Grand Send Off from Plunkett Cooney Friends

What a wonderful retirement party! Many people played
a part in preparing this fun event for Dennis.

On a beautiful fall night in September, good friends and colleagues from Plunkett Cooney law firm, where Dennis has spent the past 43 years, gathered for a wonderful send off! Mary Catherine and Steve staged a beautiful party in their backyard. Everything was delightful: decorations, food, drink, gifts and most of all friends wishing him well. I think he was a little overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness expressed that evening. One of the most clever gifts was money. Not just money as we know it, but rather money in the currencies of many of the Pacific Islands we will be visiting! I am sure this took some doing to gather the various currencies. Very clever!

Mary Catherine pulled out all of the stops on this one!

A number of other partners and their families played a role in staging this party. One of them was the Conger family who created some music CDs with a great collection from all eras. It played all evening and we were given the CDs. They will be great in our new entertainment system on the boat. His daughter planned the decorations and her boyfriend painted a wonderful picture of S/V Trillium which is at the cottage (actually I should say: our home - boy that sounds strange!) It was too large for the boat but fits beautifully with the color scheme up there.

And with the help of her hubby Steve and other
Plunkett Cooney friends. It was a beautiful evening.

We received a set of towels embroidered with Trillium on them. They are the best! Absorbent and quick drying. I think I need to commission Elaine to make a few more! Even though they are a type of microfiber, they act like chamois cloth. I love them. Dennis also received several good books and if he gets into the series, we can download them onto his Kindle. Neither of us have made time to read at home, so we are hoping to do more on the long passages and at peaceful anchorages! We also brought along the wines and champagne and other gifts so we can toast our friends as we enjoy them.

Loretta showed up with the map and "Where in the
World is Dennis" looking like Waldo! What fun!!!

It was really funny when Loretta showed up with a huge map of the world so the Plunketteers can follow us around the world. What was funny was the character at the top of the map. They had placed Dennis' face (from an early PC photo) into a Where's Waldo body! What a way to be remembered, Dear!

Loretta joined us in the Caribbean for a week of sailing. It was fun having someone from home come along. We invited others to join us somewhere in the world. No other takers yet - only a couple of our kids: Heather and Addison joined us in the Caribbean and Nick will sail with us from Las Perlas, Panama to the Galapagos where is girlfriend, Daphne, will join us.

The World ARC Itinerary was a popular discussion.

Dennis gave a brief description of our planned journey and thanked his colleagues for their friendship and years of working together with like minded firm goals. I am glad he has the sailing thing to do or he would have continued practicing law until ... he got it right? Just kidding. He is a good and honest lawyer.

He recently started smiling and one of the crew asked him why. He replied: "I am not going back! I don't have to go back this time." I think the time is right for him!

I love this painting of S/V Trillium! What a talented
young man who painted it for us is. Sorry we
never got to meet him and thank him in person

The perfect message as we leave
Plunkett Cooney after 43 years and
follow our dream.