January – New Zealand

     Benjamin spent (our) winter in New Zealand: hitching, hostelling, hiking, camping, and playing ultimate (Frisbee) – with only a 16 pound pack for 3 months!

     Ben is working as a Translation Project Manager at Medtronic in the Twin Cities, when he’s not traveling.     

January – Florida

     Bob & Ilona spent two months circumnavigating the coast in our camper-van: from Mobile to Savannah. Checking out campsites, boat launch ramps, trailer storage places, and just keeping warm.

     We saw lots of pelicans. These are in the Everglades.!

     And lots of alligators & crocodiles – they are all over Florida.

     The Florida panhandle – beautiful beaches and campsites.

     On Florida’s gulf coast.

February – Florida

     In Key West. Get the picture?

     A parrothead in Key West.

March – Minnesota

     This is why we travel south in the winter. Left the boat at home.

April – Hood Canal, Washington

     Met up with Nik, Jennifer and the grandkids, and the inlaws, for a week on the Hood Canal below the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.

     With Constance and Gwendolyn, in the forests on the Kitsap Peninsula west of Puget Sound.

     Gwendolyn and grandpa.

May – Cambridge, England

     Nik gets his MBA from Cambridge University. Nik is now a Vice President of Alertme.com, a startup company in the UK.

June – Lake Pepin, Minnesota

     Sailed from mid-April through early October, from our new home port in the Lake City Marina. Joined the L.C. Yacht Club. This picture was taken at the Northern Lights Sailing Club’s Lake Pepin trip.

July – Cambridge, England

     Constance Colleen Rouda, age 3+.

     Gwendolyn Nikki Rouda, age 1+.

July – Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada

     Our annual sailing trip to Lake Huron.  This year we sailed for 3 weeks, east from the North Channel into the open waters of Georgian Bay.  Our sailboat is the larger one, to the left, anchored in Thomas Bay.

     This year we had several dinghy trips away from the mother ship. This is Black Bay, near Britt, Ontario, Canada.

     Up the Black River by kayak or inflatable.

     Some of the narrow inland (sic) waterways, west from Britt on the northeast corner of Georgian Bay.  We were part of a flotilla of 5 boats.

(Keep the greens to port, reds to starboard.)

     Going around Obstacle Island. Well named.

August – Lake City, Michigan

   Attended the Jarvinen, etc. reunion. Met lots of relatives from Ilona’s Michigan branch of the family.

August – Lake Pepin, Minnesota

     Our boat coming in to dock at our slip in the Lake City Marina.  Ilona’s at the mast with the docklines, Bob’s at the helm.

August – home

     The Northern Lights Sailing Club had their August meeting in our backyard – kebob cooking practice for our galleys.

September – Hudson, Wisconsin

     Two pirates, at the Labor Day Regatta sponsored by the St. Croix Sailing Club. To get here, we sailed (well, motored) our boat for 55 miles up the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers.

October – Cambridge, England

     Went to England, to see our grandkids and their parents. Nik and Jennifer dressed up for Halloween.

     Gwendolyn and grandpa.

     Constance in England.

     Gwendolyn.

November – Minnesota

     Stopped off at home in the USA for a few weeks, on our way from England to New Zealand.

December – New Zealand

     Planning on spending 3 months in New Zealand. We hired a campervan, and plan to live and travel in it until it gets warm enough to come home next year. (Picture by Ben Rouda, from earlier in the year.)