It turns out, and maybe this was completely predictable, that we're not good bloggers. It's hard to believe that anyone, even Mom, cares about how we're spending our summer vacation. But it's a nice exercise, so here's the update.

We ended up going to a big farmer's market in Astoria and then watching fireworks from the deck of our boat on Fourth of July. It was nice and comfortable to see the show from our front porch and immediately after it was over all the big ships around us set off their fog horns, to the bewilderment and shock of our little people, who in true Starr fashion were very worried about what emergency that might represent.

It turns out that the weather at the bar and also along the Washington coast is pretty ugly, and has been for several days. None of us wants to give the elements any funny ideas, so we decided to wait for a better opportunity to go north.

If you've ever met my lovely bride, though, you know that waiting is not one of her specialties. Moving forward is a specialty of hers; making immediate and irrevocable progress is a specialty; waiting, not so much. We went for a bus ride to Warrenton to run some errands, played soccer in the park, and then Molly called her sister in Hermiston and said, "Here we come, baby!"

So, we've been in Hermiston for the last couple of days, playing with the cousins. The weather is looking better, and we'll probably head back to the boat soon and get ready to head north. We had a beautiful south wind when we first got to Astoria and I was futzing with the alternator. I was naively hoping to see that come back again, but it looks like we'll have the wind and current against us. Worse things have happened.