‘The battle was on, the whale charged, and the dolphin took a stand, the gaming industry has nothing on a good Floatie War at the lake...’
It doesn’t matter that the kids playing this game today are in their 20’s. This is good old-fashioned interaction and water play at its best. I have had the blow-up whale inflatable since my kids were small. We have left it year after year stored here at the cabin for them to use. I have pictures of my youngest son on it, and I can remember it was just a big deal for him to get up and stay on it for any length of time, this huge inflatable is pretty unstable. Apparently, it is not the easiest thing to ride and paddle around on, though I cannot speak from experience, I have never managed to get up on it, by choice. (If someone had brought in a pink flamingo inflatable, I’d be in!) Now I am delighted to see my son and his friends out there playing on it, and to make it even more special one of them brought up an inflatable dolphin. They are making a sport of it floating out there in the bay off the dock. Let the games begin.
My son is so busy these days, with work and his girlfriend (now his wife, at the time of posting this piece), so it is harder to arrange to get the kids up here now to the lake. As my kids aren’t water skiers and wakeboarders, they have less inclination to search out bodies of water to accommodate those water sports on days off work. As our little cabin is remote, it involves travel time and ferry time, so it is harder these days to get a commitment from the kids to be here, even though they clearly love it, and so do their friends. Luckily, my son’s birthday does fall near a long holiday weekend, and so I have on several occasions, become the Mom of several of his close friends over the years. This weekend was no exception and we have half a dozen kids on the property. I always tell them upon arrival that as long as they are here, they are ‘my kids’, so have fun and stay safe. These days the kids spend so much time on their electronic devices, and although we have no power here, they still manage to drag around gaming devices of one type or another to play, even up here at the lake. I have sort of kicked them out of the cabin from time to time to get fresh air and sunshine. Then they will go off and swim, paddle, hike or boat. At night, they love to hang around the campfire and roast marshmallows and s’mores. There is no persuasion required to get them to hang out on the point, bags of marshmallows and chocolate in hand, (and often other junk food they bring up now). Today, in the bright warm sunshine, I can hear them laughing and splashing and battling for water supremacy with the inflatable whale and dolphin. Gone are the kids loud screams, and in are the fully adult female giggles, and deep male voices. They are having a ball out there. Of course, I am keeping a watchful eye, but these are great kids, or rather, young adults, and they are hardly any trouble I can tell you, and I feel very fortunate. As ‘adult’ as they are, they are still out there fighting imaginary battles, like kids, a whale Vs dolphin battle, and clearly, they are having so much fun. My father was a very private person, and so I remember only having one girlfriend at a time come up here with me, and only once in a while as a child, and my brother, one friend, here and there, very occasionally. We were so fortunate then to have all the kids at the surrounding cabins with which to play. My son and his friends are all tenting this weekend, and we have 3 out there on the point area of the property. So I do get my cabin space back late at night, and in the morning, for a few of them really like to sleep in late. Breakfast is then a hodge-podge of snacks and foods, because none of them eat at the same time. As adults, I let them do their thing, for the most part. When they were kids, breakfasts were big, and lots was cooked, and they ate ravenously. These young adults snack and peck and eat a whole host of this and that. One day this weekend I will just arbitrarily make a huge batch of pancakes and keep them warm until they are all gone. I do make full lunches, and of course, pretty substantial dinners, but as long as I have a big pot of coffee and some tea, lots of snacks, like granola bars, yogurt, cereal, and some fruit, available in the mornings, they are happy as they eat breakfast, or brunch, early or at noon, each kind of on their own schedule as adults now.
Right now, I expect they will have worked up an appetite from their water play. As I look out to check out why I am now hearing some loud cheers, I see that my son is victorious on this round, the whale has won, the dolphin is overturned in the lake and its rider unseated! I am quite happy and content to just be an observer. I guess I should start getting busy and make some sandwiches, I suspect they will be ravenous after their Floatie Wars!