in her neighborhood, and an even better time coming back and watching part of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and sorting our candy! It was definitely a fun Halloween full of chills and thrills!
I also got to shadow McKenna, and another good friend of mine, Sarah, at their school. It was awesome to see how real Middle School works! I got to go to their Social Studies class, Language Arts, Art, A and B lunch, Science, Advanced Language Arts, and Health. It was just fantastic to see all my other friends from elementary school! Everyone was so friendly, and the teachers were super welcoming. It was crazy how packed the hallways were at the school when the bell rang! My school has… um… one student.
Dancing off in our outfits for a very odd play we all put on...
We also were hosted by our friends the Carlins for a few nights. I had a great time goofing off with Claire, shopping with Bobbi, talking boat-tech with Tim, doing Harry Potter Trivia with Emily, and having a lot of playful banter with Evan. It was great to see them all!
Other great moments include a delicious home-cooked meal by my Grandma after a long day of travel, accidentally scaring my friend’s mom in the dark of midnight (it included ‘secret files’, a very dark kitchen, and mistaken identities), shopping at some of my favorite stores, like Border’s and Macy’s, eating at the greatest restaurants in all of Boulder (The Kitchen, Rada, Pasta Jay’s, Mo’s and Vic’s, and Snarf’s just to name a few), stopping by to see my old teachers at my old elementary school, and doing the morning crossword puzzle with our friends at our traditional coffee shop.
Meanwhile, dad was on the boat, and if you want to read about his ‘mantastic adventures’ while we were away, here is the link to his blog.
The week in Boulder was awesome. It really is my home, where I grew up. For this chapter in my life, however, I am so happy where I am. I was thrilled to get back on the boat, and hear the lap of the waves against the hull at night, and see the stars up on the boat deck. It’s like the song Unwritten: life is a blank book, and your waiting to write your story, page by page, chapter by chapter. This is where I am for this chapter… and I’m as happy as can be!
Dear Ayla: Isn’t it great to see old freinds. I’ve been there did that also. I am shure that when you are in a port, that has the internet, you IM your freinds to talk to them in real time. Did you and any of your freinds make plans to, have one of them, come and spend a week or two with you, on the boat? Turn about, is fair play.LOL That would be nice to see, you and a freind, sharing in some vidios. 3 freinds @ 2 weeks each = 6 weeks. Hmmm about 1/2 the summer with your freinds. Any way, Ayla, have a great time back (home) on the boat. Fair winds and calm seas your way. Be safe and stay healthy.
Ayla, Thanks for sharing your stories about your visit to home, school, and friends.
It was nice that you got to celebrate Halloween at home. America seems to really make a big thing out of Halloween, even more than in Canada.
Do you remember Bobcaygeon? We live along the beach a few minutes from the locks where we first saw your boat. We only got one kid at the door this year. It is different in the larger towns and cities though where there is a larger population. I bet your grandma was delighted to see you and your mom. Have you ever heard of “Trunk & Treating”? My son who resides in Perth, Australia with his wife and three children belong to an American/Canadian Club and at Halloween the kids dress up in their Halloween costumes have a party and then visit the car trunks in the parking lot for their treats.
Great to hear you’re back in Colorado. Will you be here much longer?
Sounds like gobs of fun to me! Glad it was a good trip. gd
Hello Ayla, Great Blog. We did our halloween at a campground in the Thumb of Michigan. There were lots of kids and for the first time we ran out of candy. No problem, everyone was having fun. The campground staff had great decorations and pot luck Saturday evening before the trick or treat gang showed up. Keep your stories coming. We really enjoy them.
great to hear that you got back to see your friends.
Hi Ayla,
I enjoy watches your From the Pilothouse Videos.
In the video showing us your boat you asked the question why are rooms on ships called staterooms. Well I know the answer to that. Back in the 15th and 16th centuries all ships of any size had a special room for noblemen and representatives of the state. This special room was called a Stateroom, and over the years the term came to be attached to any sleeping room on the ship.
Also, do you know where the terms “starboard” and “port” came from? Back in the days of the Vikings the sides of the ships were called “boards”. The Viking steering oar was always placed on the right side of the ship. The Vikings had two types of oars on their boats, the ones used for rowing and the single steering oar. Since the Vikings relied on the stars to navigate, the steering oar was called the “star oar”, Put Star and board together and you get the “starbaord” side of the shp. WHen the Vikings were in port, they always docked the ship with the starboard side away from the port dock. The side of the boat that was tied to the dock was called the Landboard. Over time the term Landboard was dropped because in times of bad weather or confusion, it was to easily confused with the word Starboard, so they started calling the Landboard the “Portboard” meaning the side of the boat used at port when docking. Over time that was also sometimes confusing because it had the “board” term, and it was just shortened to “Port”.
By the way, I live in Franktown Colorado which is on the other side of Denver from Boulder. I am also thinking about buying a Nordhavn and going to sea with my dog AWOL (he was a stray, get it?).
Chris