Chicago Visit 2016

Conrad and Grandma

When you grow up in Chicago, you don't usually think of it as a vacation destination, especially in the winter (even the 'end' of winter). Add to this the fact that we have spent the last several years in places dominated by beaches and tropical weather and you can see why I found myself cringing at the idea of intentionally subjecting ourselves to long pants, possible snow and--the horror--shoes.

Sliding down the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza

We were looking forward to spending much-missed time with family and land-based friends but weren't necessarily super-thrilled as we envisioned shivering in a place that is as familiar an old shoe. Turns out that Chicago is a pretty great place to visit--even more so through the filter of young kids who don't remember that much about it. The time with family and old friends was the highlight of our trip but we definitely enjoyed the sights. It didn't hurt that the weather was mostly fantastic.

Seeing the Chicago River being dyed green with Uncle
Andrew and Uncle Art, who made a special trip to come see us.

Mark and Conrad at karate lessons that were a gift from Nana.

The grandparents did their best to make sure the kids never wanted to leave by filling their time with fun activities, generous gifts, and other various goodies. I believe they may have succeeded. Of course the 'amazing' normality of land-based living may have contributed: 'Mom! There's ice and water...out of the fridge!!' and 'Dad! There's internet here...and it's soooo FAST'.

The boys working on their Lego cars at LEGOLAND Discovery
Center (the visit was a gift from their Grandma and Grandpa).

'Sue' at the Field Museum.

Nana treated us, Uncle Andrew and Uncle Art to the visit
to the Field Museum.

IMAX Galapagos. It was well done but the real Galapagos
was better, says Mark.

Part of the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the Field Museum.

The boys had read about the Terra Cotta Warriors and
were really interested to see them in real life.

We finally made it to one of those trampoline places.
Mark and Conrad were the first ones on this ride.

The sparring was their favorite activity. Go figure.

Matt and the boys with Nana under 'The Bean'.

So...heavy....

Nana demonstrating her balancing skills on the shaky bridge
at Maggie Daley Park.

Conrad and Mark with Francesca, Marcello and Macy
(most likely a couple of future speed-skating Olympians).
Photo courtesy of Michele Gaus-Ehning.

Egg hunting with Conrad's bestie Nolan and his sister Zoe.

We borrowed my parents' car to drive to Detroit to visit our
good friends Jeff, Laura, Alexis and Nicky. Alexis did these
portraits of our boat.

Now that we're in New Zealand again, we're back to the reality of boat projects. Ugh.  We have probably 3-4 weeks worth of work (if the weather cooperates) before getting afloat again.



We miss you already!

Grandparents don't make goofy faces...

Doing stuff. And things.

Auckland Art Gallery

Matt has been hard at work doing fiberglass work to close up some unneeded through hulls. The boat yard has also given us a vacuum pump to help dry out the hull. We'll continue to let it dry out while we visit Chicago for awhile. Our parents got together and generously bought us tickets to make the trip. Conrad and Mark are excited to visit their birthplace after three years away.



Mt. Manaia

For the last few days, we have been torturing the kids with hiking, as well as enjoying some local sights around Whangarei.

Wave part of Waka and Wave Sculpture

Waka

Scale model of Marsden Point Refinery.
The model cost $1 million to build.

Road trip!

Zorbing was invented here: rolling down a hill
in a big rubber ball filled with water

Mark and Conrad finally got to test out their new tent and it turns out that it effectively shields them from Matt's snoring and most other background noises. It's a good thing too because there are a lot of people camping in many of the places we visited and they are not shy about plopping their tents within a few feet of yours. We're used to a little more breathing room when we camp. On the plus side, the toilets are usually clean(ish) and stocked with toilet paper at the Department of Conservation sites.

Waterfalls and a glacier at Mt. Aspiring

My goal for this trip was to make sure that Mark and Conrad got to see a glacier and a mountain. Check and check. We tried to alternate death hikes (if you ask the kids) with some 'fun' activities. Our visit to Queenstown was almost a repeat of our visit 15 years ago (Shotover Jet, gondola, and luge) but we got to see a lot of new things too. We skipped the bungee jumping and river sledging this time but the boys did watch some bungeeing. It turns out that this is not necessarily a PG-rated activity. They learned a few new words and gestures in the process.

Lake Matheson

When can I stop walking?

Franz Josef Glacier

Mt. Aspiring

Mt. Cook and Lake Tekapo

Skate park in Wanaka

Panning for gold in Arrowtown

Shantytown in Arrowtown where Chinese immigrants lived
while they panned for gold

A hot spring river and waterfall.

Zorb in action

Sculpting school at Te Puia

Pohutu Geyser heating up

Shotover Jet.

Yes, I realize there are real problems in the world

Big kauri tree

So this month we find ourselves "On the Hard." That's boater speak for having the boat pulled out of the water and placed in a boat yard.  No matter how nice a boat yard, being on the hard is always a wee bit soul crushing for us. There is always a long list of work to do: known projects, known unknown projects and worst of all, the dreaded unknown unknown projects.  All of these result in the  bleeding of copious amounts of money. Couple that with having to get up early (unless you can sleep through grinding and welding just out your window) and having to walk to the bathrooms 200 meters away, and you can start to understand that being on the hard just plain blows.

River Skate Park

We are finishing up the removal of bottom paint and gel coat. We should stop with the internet research on blistering. It's as bad as researching medical symptoms online at making ourselves crazy.

Perry with a naked (almost) bottom

We'll take an abbreviated road trip while we wait for the hull to be fully and completely dry. Mark and Conrad are champing at the bit to try out the tent they got for Christmas, which they think will give them relief from Matt's snoring. I think they underestimate the power of their dad's nasal passages and overestimate the insulating capabilities of a few layers of nylon.

When we get back, we'll work on a couple of fiberglass repairs and have the bottom filled and faired before heading off to the Chicago area for a visit. We're excited to see our family and friends. Not so excited that we'll be back just as the primaries are in full swing and will undoubtedly be inundated with political ads.  Much as you can build (and/or lose) a tolerance to alcohol, we have certainly lost our tolerance to the nastiness that is American politics these days. Might need to build up that alcohol tolerance to cope...

Conrad is showing the size of the tree. Mark's a bit tired.

Whangarei Falls

Bumper balls

Jousting at Medieval Madness

Bagpipes at Medieval Madness

It's all fun and games until you get hauled out

Perry on the hard, complete with a grand staircase

Like all immutable rules of nature, including the Laws of Thermodynamics, the Law of the Jungle, and Murphy's Law, you can count on boat fixes taking x times longer and costing y times more than you predicted.  If you're lucky, x and y are confined to the single digits. I don't think it has an actual name, but 'The Law of Just-Shoot-Me-Now' has a certain ring to it.



After seeing The Karate Kid, the boys have been into beating
each other up. Okay, they were already into that.

We started out with a plan to take down the many layers of bottom paint that have accumulated over Perry's 24 years of life and then put on normal bottom paint. Then we heard rave reviews of Coppercoat from our friends on Field Trip and another boat. Although it is more expensive than regular bottom paint, it promises to last much longer if applied correctly.

The trouble started when the company we were using to take off the bottom paint showed up and started work by blasting away with a new machine that's similar to sandblasting, but more controllable and less damaging. It's a bad sign when workers start shaking their heads and looking at you like you were just diagnosed with a terminal illness. The test strips they blasted away revealed a large number of small cosmetic blisters in the gel coat of our bottom. It seems that being in warm water can accelerate blistering and we have certainly spent a lot of time in warm water, especially in the last year with the warm, El Nino waters of the Pacific. Because of the blistering, it appears we will need to take off more than just the old paint and also remove the gel coat. Unfortunately, the garnet blasting method is not the most effective method for doing this. As a result, we are looking at a much more expensive removal method, as well as additional repairs to fair the hull. The good news is that we caught the situation early enough and the blisters aren't in the fiberglass, so nothing structural is compromised. Still, grrr.

The over 17,000 nautical miles Perry has traveled over the last three years have taken their toll. Our mainsail and dinghy, which have limped along for the last 12 months, have been taken out into the field and shot. New ones are on order. Matt will also be restringing our trampolines, replacing our main halyard and reefing lines, installing new shaft seals, as well as a bunch of other projects we have been postponing until we returned to civilization.

We are getting used to being on the hard, which has good and bad points. The yard is paved, which means we don't have dust all over our boat every day, the staff is friendly and competent, and the facilities are nice . We are getting our exercise from the quarter-mile walk to/from the bathrooms and the climb up and down the stairs to get into the boat. The available of free, fast Wi-Fi has turned Conrad from a book-loving boy to an internet-obsessed maniac. He has downloaded an app to learn karate, has started emailing his grandparents and new bestie Michael, and loves to window shop on-line.

We are excited to start the road trip portion of our visit. We have also been getting used to the local lingo. Did you know that Kiwis (and Brits) spell it 'kerb' instead of 'curb'? I know, I'm easily amused.