Pictures...

Poor Christopher! In a French grocery, he found a frozen bag of lobster. He thought he was buying lobster meat but alas, it was a frozen whole micro lobster. All of a sudden, half a kilo of frozen lobster was almost not worth the effort to pick and there is no doubt that this baby would be too small to keep if caught in Maine.

In late July, we were in Camaret Sur Mer, France. I learned from Madeleine that she and my dad had stayed in this town 15 years ago. My dad had such a good experience with the owners of their hotel that he carved a pig for them. Anyone who knew my dad knows this is a high honor! So I went to the hotel and asked the woman if she had a wooden pig made by an American man. She thought I was crazy and my non-existent French skills meant I could not disavow her of that conclusion. Like my dad had, we enjoyed a couple of nice walks in the hills around the town which were important strategic holdings for the Germans in World War 2. This area was key because it is how the Germans guarded Brest where they kept the U-Boats. The boys never tired of looking at military sites like bunkers and could be heard talking about the types of weapons that were used. The trails like the one in the picture above run for hundreds of miles along the coast of France.

When we are sailing, Jack can often be found tying knots or dragging his own wooden boat that Christopher made out of a piece of driftwood, behind Sila. When Sila is underway, the boys always wear their harnesses.

I cannot overstate this. It is so much fun to shoot small rocks at buoys with the wrist rocket! Of course, we have to do it when there are no other boats around so the moments are few and far between in Europe in August.

Porter sailed the boat from the moment I hoisted the mainsail until the moment we took it down. It was a good day for it as we were beating to windward so he just steered as high as he could while keeping the sails full of wind. He is also wearing what we call his uniform: the mustache shirt, sun hat, and harness. 

On long hot days, the boys like to sit on the transom and drag their feet in the water. Between the shade of the dinghy hanging over head and the cool water, it's a pretty comfortable place to be. (Don't worry, Mado, they are wearing their harnesses and clipped in tight to the boat.) You may have noticed that Porter is wearing his uniform again.

Jack took this picture of the three of us riding on the dinghy away from Sila (in the center background) and into the town of Sauzon on Belle Isle.

A happy moment enjoying the sunset.

In Christopher's post, Take Offs and Landings, he wrote about being tied up in the Basin on Isle D'Yeu. Here you can see Sila next to the quay with 5 more boats rafted alongside. The most we had was 7 the next day and there were at least 5 or 6 other lines of boats just ahead of us. Despite the language challenges with people speaking French, German, English and sometimes combinations of all three, people were friendly and helpful despite being packed in like sardines who then had to cross over each other's boats all the time.

Big wheel, small child. Jack at the helm during our 2 day sail across the Bay of Biscay. We all took turns on watch. 

The boys with the famous flower encrusted puppy, by Koons, in front of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. 

This particular piece at the Guggenheim, called "A Matter of Time" was one of our favorites. Each of us enjoyed walking through them and noticing how different we felt as the angle of the walls changed. Fascinating, too, to learn a little about the math behind the models and how they were made.

Here we a on top of the Transporter Bridge near Bilbao. Jackrabbit is working on a post about this bridge so stay tuned. Oh look- it's the mustache shirt again!

The Barnes boys in Santander, Spain. 

There was no wind so we were motoring off the coast west of Santander, Spain. The motion of the boat was a little uncomfortable so sitting by the mast is a great option. There is less motion and lots of air. Jack and Molly were clearly in the middle of a deep conversation.  

The definition of bliss for two young boys? Merging your allowance to buy a really big bar of good local chocolate!