Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Little Pond, Near Squam Lake. NH

View from the screened porch

I have never been a water person at all. In fact, after 2 near drownings, once in a river and once in a pool, I was mortally afraid of going into deep water as a child. When I was around 13 or so, and hanging out at the pool at the mobile home park I lived in, staying in the shallow end of the pool really became embarrassing. I was a good swimmer, but felt mortally terrified if I couldn't touch the bottom. However, personal embarrassment can be very motivating and one day I just dove into the deep end and swam to the shallow area. I still preferred to swim in pools, rather than bodies of water, but at least I conquered at least one issue that day. And I have kept swimming. I have done many, many laps over the years, especially while I was pregnant.

For the last few years, I have been feeling like we really needed to have a vacation on a lake. This seemed odd because of my pool preference, and also because I have never really done much boating or anything like that either (I get motion sickness very easily). But since I try to pay attention to my instincts, I told Doug we should do a lake vacation this year, since we had decided not to do a full on vacation in Cape Cod (I only go into the ocean up to my waist, by the way) this year.

And so, first thing on our first morning at the lake I found myself swimming along with the kids, from the landing outside our rental house out to a dock, in a very cold lake. Then before I knew it, I was in a canoe with my son, paddling around the lake. Luckily, my kids have not inherited my water fears (I was always careful not to show any of that to them) and they were very helpful in showing me how to use the oars, as well as helping me with the kayak, another experience I have missed out on. Always good to have scouts on hand, who have been kayaking, canoing and swimming for years already. Heh.

With the exception of the two days that it rained, we were in the lake several times each day. Doug took the kids fishing quite a lot and we played a lot of board games and cards. We spent a day shopping at the outlet stores in North Conway, and on another day we went to The Flume Gorge and I took the younger kids on a gondola ride at Loon Mountain, which was very cool (Doug and I did this last year on our little trip to NH) yet unbelievably terrifying. Doug stayed at the bottom with our older son who refused to go on the ride.

Besides spending so much time with the kids, my favorite thing about this vacation was sitting on the screened porch reading books! I read two whole books and got about halfway through The Great Deluge, which coincidentally, I started reading this on nearly the exact day that Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans. I am making an effort to continue to read more each day, mostly because this is a really good book and I'd like to finish it before I forget the first part of it.

Anyway, even though it was a great vacation, we are all glad to be home. I am having some trouble getting back into the flow of things, and am feeling distracted and a bit scattered. But I think things will be smoother when the kids go back to school tomorrow.

Surely you can hear my big sigh of relief about that!

9 comments:

Mary Klein said...

Your vacation on the lake sounds idyllic. I'm imagining the paintings you might do from your time there.

And, yes, I think your "big sigh of relief" was heard as far as Minnesota :) The lake may have been relaxing, but there's nothing quite like that first day of school - for Mom, that is.

Making A Mark said...

Wow - that sounds like the sort of holiday your family will all remember for a very long time.

Lisa Call said...

The vacation sounds wonderful.

I took my kids to the flume last year when we were in the white mountains!

Tracy Helgeson said...

Mary, I am happy to say that the kids were pretty darn happy to get back to school too! Mom can be a real drag sometimes and they are all anxious to see their friends.

Thanks Katherine, I hope it will be something the kids will remember fondly. I know I will.

Hi Lisa, did your kids like it? I thought it was incredible, but two of ours (the super cool preteens) acted like it was no big deal. My daughter had daggers in her eyes every time I took a picture of her:) They came around by the end, but were in such a mood while walking through the Flume!

Shawn McCann said...

Sounds like you had a great time Tracy. Its amazing how relaxed one can get when the craziness of the normal day is gone. You will be back in your groove before you know it.

Melody said...

Sounds like a fabulous vacation Tracy.....I just got back from mine and I too am having a difficult time getting back into the studio. My kids went back two days ago........yeah

Lisa Call said...

My teen coped an attitude of "colorado is better" and couldn't get passed it. He did on the other hand climb on top of one of the rest area structures and in general had inappropriate in-public behavior.

The preteen took his lead. I kept her occupied by taking pictures of her and her dorrito's wrapper throughout the walk.

I did enjoy it - very beautiful.

But I have to say that the east coast "there are way too many people in this small space" part of it did get to me. All my pictures have loads of other people in it - I clogged up traffic a few times as I tried to get some clear shots.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Shawn, It took me about a day to get rid of the feeling that I had something that I had to do. And after getting back it took a few days to remember that I had stuff to do! But the kid's getting back to school really helped with that! I love them dearly, but it is nice to have the house back during the day:)

Melody, of course it CAN take awhile to get back to it after the kids go back, precisely because it is SO great to get the house back:) Good luck!

Lisa, ha, sounds fun! I feel better now. It wasn't that crowded when we were there, I guess the last week of August is a good time to avoid the crowds. You and I probably took the same photos:)

Anonymous said...

I grew up there! Well, in that area. White Mountains of NH. Aw!

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