Received a call from JC McDowell, that he, his wife, Hillary, and their daughter, Emma, were in No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne.  They're on their way to Key West and wanted to stop by and say hello.  Went over to pick them up and they joined us for an afternoon of swimming and eating!  JC and Hillary are typical cruisers.... loving their travels and enjoying every minute they spend with their little girl.  Emma is 17 months old and absolutley adorable.  You can already see that she's going to be a typical boat kid... friendly, happy and inquisitive.  She's amazingly bright for such a young child and communicates verbally and in sign language... that's right... Hillary and JC are teaching her sign language!  Our daughter, Shannon, learned to sign so she could communicate with the parents of one of her karate students.  Just as JC and Hillary are teaching Emma to sign, Shannon taught our grandson, Connor, sign language when he was a baby.  It's a great way for kids to be able to communicate before they can speak.

It's was a little too cold for ocean swimming so I dragged them back to our marina where we had a heated pool and a hot tub.  As you can see from the pictures, everyone had a great time.  After a good long afternoon in the pool, they got to take a nice long hot shower... which is a real treat for cruisers!  Then it was time for Hill and I to do some grocery shopping so they could stock up on supplies.  While we were gone, Bill and JC watched as Emma plopped over and went fast asleep on the saloon floor.  Finally we had burgers and hot dogs and then it was time to head on back to No Name Harbor to drop them off so they could continue their journey south.  We surely do hope they stop in Miami on the way back north in a couple of months as they're part of our cruising family now.

When we cruised we met many wonderful dirt dwellers who extended a hand to us by taking us shopping and inviting us into their homes for meals and wonderful loooongggg hooootttt showers (a real treat for cruisers).  It's a pleasure for us to do the same for others who are cruising now and hopefully we're paying it forward for when we head on out again in the not too distant future.