Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Special Events (page 3 of 4)

A Very Important Woman – My Oma

Today’s blog post is a difficult one for me. I have written emotion-laden blogs before, like the one about our sweet, smart and cute dogs Kali and Darwin and the one about my sister-in-law Dru. I never wrote about my dear aunt Monique or my paternal grandma I called meter. Both also passed away while Mark and I were sailing the seven seas. During all those years abroad, I had one massive dread and worry. It had to do with my maternal grandma, my oma, who I loved more and longer than most anyone else.

When I was thinking about this subject, I realized it is International Women’s Day today. Perfect! What better day to celebrate the woman who meant so much to me, my whole life? Continue reading

Then and Now – Christmas

Here is another topic for my “Then and Now” series. This festive time of the year has been different for us, over the years, as my article “Caribbean Christmas Afloat” in All At Sea magazine partly depicts. Underneath is a glimpse into our Christmases then (mostly during the time we lived and sailed on Irie) and now, at our current house sit.

2008 – Culebra, Puerto Rico

Mark, Darwin, Kali and I were ready to explore the real Caribbean in our 35′ sailboat. Unfortunately, the day after Christmas, our sweet girl Kali passed away and nothing would ever be the same anymore.

2009 – St. Pierre, Martinique

One of the most beautiful anchorages in the Caribbean was our location on Christmas in 2009. It was just the three of us enjoying a quiet day of giving Darwin a bath and exploring the town.

2010 – Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Continue reading

Happy Holidays to All!

The festive season is upon us! While Mark and I are having a quiet one, across the country from his friends and family and across the pond from mine, I hope most of you are enjoying this period in the company of loved ones. It is a time of reflection, love, friendship, tolerance, peace and coziness. I hope all these feelings can be extended throughout the new year! Continue reading

Then and Now – My Birthday

Last week, Donna from Retirement Reflections suggested I do a “Then and Now” post about my birthday. While the thought had crossed my mind, I was hesitant to pursue it, because I thought I could do something bigger with that topic than “just” a blog post. See, a little while back, I played with the brief idea to make my variety of birthdays a thread in the memoir I am writing, or at least incorporate my last decade into an article, “Sailing through My Thirties” or something like that. As always with most of my genius ideas, not much ever happens with them. So, why not turn the thought into a blog? Some parts will still make it into my book, so I can’t reveal any juicy details or you won’t buy it. 🙂 The photos will not be able to make it into the memoir,  so… here are some birthday galleries!

30 – Monterrey, California, USA

My birthday in 2005 was a bit stressful and exciting at the same time, since our sailboat F/Our Choice/s (on which we were living) was getting hauled out of the water in the morning and undergoing an inspection to be sold. Or not… We spent part of the afternoon in the amazing aquarium and went out to dinner. We both love Monterrey, especially the wildlife, like sea otters swimming by the boat.

31 – Belize, Central America

Continue reading

Then and Now – Thanksgiving

This blog follows the theme from last week, but with much less color! 🙂

Thanksgiving didn’t mean anything to me as a Belgian, until I started visiting the US over a decade ago. Being married to an American made me appreciate this day of thanks, and I am always happy with an extra day off, of course. Thanksgiving is Mark’s favorite holiday, since it is not commercialized and involves no gifts. Instead, the focus is on good food (lots of it) and being with friends or family. Continue reading

Election Day in the USA – 17 Propositions in California

Tomorrow, November 8th 2016, is a day that many Americans have been waiting for. It is the day when the 45th president of the United States will be elected by its citizens. Too much has been said about this election and its candidates. We will all let out a sigh of relief when Wednesday comes around. I have no idea what the media will focus on then. I can’t believe Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have any energy left after these grueling last months. We lost our fierce energy for caring and being upset a while ago. Following all the pre-election news, debates and arguments is exhausting and, since this is the first time Mark and I are in the States during this period, we wonder whether it is always like that leading up to a presidential election. We hope not! Life was less hair pulling on our sailboat… We could be happily politically ignorant there. 🙂

Since I am a Belgian citizen, I cannot vote, but Mark cast his ballot by mail a little while ago. People familiar with our lifestyle and ideals, will surely know who he voted for. As a Belgian, I am not a fan of the “two party” system. Not everyone fits in just one defined box. But, this blog post is not about the presidential candidates or anything that surrounds them. It is about the Official Voter Information Guide I stumbled upon, here in California. Continue reading

The Annapolis Sailboat Show as Vendors

Part of The Wirie team at the Annapolis Sailboat Show

Part of The Wirie team at the Annapolis Sailboat Show

What is that “Wirie business” I regularly mention on my blog, you might wonder. I don’t usually promote our products and try to keep my writing and our business separate, but since the second weekend of October was solely about that part of our lives and I have never explained The Wirie principles in a Roaming About blog, I figured I will give you a little bit of information about our “baby”, our business, what keeps us up at night and busy during the day… Continue reading

Six Word Saturday – Wrapping up with the Heath Fair

Our four and a half month house sit in Heath, MA is coming to an end. From the moment Mark and I arrived here in April, there was a lot of talk about one event we should not miss: the annual Heath Fair in August. So, we marked the dates in our calendar and found out what all the fuss was about, last weekend. To fully experience the atmosphere, we volunteered at the gate for two hours on Friday evening and on Saturday. The Heath Fair turned out to be an extremely popular attraction (much busier than the Reggae Festival in Charlemont) and the weather was gorgeous. We went two of the three days and that was enough for us. On Sunday, we resumed our usual weekend hiking with dog Jenny.

The fairgrounds

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WW – Carnival is Fun!

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays. I hope you enjoy them. Also, I can’t manage completely “wordless”, but I try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

Since I have archived thousands of photos over the years and can’t easily pick what to post, I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “fun“.

A lot of things are fun to me: hanging out with friends and family, attending festivals, doing exciting activities like tubing or rafting, spending time with pets or going on vacation (soon!).  But, for this entry, I followed the lead of my best friend Rosie who is still cruising on her sailboat Wandering Star (for over a decade already!) and is currently enjoying Grenada. She recently immersed herself in the island’s carnival scene and that brought back memories of vivid colors, beating drums, big smiles and lot of fun…

Continue reading

6WS – Feeling Irie at the Reggae Festival

Having thoroughly enjoyed cruising the waters of the Caribbean for four years in our sailing catamaran named Irie, we knew we would have a great time at the Charlemont Reggae Festival.

On this Six Word Saturday, we are still feeling the irie vibes…

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Can you describe your Saturday in six words?

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