March Madness -- when you can't watch basketball

The whole college basketball frenzy totally passed us by while Dan's was busy installing the new holding tank and Nancy was polishing brass (just in case you're wondering about my contribution to the boat!!).

March 4:  We got the boat prepared for a US Coast Guard safety inspection ... which we passed (hurrah!).  All that work earned us a USCG sticker for the boat that hopefully will satisfy any passing Coast Guard boats looking for boaters to hassle (opps .. I mean "inspect:").  It was a proud day for us ... if you look hard, you can see the orange sticker proudly displayed on the mast.

March 9:  The cockpit enclosure which needed new zippers finally arrived back on the boat, which has been a HUGE improvement to our comfort level. We now have a complete enclosure for the back of the boat of both screens (to keep out those nasty no-see-ems that arrive just when the weather is getting enjoyable for humans) and plastic which keeps out everything else. It's like having a enclosed patio ... more liveable room for us... and it's WARM!

Our version of March Madness centered around having visitors from Minnesota, for the first time since we left that great state.

March 12: For starters, Michelle arrived to spend her spring break from the UofM with Craig in Savannah.  We were in Jacksonville hunting for boat parts and spending 2 hrs in the Florida DMV trying to get our dinghly registered (even though we bought the dinghy in Florida, and even paid sales tax legitimately there, it still took us 2 trips and 5 hrs to get that precious decal so we could legally launch the dinghy!).... so we picked Michelle up at the airport and brought her to Brunswick, where Craig met us and took her the rest of the way home.

March 16:   We were off to Savannah for their huge St. Patricks Day celebration -- 2nd only to NYC.  Gotta love a city where everyone drinks beer in the street!.  Just a touch of rain fell which was good for the parade watchers.  With all the hype, I was expecting some akin to the Rose Parade, but it was mostly all the Irish families of Savannah (and there's lots of them), and all the NY firemen who didn't make it into the NY parade.  Lots of bagpipe music.  Dan was a hit with his large Irish flag ... Thanks to Sheila and Terry Yule XXOO

Parades really aren't that much fun to watch, unless you are waiting for someone special to pass by ... and fortuately for us, we had the Army Rangers to look forward too (good thing they were last in the parade or we could have beem tempted to bail early!).  It's a tradition for the girls to don bright red lipstick and run out to give the guys a big smack on their face ... and we didn't want to disappoint!  Michelle and several of her friends crashed the parade as their boys approached ...

That's our Ranger! The big guy with the green beads!

Later that night, we partied with a houseful of Rangers until the beer was gone, and then we bar-hopped until the bars closed at 2:30 a.m.  Fortunately, Craig lives in the historic district so we only had a few blocks to walk to make it safely home ... but not before we stopped by Michelle's favorite pizza joint for two big slices of NY-style pizza (testing some theory about grease reducing hangovers ... a theory many others must also believe judging by the long line of people snaking down the street) ... yeeegads, we are definitely tooooo old to relive the partying of our youth!  We had planned to head back to Brunswick the next day, but forgot to allow enough recovery time.  As it was, we arrived back in Brunswick on Friday ... glad that we went, but not sure if we'll be there next year!

March 22:  After spending the weekend getting caught up with the marina crowd, we were off again on Monday to Jacksonville for another attempt to get the dinghy registered ... 2 hrs later, we left with the precious decal in hand, so we're good until June 2011.  We drove on to St. Augustine where they have a great boat-parts flea market of sorts (think huge barrels of assorted screws and nuts for $1/lb!).  We also had time to tour the city, something we've wanted to do since St. Augustine is the oldest city in North America.  It's full of restored colonial buildings, now converted to small shops and bars (think Disneyland!). 

The biggest treat was walking by an Art Gallery and seeing my brother's glass in the window!  Hey, we'd recognize those Jelly Fish anywhere. Of course, we had to go in and brag about our Chico connection with Satava Studios, and definitely marvel at the huge collection of Satava glass the shop had for sale. 

Our final stop of the day was to Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (WTF you may be wondering ...). One of my favorite colleagues from Rochester, Karen Hartman, was in town so I jumped at the chance to get caught up with her since she was on my side of the U.S.  Dan had never been to MCJ, so he wanted the full tour (and of course, the requisite picture in front of the MCJ sign!).  Karen and I got to gossip while Dan toured the rehab facilities ... (don't ask ... no reason to the things that move him!).

It was a great day for a walk on the beach so we strolled down to the one of the few beachside restaurants that managed to preserve space midst all the condo development.  "Bukkets" had the BEST conch fritters we've ever tasted ... Dan finally got the big shrimp dinner he's been craving, and I got the Grouper sandwich that they don't seem to make in Georgia. 

We stayed as late as we could with Karen ... and now she's a permanent member of our blog!

End of March:  March will end with a bang when our son, James, arrives on Friday (3/26).  He is visiting a friend (Ryan Bruns who we'll also make famous in our blog) in Jacksonville and then coming up to Brunswick.  Ryan has never been sailing, and James has never seen Maja, so we promised them both some high seas adventure ... I guess that means we'll have to leave the dock!  James and Ryan will leave on April 1, taking our Suburban back to Minnesota (and yes, we are trying hard to adjust to the shock of being w/o a car!). 

We've had only two disappointments with expected visitors -- We had hoped to be leaving today (3/25) to rendevous wiith my cousin, Sarah and husband Ian, on Cumberland Island -- a lovely day sail from Brunswick.  But fheir home was damaged by the HUGE storm that smashed in NY a few weeks ago, and a fallen tree though their roof forced them to change plans.  We had also hoped to round out this series of fun encounters with our best buddy, Robert, over his Spring Break from Minnetonka schools on April 1st, but we just learned that he won't be able to make the trip.  CORRECTION: Robert has decided to come to Brunswick after all. He's got a ticket to Jacksonville on April 2.  We won't have a car by then, so he's taking the bus!

Looking to April: Even though we have heard from several boaters that Brunswick Marina has the best facilities anywhere on the East Coast, we hope to be counting down our final days here in April.  We'd like to head south to Titusville, Florida where there is a scheduled shuttle launch on April 5th.  The final boat parts should arrive about the time we have to file our taxes, and then we'd like to begin our travels north toward Chesapeake ... The Bay in May is the boater's mantra.   Maybe we'll end up flipping a coin to decide whether to head south or north ... I think we'll let the temperature decide. Vote Warmth!