You may remember how giddy I was when my cousin, Kady, and her little family came to visit us when we were in Portsmouth, Virginia…  Or how stoked we were to meet up with our friends, Pennie and Gray, in Beaufort, South Carolina…  This week, friends from our marina in Maryland just happened to be visiting family in Sebastian, Florida and gave us a shout.  I love, love, love these chance visits from friends.  None have been super planned, just kinda’ happening to be in the same place at the same time.  The greatest part about seeing friends from home (well, besides the seeing friends from home part) is that you don’t have to do the whole, “We’re from Maryland, we rented out our house, we’ve been saving for 3 years, we’ve been sailing for 7, blah” spiel and you just get to pick up where you left off.

Anyway, Ed and Christine have a beautiful Pearson named Scoundrel right next to us in Maryland and have been our dock mates for as long as we’ve had a dock :)  They were one of the first folks we ever met through sailing and have always been so kind and patient with us.  I remember thinking they were the coolest because they would spend long weekends on a mooring in Annapolis.  We were brand new, super baby sailors when we first met them and it was very full circle to catch them down here in Florida after doing so much traveling (and learning) on Journey.

We went to Waldo’s for lunch and because they were on vacation (and heck, so are we :) we ordered quite a few grown-up drinks to go along with.  We had great conversation over more than one Dark and Stormy, and started chiseling out a plan for their cruising dream too ;)  We took a nice walk on the beach and then headed back to the marina for cruiser’s happy hour.  It’s amazing how quickly one can get used to a place like Vero, we were giving directions and restaurant reviews like locals :)

It was really cool for Christine and Ed to make time for us during their visit with family.  Just like it was awesome for Kady to drop what she was doing to come and see us, and Pennie and Gray to head out of their way just to have breakfast with us.  We are so lucky to have friends who support us and keep up with our adventure to the point of becoming part of it, even if only for a few hours.  Thanks y’all, whose next?