Today's Beautiful Adventure

Friends, a delightful couple and their three equally delightful children, visited today to share a late-summer-sun-spangled lakeside afternoon. The boys immediately paired up with the kayaks for some paddle-driven exploration, then Zorro’d the lake in tubes behind the ski boat, zig-zagging and slashing the water in repetitive Z formations. 

After all that activity, they needed sustenance, and refueled with fresh cherries and cinnamon pastries while considering the next activity.  However, out of respect for one member of the party who was not especially a water person by nature, we all piled in the pontoon for a lazier, less adventurous excursion.

Or so we thought. 

After touring awhile, we dropped anchor in a private bay surrounded by wild shoreline, a perfect place for a swim.  The friendly cattails waved their greetings as if delighted by our presence.  Sunlight dappled the lapping water.  Swans swam nearby, lost in their own reverie.  Serenity at its best.  A touch of paradise.

When it was time to go, we pulled up anchor, and I turned the key in the ignition.  Nothing.  Not even a hum.  Dead battery?  Maybe I didn’t turn the key all the way to the off position when we stopped.

Not too far away we noticed a classy fishing boat with a 114 hp engine and a couple of manly-looking fishermen, so I whistled my loudest womanly wolf whistle and waved my arms above my head – a pathetic, old-lady distress signal.

They saw us, and their boat nosed in our direction.  Good!

We’d already pulled up anchor and were drifting steadily toward the shoreline where the propeller could tangle itself in cattails and/or get stuck in muck.  I debated about throwing the anchor in again, and yet the rescue squad was fast approaching.  We threw them the anchor rope, the only one on board, just as the back of our pontoon neared the lilies.  They took off.  The pontoon obediently followed.  Whew!

Meanwhile the non-water-lover on board kindly laughed and made light of the situation, which helped me feel slightly less like I deserved a D- in boat handling.  Even though I did. 

The muscle-bound fishermen (surely they were really football players) towed us home.  Meanwhile, an observant neighbor watched from our pier.  As we drew near, he spontaneously jumped in, fully clothed, and helped us position the pontoon in the appropriate spot beside the pier.

Adventure?  I think that’s the right word, according to an online dictionary: 

adventure – n. -  An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity; an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks.

I once read an author who felt mankind was created to live for two things: beauty and adventure.  We experienced both today.