Last Tuesday was my birthday — 25 on the 25th, how cool is that?? — and it was the best kind of day…
We had breakfast at a local diner -- "Jen's Place" -- where I taught Jon how to play checkers on the tabletop while we waited for our delicious massive meal 🙂 (we called it a tie when our meals arrived)
We went to the pumpkin patch & picked pie pumpkins
(Which gave me an excuse to take cute pumpkin-patch themed pictures...)
Including my new favourite picture of Jon *ever*.... how could you not want to marry this man?!?
The pumpkin patch was followed by some shopping (that’s right, I’ve got a partner who will go shopping with me… how awesome is that??) and driving down to New Hampshire.
Why New Hampshire, you ask?
Because as if diners and pumpkin patches and shopping weren’t enough, the coolest thing happened on my birthday: We met Chuck Burns, the designer of our boat!
Coffee with Chuck Burns, Naval Architect & designer of the Nor'West 33
It turns out that Chuck lives only a couple of hours south of Jon, so when the opportunity came up to meet for coffee, we could not resist! Chuck has designed a number of beautiful boats — none more so than the Nor’West, of course — and we were so excited to get a chance to ‘pick his brain’ a little.
Amidst questions of rudder construction and hull lay-up, we also devoured the photographs and articles that Chuck had so thoughtfully brought along with him.
The right page shows photos of the first Nor'West 33 being launched in California -- apparently they painted her yellow so that the area sailors would really take notice of this new gorgeous design!
An early ad for the Nor'Wests
After hours of coffee and questions, we walked away feeling like not only did we end up with one the most thoughtfully and beautifully designed boats, but that we are so so SO thankful to have met Chuck Burns, and to have him as a resource for future projects.
The man is a wealth of knowledge, and we can not thank him enough for meeting with us and, of course, for designing the Nor’West 33.
One of the best cruising sailboats ever designed (in our oh-so-humble opinion): the Nor'West 33
We also learned a little secret from Chuck -- apparently this picture was taken on a completely wind-less day, so to get the shot & fill the spinnaker they had the boat motor backwards! The things you can only learn from an insider... 🙂
(Oh, and to end the birthday celebration story… our coffee in New Hampshire was wrapped up with a waterfront dinner in Portland, ME, where we devoured some of the best lobster-corn-bisque I’ve ever tasted… as evidenced by my shirt hehehe)
…It should be an exciting new year!
