November 27, 2014 - San Diego - Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

Thanksgiving morning.  Going to be 85 degrees Fahrenheit today
in San Diego

We wish we could be with our friends and family this thanksgiving.  We miss home but at the same time are having a great adventure.


We are still in San Diego, due to some strange circumstances.  For the past few weeks we have been doing quite a bit of shopping, loading the boat with items we realized we were lacking after 3 months of living onboard, and/or we wanted to buy in America before we possibly could not find it in Mexico.  My parents have noted that it seems like partying all the time.  Well, life on a boat is not a constant party.  There are chores to do, homeschool, maintenance, planning, checking weather, figuring out what each new port has to offer, etc.  Since arriving in San Diego a few weeks ago we have been shopping almost every day when we had our car.  Unfortunately, despite attempts to avoid it (advanced notice to our credit card company), our credit card company has declined our card numerous times here in San Diego.  We have to call to verify our transactions, explain our travel plans, and answer a bunch of security questions designed to protect us.  Then, a few days ago, after being declined for the 3rd or 4th time, they informed us that we had to have new cards due to the recent Home Depot mass-compromise event.  OK, no big deal right?  Well, actually when you are living on a boat and have no permanent home address it is a big deal.  I (Steve) spent almost an hour on the phone working on getting our new cards.  We figured out that we could have them sent to a UPS store a few miles away, although this took manager approval from the credit card company.  They overnighted the new cards and Kathy rode her bike over the UPS store to retrieve them on Tuesday.  Well, guess what?  They only sent my card, not Kathy's, and my new card expires in a month!  In addition they have now deactivated our existing account so we can't even use it for shopping.  So, back on the phone for me, for another hour.  They say they overnighted new cards for us to the UPS store, but when Kathy and Kevin rode bikes over there yesterday afternoon, there were no cards.  Today is a holiday, so we won't be seeing our cards today.  Maybe Friday?  We will see.

The other thing that is keeping us here is that yesterday morning, right after breakfast while I was washing the dishes and Kathy was downstairs getting dressed for the day, Cindy took a fall in our pilothouse.  She was sitting on the top edge of the settee (like sitting up on the back of a couch) and she somehow lost her balance even though it was flat calm with no waves.  She fell backwards and the back of her head hit the windowsill and then she fell to the floor.  She popped up right away and other than being a little startled and scared she seemed fine.  Within about 10 minutes she was very tired and cold.  She laid down with a blanket and wanted to sleep.  Within about an hour she was becoming very confused and mumbling.  Classic symptoms of a concussion.  We watched her for another 15-30 minutes while we made some phone calls to walk-in clinics, and also looked up concussions on the internet.  Cindy was getting confused and couldn't explain what had happened in a coherent sentence so we decided it was time to see a doctor, just in case it continued to get progressively worse.  I called a cab and we got in the dinghy.  Before we could untie though, Cindy climbed out, went back in the boat and took off her life jacket.  It was very hard to convince her to get back into the dinghy.  She clearly was not herself.  In the cab she started to say she was going to throw up.  She didn't, but these are all the symptoms of a concussion.

We arrived at the Emergency room of a children's hospital about 10 miles from the boat and Cindy was immediately sent back to the ER doctor.  Kathy and Cindy were back there for more than two hours while they monitored Cindy's condition.  At about the 1 hour mark Cindy did throw-up in the examination room.  Unfortunately, she had yogurt and berries with breakfast so the mess was a  wonderful raspberry bright red color.  Kathy still can't figure out how so much vomit came out of her body, given how much she had to eat for breakfast.  Kathy says, it was a BIG mess!

The Children's Hospital we took Cindy to after
her fall and concussion.

The check-in counter for the emergency room.

As soon as Cindy threw up she felt much better.  When Cindy came back out to the waiting room she was back to her normal self.  Phew.  That was scary!  She has been instructed to take it easy for at least the next few days, perhaps up to a week.  They say she did indeed have a concussion.  We caught a cab back to the boat and we did take it easy for the rest of the day.

I am happy to report that today Cindy has been just fine.  She slept well last night and has been absolutely normal all day today.  We are taking it easy though, following doctors orders.

So, we are still waiting for our new credit cards, and we are monitoring Cindy's recovery from her concussion.  As a result, it is unlikely that we will leave San Diego until early next week.

San Diego is a beautiful city.  We are loving it here!

We are very thankful on this Thanksgiving that Cindy's fall was not more serious, and that the rest of us are all healthy and very much enjoying our family adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We miss you all and stories and happenings from home.  Please share things as we are all missing our little La Conner town.