Family is what you make it

This has been a great summer on the SV Clarion. We have been treated to the company of many friends and family onboard. Many of those that Carrie and I are now counting as our family did not start out that way but have in a short time graduated to that lofty status. We had a great time this year with our next door (boat) neighbor, Richard as well as the rather recently found friend Alan "Harley." These, along with the host of friends who have already been afforded family status like the illustrious Sam from Louisville, have rewritten what we thought we knew about what and who family was.

Last night as the girls were preparing to get on todays plane and fly back to Louisville we had an impromptu family reunion to say goodbye. Richard was there (He's actually ALWAYS there but it was more than that at the time) and we were also joined by Harley. It turned out to be a great night. If it weren't for the fact that Carrie and I had to leave to get her finicky iPhone synced in an hourlong marathon session on my computer at work I think we would have all been singing "Kumbaya" by the end of the evening. As it went the boys took watch over the sleeping Riley (whom they claim as their own anyway) and we got to do the update on our own schedule.

I know that I have talked about some of these new family members at some length in this blog but I think it is remarkable the degree to which they have become so nicely woven into the life Carrie and I have on the boat and in the rest of it all too.

I feel that I have seriously gotten the big piece of chicken with these folks. From Sam, the fierce and amazing friend to Harley who can do anything and has, to Richard who, among other things is a dyn-o-mite skating rink king, they are all people who will and have changed our lives for the better.

Onward!