Catching up with my Cousin
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It's been one week now that I've been in California staying with my cousin Craig in the Central San Joaquin Valley. He lives in Manteca so about a two hour drive to the coast or Yosemite National Park. The sailboat I'm going to be crewing on is presently in Brookings, Oregon just north of the California border. I was going to try getting up to Eureka, which would be the boats next stop but I've decided to wait until it reaches San Francisco. Since I have a place to stay I figure I may as well let the boat catch up with where I am. The boat is currently waiting for improved conditions and has been in Brookings since Monday the 30th. I've not talked to the captain since then but he said it will be a while before he can head out again. There is currently a gale warning for that area with 40 - 50 knot winds and seas to 27 feet.
Catching up with my cousin has been wonderful. We have not seen each other since 2002 when he drove up to Grand Marais after coming back to Minnesota to be part of sprinkling the ashes of his parents. We were the best of friends all through our childhood and up until he moved out to LA California to pursue his career as a Mechanical Engineer. We kept aware of what we were each up to through the years but mostly via occasional emails. He eventually moved up to the Bay Area and at some point got into surfing, free diving and scuba diving. He's lived in Cozumel, Mexico working as a dive master and in Sitka, Alaska selling jewelry to the cruise ship crowd. We were looking through photos he had and I snapped a photo of one which I'll add below...
We must be about 18 or 19 years old here : )
It's been one week now that I've been in California staying with my cousin Craig in the Central San Joaquin Valley. He lives in Manteca so about a two hour drive to the coast or Yosemite National Park. The sailboat I'm going to be crewing on is presently in Brookings, Oregon just north of the California border. I was going to try getting up to Eureka, which would be the boats next stop but I've decided to wait until it reaches San Francisco. Since I have a place to stay I figure I may as well let the boat catch up with where I am. The boat is currently waiting for improved conditions and has been in Brookings since Monday the 30th. I've not talked to the captain since then but he said it will be a while before he can head out again. There is currently a gale warning for that area with 40 - 50 knot winds and seas to 27 feet.
Catching up with my cousin has been wonderful. We have not seen each other since 2002 when he drove up to Grand Marais after coming back to Minnesota to be part of sprinkling the ashes of his parents. We were the best of friends all through our childhood and up until he moved out to LA California to pursue his career as a Mechanical Engineer. We kept aware of what we were each up to through the years but mostly via occasional emails. He eventually moved up to the Bay Area and at some point got into surfing, free diving and scuba diving. He's lived in Cozumel, Mexico working as a dive master and in Sitka, Alaska selling jewelry to the cruise ship crowd. We were looking through photos he had and I snapped a photo of one which I'll add below...
We must be about 18 or 19 years old here : )
It's interesting to discover we share so many similarities after so many years. We both talk about retiring in a foreign country and now my cousin even seems interested in the idea of living on a sailboat for a while. It seems likely we will spend a lot more time together in the years ahead after barely staying in contact since the late 70's. He's living in Manteca due to work but was layed off in August so spends a bit of each day seeking a job via the Internet. He hopes to find a job that would have him living closer to the ocean so he could surf more often. We aren't really driving all over sight seeing and I miss my walks on the beach back in Duluth but it is so cool to talk about old times and future plans. We are by far each other's closest relative, with a lot of childhood memories as we lived only 1/4 mile or less from each other. It seems it will be at least 2 more weeks before the sailboat arrives to San Francisco. That's it.....
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