Weekend at the Cabin

As I predicted in my last blog, we are back from the country with flybites, slight sunburns, and adventures to report. We are very fortunate to have unlimted use of my parents' cabin, about 45 minutes outside of town, what friends in more upscale places would call "lakefront property" (we call it "on a pond"), which my parents maintain and upkeep apparently for our sole benefit, since we use it a lot more than they do. It's a sweetheart deal and I'm not about to question it.

Weekends in the country consist of a lot of swimming -- the water in the pond is quite, quite cold but as long as it's sunny and the temperature is above 20, you can't keep the kids out of the water -- as well as cruising in our "flotilla" -- the canoe, the paddleboat, and the inflatable boat. My personal favourite way to enjoy the pond is lying in the inflatable boat while somebody tows me behind the paddleboat. There may be a better way to spend a summer afternoon but I haven't found it yet.

We had beautiful sunny days up there both Saturday and Sunday (though a little windy Sunday) but woke up this morning to gray skies and a steady rain, so we packed up and came home a little earlier than planned. Two days of fun in the sun is as much as most Newfoundlanders will ask for: we'd be greedy to expect more.

The kids love the cabin, and we can tell how they're growing by the new skills they master each year. They both still need lifejackets on to swim in the pond, but they can now paddle the paddleboat by themselves and on this trip Christopher began learning to paddle the canoe. It's also a great trip for our dog, Max, who can roam freely in the woods and swim in the lake (providing a minor hazard to shipping, as he likes to follow whatever boat we're in). As for me, I think I enjoy the cabin even more now that I'm an adult and bringing my own kids up, than I did when I was a kid myself.

It always amazes me that our 21st-century children are so happy to spend the weekend at the cabin, with no TV, DVDs or computer games to amuse them. And it takes so little to make them happy -- just a constant supply of hot sunny weather, a lake right in front of the door, and two parents available 24 hours a day to drop everything and play with them.

Come to think of it, there's nothing so wrong with DVDs and computer games, is there??