Back finally! 5-6 hours drive each way, and well, only a little worse for the wear. Leif has a bruised and cut forehead as well as a nasty case of thrush. Hans a near broken toe and a burnt finger from lighting off fireworks. Hans' cell phone is in White Pass, in some gas station. Me, I survived unscathed.
Leif did amazingly well in the car both ways. We managed to get about 3 hours straight in each way while he napped by TRYING to time our leaving times to coincide with naptime. Then the other 2-3 hours he napped periodically, played with Winny and fussed a little. On the way back he did more than a little fussing, so Hans got in the backseat with him, Win dog in the front seat, while I drove. Leif LOVED that. Winny, notsomuch. That front seat just isn't big enough for her. So the entire time she had this "poor me" look on her face and was situated as though she might leap into my lap at any minute. She didn't, thank goodness. Yes, my dog is weird, we don't dare roll down the window for her to hang her head out like any normal dog. I think she is afraid she will fall out.
So we got to the cabin about 4:30pm on Saturday after a delayed start. Hans alway overestimates how "ready" we are, "it will take us 5 minutes to pack the clothes". Me, I underestimate how "ready" we are, "Oh it is going to take us 3 hours to pack clothes!"
We met aunt and uncle's "biker friends". They were actually quite nice. They were all loaded pretty heavily upon our arriving. Dinner was just about ready, so we ate and after dinner Hans and I went with Leif and Winny for a walk on the beach. The aunt and uncle and their friends went out on the boat... yes, even more loaded than when we arrived earlier.
What happened then was a lesson in why boating and heavy drinking is not a good idea. The boat dock is floating. At high tide, it is a fair ways out. Low tide, it is a swimmable distance, maybe. So they took the canoe to paddle to the dock. Kerry, who is from Chile, was a little freaked out by this, but agreed. Wouldn't you know it on the return trip he is getting in the canoe and tips it, with Dee Dee (their other friend in it). Kerry figures he will just swim to the coast. This is Pacific Northwest ocean water. It is cold. He is drunk as a skunk. He gets about 20 feet out from the dock and can't swim forward because his jacket is constraining him.
They get the canoe turned back over, get Dee Dee out of the cold water and into the canoe and uncle starts paddling her over. They stop and pick up a paddle on the way then get to Kerry and start pulling him in. Uncle tells Kerry that he thinks he should be able to stand up now, Kerry puts his feet down only to step on barnacle covered oysters (i.e., sharp) and couldn't walk and then tips the canoe trying to pull his feet off the ocean floor. Dee Dee and uncle are in the water now. Somehow they all get into the shore and uncle heads off to pick up the other two in the canoe who make it in without event.
Dee Dee and Kerry are frozen and later we find out that Kerry was seriously afraid he was going to die out there by drowning. He realized what a stupid idea swimming was too late. It took Dee Dee hours to warm up.
It all made me uneasy to watch. Hans was ready to go get another canoe and try to help, but kept waiting just to see.
A few years ago Hans had a friend, Frank, who worked with him at his job before we moved here. Nice guy, our age, had two kids. Shortly after moving here we found out that Frank died after he got drunk and decided to, while camping, cross a river on a suspended steel cable. The cable started cutting his hands and he tried to reposition them. Fell and died.
Especially now that I have a child, episodes like that just scare me. It is hard to remember that we aren't 18 anymore. I don't feel significantly older. I am probably healthier now than I was at 18, which is good. But doesn't help that feeling of immortality. The body just doesn't respond like it did when I was 18. Not so resilient anymore.
Well this post is long enough as is. I will continue with the rest of the vacation story next.
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