2008



				January, even brought nice sunny weather, which were spend on biking in the local area, here in "Dyrehaven" North of Copenhagen, close to our home. The building is a "feeding house" for the many deer in the park. Daniel is holding his relatively new Mountain Bike.



		February. The family's skiing freaks - Daniel and Jørgen - for once went South instead of North. Schladming in Austria was chosen to give Daniel his first skiing experience in tougher terrain than earlier. He soon got the feel for it and is now so experienced, that Jørgen has to do his utmost for not being overtaken on the slopes. Pictures the after skiing was spent in the swimming pool and sauna of the hotel as if they hadn't had enough exercise for the day !



			March. A visit to another local park - Bernstorff Park - named after the statue in the picture. The castle had been used by the "Civilian Guard" for many years. Due to a relocation, it was opened for the public. A "Once of a lifetime" opportunity to see the inside of the castle. The experience was enhanced by the exhibition of "vintage" rescue vehicles



	April It was decided to celebrate Jørgen's 60 years birthday in the sunny and warm climate of Cyprus. We took a 2 day trip to the divided Capital, crossed the border into North Cyprus to explore the beautiful area around Kyrenia. Always nice to escape the cold North and go to a warmer climate, although Daniel indicates that it could have been just a little bit warmer...



May: To no surprise for anybody, but the skipper , the work on "Mary Lou" took much longer than expected ! and launch of her was a month delayed.

June: As the weather was nice, we started to eat and sleep in the boat during weekdays as well as weekend trips to Sweden. On the picture "Mary Lou" has just left "Västra Hamnen" in Malmö, Sweden with the Øresunds Bridge in the background. This bridge connect Malmö with Copenhagen.

	July: Michael and Suzanne visited Jørgen's sister - Hanne - and her family in the Netherlands and spent a good deal of time in magnificent Amsterdam.

	During School Holidays a lot of sports are offered to the kids and Daniel decided to try to sail in a kayak. This was in the the neighboring harbour - "Hellerup" - so we decided to sail "Mary Lou" there to use her as our base for the 3 days. Jorgen could conduct his work from the boat, with occasional visits to the local Yacht Club to connect to the network for data replication.



		While in "Hellerup" Jørgen's Aunt Kirsten arrived from the States where she lives and she visited us together with another aunt - Lise - and her husband, Per Shortly after, Per had a "round Birthday" to celebrate which even brought Jørgen's mother (Birthe) and her husband (Nils) to Denmark. Fortunately, they had time for a dinner at our home. This doesn't happen often, so we thoroughly enjoy and nice for the boys to meet their Grandmother and "step" Grandfather again


	Despite the delayed launch of "Mary Lou", the season became one of the best in many years with a 3 weeks summer cruise. the destination of which was Oslo, decided from the fact, that Birthe celebrated her 85 years birthday and celebrated her and Nils' Golden Wedding with a big party with friends and family

Daniel and Jørgen started on the first leg of the trip in good wind and fairly nice weather.

Second Port of Call was the wonderful Island "Anholt" in the middle of "Kattegat" (Picture). We took a day off from sailing and biked from the harbour in the west heading for the lighthouse in the east to see the colony of seals lying on the reef. When the sand got to taught to bike through, we continued by foot. We were rather exhausted on our return to the boat, but not more than we accepted an invitation for drinks with good friends having arrived during our trip. Nice evening in good company.

We then sailed to Gothenburg, where we stayed a couple of days, awaiting a Chart Plotter which had been shipped from US.

Left: Daniel on "Kärringöen" outside the famous "Pettersson's Krog"

Right: Daniel rowing the dinghy in the distance

In "Hamburgsund" we had a game of Mini golf. We needed to take the ferry (background) to go there.

Some days before Michael and Suzanne joined the crew in the outer part of the Oslo Fjord a high pressure had appeared over Scandinavia., making the weather ideal for sun tanning, bathing and "motoring"... Sailing was something the skipper could only dream of.

After the family reunion, we motored to Oslo a long and VERY hot trip, calling for frequent stops to be cooled off.

We sailed to a harbour in Oslo very close to Jørgen's brother and sister in law - Halvor and Gitte - whom we invited onboard for "Happy Hour"

As we had not seen their new apartment - within walking distance - we were invited to a late "house warming". The weather was clear and warm, the Apartment and Penthouse terrace fabulous and the hospitality exquisite. As Jørgen's "Dutch" family (Sister Hanne and family) arrived later, this will be an evening we will never forget...


	The following day we sailed a short distance to the site for the party, which fortunately was with a private jetty, so the issue of calling a cap after the party was eliminated. We did anchored for a couple of hours to cool down in the high temperature.




	Inside "May Lou" temperature had risen during the sunny day and changing from Bathing customs into "party gear" was a traumatic experience, where you were wishing that you could just jump into the sea to cool off ! Finally, we were ready to "join the Crowd"




		Here "The Golden Couple" with and kids + family. joined by Birthe's 2 sisters. *--> Some of the 1000 Pictures*
The party was a great success, especially as the whole family - for once - was present.

Having spent 2 weeks on the trip to Oslo, only 1 week was left for the return trip, so we had to leave the morning after the party fairly early.

Halvor and Hanne's son - Henrik - slept onboard Halvor's day cruiser, and they decided to leave VERY early for a morning swim. Very considerate, Halvor used an oar to row away before starting the engine. We later met on the Fjord, where Michael and Daniel were invited to sail in the day cruiser, giving them a great day with fast sailing and lots of swimming.

We joined in the cosy harbour of "Drøbak", for lunch, before leaving for the harbour where the car was parked. The next morning Daniel and Suzanne left for Copenhagen, leaving Michael and Jørgen to "sail" back.

In "Åstol" (North of Marstrand) we met up with Lasse, who owns a sister ship to "Mary Lou". He told about an traditional Swedish song: "Dansen på Brännö Brygge" (the Dance on Brändö Jetty"). The composer lived on the island of Brännö just outside Gothenburg, where the inhabitants used to have a weekly Dance. Lasse told us that the tradition had lived on, with a Dance every Thursday during the Summer. He had invited his companion - Grete - for a dance and asked if we would join them and we did of course. Who will ever turn down good company and "insider knowledge" where to go. We had dinner together before going to the Dance. The picture tells it all... Not the last time we come to "Brännö Brygge"

At 2200 we motored to Lasse's homeport in the pitch dark night and we saw lights of nice places we will visit on a later visit, maybe already next year.

After another day running for the engine, the wind finally returned and gave 2 days of good sailing before reaching our homeport. --> Summer Cruise pictures

The Autumn brought new activities.

First the school had an evening with various activities and bazars with the purpose of ripping off the parents to have funds for activities for the kids.

On the left Michael is trying to hit a nail - with some success - and right Daniel is managing one of the stands. In essence, one of the boys is a "spender" and the other a "collector". In all fairness, this changed throughout the evening.




	On Daniel's birthday In November he was introduced to "Motoring" as we took him to a indoor GoKart facility. He thoroughly enjoyed almost one hour of "going around and around".. Strange to think that our "baby" is now driving. Only a proof of how fast time is flying.


	In September Daniel & Jørgen took 2 days off from "work" and went to a place where we always just pass "en route" to the South - Fehmarn - and island on "the top" of Germany. Here Daniel is seen in the cosy main street of the "capital" - Burg Tiefe. Next morning we visited a Holiday Resort, where they tried everything from Ice skating, swimming and Water Sliding to Table tennis