Sweetwater Farm is my happy place.
We said goodbye to Sweetwater Farm this morning and headed to Shalimar (outside Ft. Walton Beach) to Two Georges Marina. The Honey Queen weathered these 6 weeks well without us to cuddle her.
Amanda’s brother is slowly gaining ground in his recovery. Like most major surgeries, and adding in the stage of life, recovery has not been as quick as any of us hoped. Tom has a good friend-base in his neighborhood in Pine Mountain and we trust they will be taking good care of him with visits and meals.
This time away reminded us again of how fragile life can be and it affirmed that our decision to spend this first year of retirement traveling on a boat was a good one. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we are pursuing this dream.
One of my wonderful Christmas presents–Did I mention that MY TEAM won the National Championship?
This holiday season was not the way we would prescribe it. Our married children rotate Christmas and Thanksgiving with the in-laws, so this was the year we did not have them all together for Christmas Day. It’s a bummer not being together, but we are so grateful that we have at least one holiday each year where we are. As a bonus, with our niece’s wedding, just before Christmas, we did get to be in one place. My parents also got their first opportunity to meet Will, their 4th great grandchild. It was a good holiday. Grateful we are.
The girls did a little swingin’ during the holidays. 
Abigail was able to join us for Christmas, which was our highlight.
Mom holding Will
After our arrival in Shalimar, we had the good fortune to meet the harbor hosts for this area, John and Ellen Goncalves. For 2 evenings, we visited and enjoyed restaurants with them. Their hospitality was much appreciated and we feel we have gained 2 new friends. We look forward to seeing them at our October barn dance and in Savannah when they begin the Loop in 2022.
I am not really calling these couple days “boat days” on the blog. We decided to stick close to the marina, and enjoy a little down time after our care-giving experience, as well as, to get provisions for the boat, and do a couple boat projects before we start this next leg. It is our intention to be on the boat until we finish the Loop, probably sometime in May. We will see what life brings to us, holding all things loosely. With good fortune, we will spend time in the Marathon/Keys area and in the Bahamas, enjoying the warmer temperatures while we wait on winter to run its course, and end up in our home port of Savannah.
Tomorrow we set our course for the Panama City area.