This is a part of the message we received on August 8 from our son Christopher, who lives with his wife Stacie in Port Angeles, not too far from our home:
“So I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the house has not burned down yet, the bad news is that the hot water tank leaked and flooded the kitchen.
Our good ship had just returned to “internet civilization” and we were happy to hear from home – just not the word we had anticipated.
During the last thirty days, our city and country had been hit by a wave of home break-ins by several thieves. We were in good company though, as they also hit the Chief of Polices home. We feel fortunate that our home was not trashed. God does seem to work in mysterious ways. The defective water heater lead to the discovery of the break-in and the fact that the thieves had left the back door unlocked, which could have been an oversight or left that way for their return. The total value of the items stolen was not that great monetarily , but some of the items are irreplaceable. The police are investigating, and we can only hope that those items will be recovered.
We are so proud of the way our children (Lisa and friend Andy, Chris and Stacie (and dog Gracie), Ana and Paul) stepped up to the plate and made sure we did not return home to a soggy mess, and a dead water heater. I must give Gracie extra credit here because her nose lead her to the crawl space opening in the back room that the intruders had left open, cause that is where Chris found her – in the crawl space – probably looking for the bad guys 🙂
I do intend to finish publishing articles about our grand adventure, but since returning home we have been busy dealing with other things. Please stay tuned.
Please note that the banner picture for the blog has changed from a scene in the Antarctic to the Arctic. This is the view we had as we sailed out of the fjord at Ny Alesand, Norway.
Cummings Family Adventures 
I had heard by the grapevine that your house had been broken into, but not about the water heater.
A hose broke on our wash machine when we lived in Enumclaw and Paul discovered water running out of our garage when he came home from school. Thank goodness the machine was in garage, so we did not have alot of boxes on the floor and little damage.
Sorry for the things that were taken.
Wishing you and Barbara well, as you both try to cope with this traumatic and upsetting experience. You’re in my thoughts and prayers, Shipmate!