FUN IN THE SUN!
We just returned from a very nice week away up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Friends from Shiloh have a cabin up on the St. Mary's River and they invited us up for several days.
Ben had to go to band camp all week and Caleb and John had to work so we took our first trip with only the three girls. Let me tell you, I love the boys but the girls are just so much easier!
It was a great getaway. The cabin is ideally located with a gorgeous view of the river where it is about a mile across. It’s actually called Lake Nicollet at that location. I love watching the huge ships going by on their way up to or down from the Soo Locks. It was a very relaxing time away. I did a lot of reading. We had a big bonfire one evening out beside the river.
We left on Friday morning and drove down to St. Ignace and took the ferry across to Mackinac Island. What a gorgeous day that was! It may have been the prettiest day I have ever spent on the island.
The highlight of the week was by far the wave runners. The kids always look forward to going for rides on the wave runners when we go up north. Tom has a couple of really nice machines. We took them out for awhile on Wednesday evening. Tom takes one of the girls on his machine and I take another. (Mary doesn’t like them so she stayed in the cabin.) I was driving Elizabeth (15) on my wave runner. Turns out she likes to go fast. When I climbed in back and let her drive she had the thing up to 60 in no time! (I decided drivers’ training could wait at least another year!)
On Thursday a couple of huge freighters went by the cabin and we jumped on the wave runners and started following them up the river toward the locks. We passed the first ship and I was stunned by the si
ze of it! You get up close to one of those 1,000-footers and you feel like an ant. I had a pang of nervousness as I rode by with my daughter on the back. What if I did something wrong and we fell off? I pressed on heroically and all was well.We passed the second freighter and continued up toward the locks. We stopped the wave runners in the channel and looked at Canada there on the right, the International Bridge from the US to Canada, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on the left. It was just beautiful! The second ship we had passed was beginning to approach so Tom said we should probably fire up the wave runners, cross the channel and head back. Sounded good to me. I didn’t want to sit in the channel with those ships coming up.
Tom started his machine and took off across the channel. I started mine and gave it a little gas as I turned around. Just as I began my turn a one foot rogue wave hit the side of the wave runner. It felt like the Poseidon Adventure! I was caught completely off guard and was pitched right into the channel. Catch this picture: I’m in the water looking up at Elizabeth on the wave runner and behind her is a 1,000 foot freighter. OK, no problem. Just climb up on the back, start the machine, and calmly move out of the way. Plenty of time!
I succeeded in climbing onto the machine. Then Elizabeth and I had to change places. I told her to go left while I go right. Needless to say, I am much heavier than she is. The machine started to tip dangerously in my direction. I looked up at the ship as I fell headlong into the river a second time. By this time, Tom had looked back and observed this comedy of errors. He was riding to the rescue.
I climbed aboard a second time. I kept taking little glances down at the approaching freighter, trying to act calm, cool, and collected while wondering what the headlines would say. Since I am here writing this, you know that Elizabeth and I were able to change places and escape the tragic disaster that was bearing down on us.
We all laughed about it at dinner but it was something I’ll never forget. Isn’t that what vacations are supposed to be all about? Making memories?
Welcome back, OG. Thanks for stopping by. You guys are great!
4 Comments:
Welcome back! I'm glad you were able to get away for a while. Needed I'm sure.
I enjoyed your pictures. Them's big boats! Thanks to you I now know how the Chinese will get 200 million soldiers to the Mediterranean and Armageddon. I’m greatly relieved. It bothered me for years.
Once, my lovely wife and I flew to Cozumel, Mexico. I rented a wave runner and thought that was the most fun new thing I had done in many, many years. What a fabulous invention. I want one. But, then I would need a tropical ocean. The costs would soon add up.
I spent about 15 years with an excellent view of the ships coming into San Pedro. I could not nor will not ever get over the size of those tankers. I'm like a froggy little native boy. I worship these things as a god. I do not understand they are the work of men.
It's just not possible in my primitive mindset.
Once, I went to Nassau in the Bahamas. I was in a small motor boat going by those gigantic cruise ships. Have you ever seen a modern cruise ship? Once again, I found myself bowing to it over and over again, weeping and confessing my sins to it. I think I embarassed everyone else on my boat. One of the cruise ships had the original Queen Mary hanging off it's bow for use as a pleasure dingy. (The one docked at Long Beach is a 3/4 scale replica of the original..Quite fake.)
I think I saw Yak's 200 million Chinese on one of the cruise ships.
They had obviously decided to pass on Armageddon in favor of some fun snorkeling. Can you blame them?
Oh my! The SC has now solved my other quandary-how 200 million Chinese get to the Med undetected by US spy satellites.
I don't know why I didn't see it before; they are disguised as tourists.
Wait! I just realized all the pieces for the end of the world are now in place!
I don't know about the end of the world, but I swore off those Wave Runners - all that whamming and slamming around the more sensitive areas threatened to put an end to an essential element of life as I know it.
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