My Adventure With Laura
What a splendid holiday we spent with Anna and the Barker clan today! The food outstanding, with special mention of Jenny's marinated pork loin and Gramma Joanie's honey mustard/curry sauce for the corn which we brought (mouthwatering picked-this-morning from Madej's stand at Manny's Corners). Anna, always the perfect host, allowed me to take Laura out in the kayaks after.
The six year old is pretty deft with the paddles, but just in case I had her roped to mine. Perfect early evening cruise on the Stockport Creek, beginning where it enters the Hudson beneath the 1914 railroad bridge. Because the Hudson is tidal at that point, we had still water all the way back up to Route 9, where we turned and took the quiet shallow narrows between the mainland and a large island for our trip back.
We managed to awaken a large blue heron which flew over us in all its spindly glory, much to Laura's delight, and it twice more took off before we returned to the main channel. The sun hanging low by the time we returned to the railroad, about an hour and a half after we started, we dropped under the bridge to catch the last rays descending behind the northern Catskills, a gorgeous sky reflected on the broad river.
The tide meeting the current and the sunset stillness of the air combined to make our boats perfectly motionless as we took it all in, not even the slightest drift from side to side. The 1660ish Dutch Colonial I've had my eye on for a while looked pretty spectacular across the water. On another day maybe Laura and I will explore the river islands. She'll be starting second grade on Wednesday, so that might have to wait a bit. But there's still time before she's completely grown up.
The six year old is pretty deft with the paddles, but just in case I had her roped to mine. Perfect early evening cruise on the Stockport Creek, beginning where it enters the Hudson beneath the 1914 railroad bridge. Because the Hudson is tidal at that point, we had still water all the way back up to Route 9, where we turned and took the quiet shallow narrows between the mainland and a large island for our trip back.
We managed to awaken a large blue heron which flew over us in all its spindly glory, much to Laura's delight, and it twice more took off before we returned to the main channel. The sun hanging low by the time we returned to the railroad, about an hour and a half after we started, we dropped under the bridge to catch the last rays descending behind the northern Catskills, a gorgeous sky reflected on the broad river.
The tide meeting the current and the sunset stillness of the air combined to make our boats perfectly motionless as we took it all in, not even the slightest drift from side to side. The 1660ish Dutch Colonial I've had my eye on for a while looked pretty spectacular across the water. On another day maybe Laura and I will explore the river islands. She'll be starting second grade on Wednesday, so that might have to wait a bit. But there's still time before she's completely grown up.