Some very special and important family events made us realize that 2015 would be a year away from our home on ‘Landfall’, away from the sea and the cruising life and closer to family in the U.SA and Canada.
We spent the first quarter of 2015 in New Zealand. Pat came for a visit and each morning we enjoyed our morning ‘Flat White’ coffees and harassing Denny. Denny enjoyed his morning Diet Coke and put up a brave defense to the harassment but to no avail. We worked hard on the boat and Landfall now has beautiful varnished Teak, a new transmission and other new mechanical ‘Denny’ projects.
Dylan came for a visit and we did some fantastic road trips which I already posted. But I have to say visiting some of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ filming locations was special to both of us as we are both huge J.R.Tolkien fans. Dylan seemed to fit in quite well in Hobbiton despite his height. Tongariro – Land of Mordor hike was spectacular. My only regret was not able to have the physique to scale Mordor although Dylan tried hard to convince me that I could do it!!
With such famous Tolkien quotes, which exemplify our lifestyle “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” and “Not all those who wander are lost”. How can you not be a huge fan of J.R. Tolkien!!
In May we left our little home high and dry on Dockland 5 and headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for our first important family event. We wanted to attend my daughter Allison and her partner, Mike’s University Convocations. We were so proud to watch them both walk up on stage to receive their Bachelor of Science degrees. So congratulations to Allison the Dietician and Mike the Kinesiologist.
While we were on the Eastern Coast we decided to do a few road trips. Denny and I explored the Nova Scotia coast line and made a stop in Peggy’s Cove, the touristy, quaint little fishing village. We took the opportunity to do a 4 day road trip with Allison to Maine. The highlight would be the lobster meal and our hike in Acadia National Park.
By June Denny was back in Minneapolis and I went on a fishing trip with my best friends in the world, my two sisters, Caroline and Karen, and of course Karen’s husband George. As they would say in Newfoundland ‘We were havin’ a time’!! What more could a girl ask for but ‘Good fishing, Good food, Good drinks and Good company’. I, of course, would ask that Denny could be there too, maybe next time!
From fishing in Missinabi it was off to Cornucopia, Minnesota, for the Corny marina 30th anniversary celebrations. This was Landfall’s home port and where Dennis started his sailing adventures. I traveled there in style in Caroline and Vic’s massive RV. Dennis was waiting there for us and he arrived in his new BMW motorcycle. It was a special time for me to meet all of the local Corny boaters and see Landfall’s home base. We did a great motorcycle ride to Madelyn Island with Caroline and Vic on their red, hot spider and us on our BMW. Our time there was also an opportunity to be with more family. Caroline’s daughters Leanne and Kaitland made an appearance and together we did a few short hikes around the coastline of Lake Superior. Denny’s daughter Becky and her friend Peter also made it to Corny and we took them for a boat ride to the well known Caves on Pat’s little Power boat. We let Pete and Becky drive and navigate the power boat. So it was a full throttle ride around quite an impressive coastline..
We wish we could have more time to play with family and friends in Corny but everybody had everyday lives to go back to.
We hung around for the July 4th holiday and celebrated it on Gay and Dan’s boat ‘Anthem. ‘Dan and his crew of children took us on some gentle day tours on Lake Superior. Gay was the perfect hostess and kept us fed and happy. The day ended with spectacular fireworks which we watched while anchored off Madelyn Island.
After a couple of weeks of some great motorcycle day trips around Minneapolis and to Pat’s beautiful cabin nearby Cornucopia it was back to Canada for me and off to South Dakota for Dennis.
Allison came to visit my parents and me in Ontario and we spent some quality time together. My mom and dad chauffeured us around and showed us some nearby sites and stuffed us with good food.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. , Denny bought his Dad’s cabin in South Dakota and started new landscaping and cabin renovations. Busy hands, happy heart!! Well it wasn’t all work. It was some quality family time as well
I joined Denny in Minneapolis and we hopped on an Alaskan bound cruise with our friends Yuki, Eric, Jane and Carl . We danced the nights away, ate to our hearts content and made a few day trips. One specific shore stop took us on another little boat trip to watch Humpback Whales ‘bubble’ feed. What a spectacular sight to see these large mammals burst out of the water to feed on the herring that they rounded into a group using air bubbles. We also witnessed the salmon run up the river to spawn, learned a lot about the history of the ‘Alaskan Gold Rush’ and hiked to the glaciers. We both agreed that it would be something to be able to sail ‘Landfall ‘to the less populated, isolated beauty that Alaska has to offer.
In September we celebrated the second important life event, the wedding of Denny’s daughter Jenny and Tyler. It was a memorable occasion and we cried, laughed and enjoyed every moment of the special day. Tyler was handsome and calm, Jenny was breathtakingly beautiful, and Denny was a proud papa!
While in Minneapolis we took advantage of the great dance instructors at the twin cities Cinema Ballroom. I just enjoyed the lessons but Denny took it to a higher level and participated in the yearly, well known Cinema Production show. So he became Woody from Toy Story and then morphed to Luke from Star Wars. It was a memorable show!
On October 10th we celebrated 2015’s third important life event, our own Wedding. Yes we finally decided to get married. We love each other and e have fun together so we made that big, huge, mammoth, colossal next step. We were married at Tempest Landing on the shores of Lake Superior. We chose to only have our children present. We wanted our new family to be there all together. So to introduce the new McIsaac – Ommen family. Starting from the left Denny’s daughter’s Becky and Jenny and then my children Dylan, Allison and Mike (Allison’s partner). Missing from the picture was Jenny’s husband Tyler who could not make it due to work commitments.
For Christmas I was back in Ontario with my family and Denny was in Minneapolis with his. We are both looking forward to being back in New Zealand on January 1st, at least for a month or so
We would like to wish our friends and families healthy, happy, fun 2016.
Wow, a lot of good news. Sorry we didn’t know you were around Minneapolis. My mom died last November at 101 in Florida and we’ve been busy with a lot of stuff. It was very good to hear all thats been happening in your lives. Congrats on getting married. That’s great news. I hope we can all meet up some day some where. God Bless you guys and be safe,
Ken and Katie
PS: Katie and I will be stopping in Dallas on our way home from Florida end of March to see Leah and family.