Sunday, December 09, 2007

Home for Christmas

December 9, 2007 Sunday
Home is a relative concept - is California our home or is the boat our home. At the feeling level, both are. Anyway, we're probably not going to be blogging too much since we are leaving for a month in California, couch surfing with family and friends. We had a grand sendoff here in Oriental although it wasn't just for us. They had the big Christmas parade yesterday and it was great. The whole town turned out for a chili cook off, free gumbo, and lots of other free food that we never even found out about. Then there was a parade, a fire dancer and then a bunch of parties. Whew! The parade was very cool. It had the usual politicians, fire department, marching bands, etc. But then there were a bunch of comedy entries from wacky locals. And they lined the streets with paper bags with candles inside. Now that's not totally original, but they did a mile of the main drag and a bunch of side streets. More than 3000 lights deployed and they burned for hours. Very cool.

Here is the local volunteer fire truck in the big Parade.
And here is Jeff with celebrated firedog Hoosier in his first-ever parade.
Here are the 11 pipers piping. They did (mostly) syncronized marching and turns to the delight and ridicule of the crowd.

Another reason to like this town is the weather. We are having a warm spell right now. For the next week, temps are going to be in the low 70's. Santa Cruz and SF are going to be in the 50's and LA in the 60's. The Gulf Stream is only 30 miles away and that helps. But we hear that it gets into the 30's in the dead of winter here, but then there are some warm days in between the cold spells. We are on the same latitude as Santa Maria, CA.

We'll have email as we travel and cellphones, so don't hesitate to be in touch.