Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was one nice day after another. The weather continues to be unseasonably warm. Saturday afternoon was warm enough that Betty and I took our first swim of the season. "Swim" in the sense that we waded into the fifty degree water until it was over our knees and then took a quick dive forward. Very refreshing!

Saturday evening Ken and Sandy (our neighbors to the east) invited us over for a BBQ. Betty's cousins from around the corner (Ed, Diane, Janet, Jennifer, Roman, and children) rounded out the crowd and we had good food and pleasant company; extending the time outdoors with a beach fire to keep off the chill.

On Sunday my friend Brian and his twins (pictured at top) arrived for an overnight stay. It was their first time at our cabin and we had a lot of fun with them. The two boys immediately ran pell-mell down the hill to the water's edge and began throwing twigs and wood chunks into the lake to watch them float away. I quickly started a beach fire in the firepit which solved two problems: the boys had something to fully occupy their attention and the beach was quickly cleared of any wood that an eight-year old could carry. After awhile they began asking questions about the boats and we soon had them outfitted with life jackets, kayak paddles, the little gray kayak for Oliver, and the surfboard for Mason. Neither had been alone in a boat before but it didn't take long for Oliver to acquire enough control to ram the surfboard and knock Mason into the water (Mason was showing off his skills by standing up while paddling). The alacrity with which Mason was able to get back on the board was reassuring for the adult observers.

The paddling was only interrupted when they became fearful that the fire was going out. Their afternoon was nicely interleaved with fire-tending and kayak racing.

In mid-afternoon we had a visit from my cousins, Bob and Myrna. They have a house in Polson and came out to catch up with us "for just a few minutes". After I got a good fire going in the pizza oven it did not take too much to convince them to stay for pizza (first pizza of the year out of the Flathead oven) and then stay longer for marshmallows and conversation around the beach fire into the late evening hours.

Monday was more kayaking and fire tending. Oliver was ready for a longer paddle so I gave him a guided tour out to Mercer's Point and back--a long way for such a young paddler! He would have happily gone around the point, but I told him we had to stay in sight of the cabin.

After we got back to shore Betty took a paddle west around the corner to Gannon's to get the water view of their remodeling project. Basically the Gannons are taking an old one-story summer cabin and building a nice two-story house around it. It is turning out very well, I'll try to post some pictures later.

After her paddle Betty took another swim--she is now one swim ahead of me for the year (but who is counting?).

Around two pm it was time to say our goodbyes. Brian played fire chief while the boys manned the bucket brigade to get the fire completely out. I mean that fire was Smokey-the-Bear out!

Brian and the boys packed up and shoved off and shortly after Betty and I headed for the Missoula airport. Betty flew back to Oregon for work on Tuesday (not everyone gets a sabbatical). After saying goodbye to Betty I caught up with my sister Jane. She was in Missoula for MisCon 24, selling her wares in the merchants hall. The event had closed and she was just finishing the load-out so we had a chance to have a meal and catch up before she hit the road to Ritzville, WA.

Since I was in the big city I took advantage and made a trip to Target to get a few items that were needed in the cabin (new bath mat, shower curtain, etc).

Driving back to the cabin I hit a thunder shower, 10 minutes of hard rain and then cloudy skies for the rest of the trip. Getting back to the cabin I was suddenly weary and took an early evening--the first gray evening since I arrived. I was asleep when Betty phoned to let me know that she was safely on the ground at PDX.