Well, our family is all together now that Dad has returned,

 

and we even got our dog, Butch, back today!  He seems to remember us, even after two years!  Our two cats remember us, too.  We’re going to get chickens soon, and we’re going to set up a tropical aquarium with some of the fish we saw in the islands.  We have a lot of big plans, but first we have to get settled in again. 

Mom, Jessie, and I moved back into our house on the 2^nd with help from our family and friends in Enumclaw, and Dad came back on the 7^th.  Our friend Mark Schrader took us and some others out on his boat, Dancing Bear, to meet Dad, Jerry, Zach, and Mike as they brought Ruby Slippers back into Anacortes, the starting point of our trip.  Now we are working on the house and yard to get ready for the Marine Servicenter company party we are hosting.   Dad bought a brush trimmer and taught me how to use it, and I’ve been helping him trim the overabundance of blackberries on the side of the road.  We have also been cutting down a bunch of trees and doing a lot of weeding! 

We still don’t have much furniture in the upstairs part of our house, as Mom wants to redo the floor.  It is concrete, now a swirly toothpaste color, and she wants it apricot.  Jessie and I are also going to paint our rooms.  That’s why we are all living downstairs for the moment.

We are asked many of the same questions by most of the people we talk to.  They’re good questions, and I’m sure that lots of people we don’t get to talk to want to know the answers too.  Here they are:

What was my favorite place?  Tonga, because it was beautiful, with lots of little islands and good diving and snorkeling spots; there were a lot of friendly people, including all the other cruising kids; and we stayed there long enough (three months) to really get to know the place and build a really cool tree house! 

Am I glad to be back?  In my opinion, absolutely, because we are back with our friends and family, but I also miss Ruby Slippers and travelling on her, and I miss all of our friends we met on the trip. 

What was the scariest part?  We all agree that it was the crossing from Australia to Vanuatu.  We were all feeling bad, and we had to sail into the wind, which beat up the boat.  The mainsail ripped, and a batten came out, so we had to take the whole thing off the mast and repair it when we were in Huon.  It also wasn’t much fun to come into a strange port at night, as we had to when we finally got in to Vanuatu. 

What did I learn?  One thing I learned a lot about was scuba diving.  We took a scuba course in Seattle right before we left, and we arranged to do our certification dives once we got to California, where it wasn’t so cold.  I have done 15 dives so far, including a wreck dive in Vanuatu, and we have gone snorkeling nearly everywhere.  The deepest I have been while scuba diving is around 85 feet; I can free dive to 30 feet, but not for very long!  I’ve also learned a lot about fish, since they’re attached to those activities.  Jessie calls me the walking, talking fish book because I read our identification book a lot and can tell her the names of most of the fish we see, although I think that (1) she’s exaggerating a bit and (2) I should be the swimming, not walking, fish book!  But that doesn’t rhyme. 

Will it be hard to make the adjustment back to public school?  Going into high school will be interesting, especially since we haven’t ever had to change classes or have lockers or things like that, but I don’t think we’ll have much trouble getting used to it.  We have a lot of friends also going into 9^th grade, and we’re doing math outside of school with one of them.  I think I’ll be able to learn easier that way, without 30 other kids in the same class.  It also frees up another elective, so I get to take choir in addition to German. 

I’m really glad that we took this trip, and I’m sure that it was a much better alternative to middle school.  All the memories we made will stay with me forever!    ~   Molly