August 5, 2009. Western Head, N.S. Children.

"I don't know what happened. All of a sudden my paddle would not work," said eight year old George. Both parents were anxious, sitting on the shore watching their three children sitting in boats in the middle of the lake doing nothing. Certainly they were not propelling themselves in to shore. Even Ken thought he might need to go out and rescue them in the canoe. But I had faith, because Mary was with them and I felt that she would figure out how to get them back into shore. Sure enough, they finally came ashore, Mary towing the kayak with George from her poke boat, and the other two peddling hard in the peddle boat.

Mary's niece Victoria and husband Jimmy were visiting from San Francisco, along with their three charming children. Frances and Jim are ten year old twins so along with George, they all came to the cottage. Now these folks are city people, not used to boats and cottages and docks and rafts, but they very quickly took to the boats. My instructions to them was to stay close to the shore and go up river. Mary very wisely decided to accompany them in the poke boat. First they headed up along the shore, but before long they were all slowly heading out to the middle of the lake. Now the current was moving them along and the wind was pushing them away from shore, so now they had a hard time coming back to the dock. The adults on the shore all felt sure they would never get back without help, but with Mary giving instructions, soon they arrived back to the dock, very pleased with them selves. In truth it was a very successful trip. No one fell out of the boat and no one got upset, and the best part, no one had to rescue them. Poor Mary's arms were tired though by the time she towed George back to shore. He still did not understand what happened. "All of a sudden, my paddle would not work. I do not know what happened?" said George.

This is another cottage story, to be repeated every year. Next time, I think I must be much more specific with my instructions. But those children took to those boats like ducks to water. It was fun to watch.