July 2, 2011 With Dry Rice

July 1, 2011
Ben and Clint departed and the grandsons arrived on the evening of the 28th. We had great weather for two weeks until that transition of guests. Then rain began to fall. We have had rain off and on since, and rain is forecast through the 4th of July. No big deal. We are thankful parents sent along rain boots and gear. The boys use these almost constantly.

When the plane arrived we saw some patches of red shirt behind the flight attendant atop the stairway after all other passengers deplaned. Soon eyes spotted Gammie and were all peeking to yell and wave at her.

Once home they wanted to explore everywhere as fast as they could. They went from cabin to woods to river to 5th wheel. Ten year old eyes are looking for ten year old activities. I had hoped they would see the beauty, let their senses drink in the river view, be awed by the vista from the cabin and the rainforest, and want to see wild animals. The cabin tour took all of thirty seconds and their comment to each other was, “It’s small.” Within an hour they were dragging my lumber to the “perfect spot” in our dense forest to build a fort. I am amazed how much wood three motivated boys can transport in a short time. (I’ll probably lend a hand if we have down time). Since then we have kept them too busy to do much fort construction. Later I overheard one say to the others in the forest, “There might be a bear out here so we should make noise.” I hadn’t told him that so smiled that these must have been a parent’s concerned words. We took them to lunch on a big ship (200 yards long) when it docked. I figured they would be impressed by the size. Few places would let them be 20 feet from a docking ship. They looked but somewhere in the observing one realized the snow grate floor of the dock could be spit through. Soon the ship was out of mind as they each tried to exercise their salivary glands to the max and watch the splash in the ocean thirty feet below. We took them for lunch at the lodge. One side of the restaurant is all glass. The view is magnificent and several yachts were visible. We seated the boys where they could take in the view. Each table has binoculars. Instead of scanning the view the boys were looking at the table with them, or turned them around to look at things smaller. I had to smile. On a walk through primeval forest with a ranger three boys got bored quickly and ran ahead. We did not need to worry about bears the rest of the 1.5 hour hike as the boys made plenty of noise.

We walked out the dock to the end floats. One at a time I readied their poles with lures. “Be conscious of where your hook is at all times.” Every other cast I had to untangle reels. A little later Micah yelled, “Hey!!! I got one!!” The other two looked on in amazement. None of them knew how to fight a fish, so he just cranked away while the fish pulled against the drag. A foot long flounder appeared, his first fish ever, and he caught it all by himself. The other two now wanted to fish in exactly the same spot. For fishhook safety I spread them out and instructed Jonah to go to the other end of the float. He went reluctantly but soon was yelling himself with a fish on. This one was what the locals call a “double-ugly” (for reason) about thirteen inches long. Now sad Jay was the only one without a fish. After a few hours I told them we were going to have to leave. Jay kept casting and then yelled. It was another double ugly. All three had the hang of casting by the time we walked toward the truck. And Papa was proud to help two of them catch their first fish.

We gave them pocket knives, “tool” instructions, and safety talk the first evening. The desire to sharpen sticks was overwhelming. Soon they had the knives out in places where they shouldn’t, like the truck back seat. And I saw one running with his open, so decided to collect the knives, much to the boys chagrin. They will get them back for a second try, and hopefully realize I meant what I said about safety. They bring back latent memories of my childhood. I don’t think I wanted to listen at that age either.

This morning we walked to an old (1957) airplane crash site in the forest. The boys really enjoyed that. Where else can they climb all over a large crashed airplane? Then a second day of kayak time this afternoon. Micah was tired the first day we kayaked so wanted to nap instead. Thus he is a little behind the other boys in practice. Jay took to kayaking like a duck to water. Jonah isn’t far behind. I get a workout getting the kayaks loaded here and unloaded at the pond, and then the reverse when we go home.

Getting into a kayak it dumped both myself and Jonah (at separate times) into shallow water. We have had no history of that instability here on the river, so I suspect the problem is related to the steepness of bank putting them in the shallow pond where the grandkids practice. The upshot is I got both my camera and cell phone wet in my inadvertent bath. After a day in a bowl of dry rice the phone started working again. The verdict on the camera is still pending. It was in the case and got only a little moisture. We are hoping it didn’t get wet in a vital spot. The bummer part is if the camera dies we won’t get any pix of the grandkids activities for the next ten days. (update: After two days in the rice the camera came back to life, hopefully permanently.)

Rain most of the time they have been here. All their pants are wet. Paulette isn’t happy about that. I said let them wear them anyway. She is reluctant to do that. It is tough with this many people, three very active, in a close space, but we are managing.

A neighbor called late yesterday and said a black bear had just wandered past and was headed our way. I guess it got detoured because we never saw it and after an hour I let the boys go outside. So far the boys have seen only eagles. Saturday morning they are outside playing Starwars. Sounds like the whole planet is in danger. Even the neighbors dogs are barking.

Oh, Micah informed me of his own volition he wants to come again next year.