We cruised The Great Loop July 2002-May 2003 with our 9 year old son. It was a wonderful year for all of us, and our experiences brought us even closer as a family. Taylor did get lonely from time to time...chatting with middle aged cruisers just isn't the same as whooping it up with kids your own age...but we periodically ran into cruising families. It would have been great if Taylor had had a sibling or two to giggle with, but investments in Follow me TV and Gameboy helped during the slack times. Home school was not a problem, and we fashioned portions of the curriculum around our travels. We studied immigration and naturalization heading up the East Coast in preparation for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty; there was Canadian history and geography; Lewis and Clark at St. Louis; ecosystems at the Everglades--and marine science everywhere. Taylor moaned and groaned on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when his journal entries were required as part of home school. (I kept telling him that it was the most important part of his curriculum, but he didn't believe me.) I was worried that Taylor would have problems easing back into public school, but he's been in class for almost two weeks and loving it. So far so good. I'm still amazed that the uniqueness (at least for non-boaters) of our trip had little effect on Taylor. It was simply life as usual, and we happened to live on a boat. Kids have a different frame of reference from us, and the sights that amazed us were nothing to him compared to catching lizards in Alabama or jumping from the top of the sundeck into the cool Georgian Bay. But last week, instead of the usual "When are we going to go back to Chuck E Cheese?" or "When are we going to go back to the big pool?" it was "When are we going back to New York?" I suspect his broadened horizons from our year on The Loop will shape the man he will become. Ray and I are still suffering from post-trip blues, but the business of job hunting and prepping our boat for sale are keeping us busy. We bought a home in Florida, and we'll have to complete the Loop to Virginia after our second retirement. Don't wait for the kids to leave home to make the trip. Of course we would have enjoyed the trip if had been just the two of us, but nothing can compare to family life on a boat. Our web site (and Taylor's journal) are at <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/raycamtal/myhomepage/ourcruise.html"> http://hometown.aol.com/raycamtal/myhomepage/ourcruise.html</A> Camille Lesoine Ray, Camille and Taylor Aboard "We 3"