We left our slip at the north end of Lake Washington on September 1, 2003. We came to Lake Union to wait for Lucas.  Luc's high school symphonic band had been invited to play in Beijing, China.  A series of unforeseen circumstances delayed his trip from early April to late August.  We had planned to leave Seattle in June, but of course we rescheduled our departure so that Luc could go to China.  We expected him to return Sept 3.   Departure Date:   Sept 5, 2003
	This is Flovilla, a houseboat community on Lake Union in central Seattle.   George and I lived here in our early years together, in a houseboat at the head of this dock.  We were married here.  Lucas was born here. Many of the residents of this houseboat community are lifelong friends.
We brought Soul Catcher to this dock to begin our journey because we felt this community was our true home.  Soul Catcher is moored in front of Richard's house. The boat in the foreground is Sweet Petunia, temporarily tied up in front of Dan and Sharon's house.
	We thought we would have a minute to rest while we waited for Lucas.  We thought we might finish a few last minute chores on our to-do list.  Instead, we had an endless round of parties,  with well-wishers, and even strangers visiting us.  So we did our last-minute provisioning, and did our chores, and visited our friends, and went to parties, and exhausted ourselves, and waited for Lucas.   We sold the cars, our last tie to land. We spent time worrying, now that our departure was imminent.  Would Lucas like it? Would we have enough money?  Did we know enough?  Did we do enough?  Were we brave enough?
Finally, Lucas came home from China.  He slept for 24 hours, said goodbye to his friends, stowed his berth.   We're actually leaving. We can see the dock receding. The next time we see this dock, we will be entirely different people.
	Good-bye!  Good-bye!