I skip like a stone
I woke up to wind in the trees and loons chattering this morning (a much better fate, I think, than those who were awakened by a dog running into the side of their tent...) and just lay in my tent for a while listening. It's amazing, really, the things you hear when you just take time to be quiet and listen. And as I lay listening, curled up in my tent, I realized that there was absolutely nowhere else that I wanted to be. Which is probably one of the things I love best about this place. There's plenty to do here, always between boats and swimming and building fires and making smores and staring at stars from the dock on clear (and sometimes not-so-clear) nights. If the night is nice tonight, we'll bring out the telescope and look at andromeda. And last night, after most people had gone off to bed, I sat on the dock and watched meteors streaking accross the sky.
It surprises me how peaceful it is here, even with lots of people (and there are many). My family has grown and grown -- a second cousin is married with two kids, another engaged (I'm sort of sheltered from all of this in my immediate family and first cousins as I'm the oldest on my Mom's side), so there are lots of old faces and many people I'm meeting for the first time.
This morning was breakfast of french toast and melon... a deviation from the traditional breakfast of Blueberry Pancakes that we've had every summer since I don't know when, but wonderfully tasty nonetheless. And then I read for a while and went to play on the lake with my cousins. I went for a ride in the jet boat, then drove my uncle's new jet ski (so much fun!), then had my cousin give me a ride on the very same jet ski. Driving, incidentally, is much more fun than riding... much easier to hold on. At one point, Kyle did succeed in turning tightly enough at a high enough speed that he threw me off... and I skipped accross the water a bit on the back of my life jacket, losing a sandal in the process. (Fortunately, it floats, thus it was quickly recovered and I climbed back up onto the jet ski and Kyle and I continued on our merry way).
I'm never leaving. Really.
It surprises me how peaceful it is here, even with lots of people (and there are many). My family has grown and grown -- a second cousin is married with two kids, another engaged (I'm sort of sheltered from all of this in my immediate family and first cousins as I'm the oldest on my Mom's side), so there are lots of old faces and many people I'm meeting for the first time.
This morning was breakfast of french toast and melon... a deviation from the traditional breakfast of Blueberry Pancakes that we've had every summer since I don't know when, but wonderfully tasty nonetheless. And then I read for a while and went to play on the lake with my cousins. I went for a ride in the jet boat, then drove my uncle's new jet ski (so much fun!), then had my cousin give me a ride on the very same jet ski. Driving, incidentally, is much more fun than riding... much easier to hold on. At one point, Kyle did succeed in turning tightly enough at a high enough speed that he threw me off... and I skipped accross the water a bit on the back of my life jacket, losing a sandal in the process. (Fortunately, it floats, thus it was quickly recovered and I climbed back up onto the jet ski and Kyle and I continued on our merry way).
I'm never leaving. Really.