We ended our two week stay at the cottage  with our annual visit with the Arpins.  By great luck, Matt and his family were in Wisconsin from Spokane, WA, and they, along with Pat and Jackie and Tommy and the kids, joined us on Friday for some good family time.  The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed the lake.  Thankfully, while Pat and Matt kayaked, no open water rescue was needed this year!

We left the cottage on Saturday afternoon and headed to Jen and John’s house.  It was odd not to have the cottage as a home base any longer and that made us feel a bit homeless despite many options for accommodations for our last two days.  We had a fantastic send off from the Geiger family even though John didn’t let me win at cribbage.

On Sunday we had brunch with good friends Angela, Ann and Tim and then headed to Tom and Sue’s for the Dwyer send off.  Per tradition, an Italian feast was our last meal before our departure.

We are so excited to finally start our adventure after 7 months of preparation.  Sue’s dad is taking us to the airport and his van is packed with all our worldly belongings (okay, besides those in my trunk and at Matt’s mom’s and Tommy’s house).  Fingers crossed that the trip is a smooth one and our belongings arrive with us to Cajamarca!