When I was a child, we spent a lot of our vacation time going to my father's boss' cabin in Vermont. It was free, and my parents had a relatively tight budget after buying a newer larger home and trying to feed 3 kids. We loved it there. It's an A frame, and has a river in the back (about 30 feet from the house), and is a 10 minute walk from a very quaint town which consisted of a "general store" (which got more and more touristy over the years), a market, a hardware store, and our favorite ... The Chocolate Barn.

When we went, during my childhood, we spent a lot of time driving to different parts of Vermont, and going to outlet malls. To stores. To different town's general stores. We did not ski - it was too expensive. We shopped. That was it. We didn't like shopping very much - at least, my brother, my sister, my father, and myself did not like shopping very much. Mom did.

This past weekend, I took my kids to the same cabin. My Beloved and I had made some plans of what we were going to do.

The river behind the cabin is one of two forks -- the lesser of the two. It is always really dry, with lots of rocks which have always been as easy to cross as a dusty path. We were then going to traverse the "island" to the major branch of the river, hike along it to where the two rejoin, and then find our way back home through town.

But when I finally got around to looking out the sliding glass door on Saturday morning -- the river was FULL!! There were little white caps. I think I yelled, "What is going on with the RIVER!!!" I went out to look, and the water was coming up onto the grass! It was very strange, and something I'd never seen -- in all of my 30+ years of going there. We finished our delicious breakfast (brunch) cooked by the Family Cook Extraordinaire (um, NOT ME!!), and prepared to go and see if we could still cross the river and complete our plans.

no way. The thing was RUSHING. Not only was it rushing, but there were kayaks and canoes going by! This was the same river that was usually a bed of dry rocks??? We went down river a bit, and found that it was so deep with strong currents. It was so beautiful.

So we got in our Zipcar, and drove to the State Park a 1/2 mile up the road. how long had I said I'd been going to this cabin? 30+ years. And I'd never ONCE been to the State Park 1/2 mile up the road. And you know -- it might have been 1/4 mile up the road.

They had signs posted, "Whitewater Weekend!" The park ranger took $9 from me and explained that twice a year, they open the Ball Mountain Dam. He said it's a giant kayaking event, and people come from all over. he showed us a map of the park, and we decided we were going to hike the trails and watch the kayakers.

The girls were thrilled. We stopped at a few points along some rapids (in MY river? Rapids?) and watched the kayakers do their best to conquer the rapids. The first time I saw a kayak flip, my heart stopped. I thought the person was in trouble. Then he flipped back up, made his way over to the side of the river and sort of caught his breath for a couple minutes, and went on. In this one really wacky rapid-place near a giant boulder, people were waiting in line to paddle UPriver, and get re-caught in the rapids, get re-flipped in their kayak, and then go back to the back fo the line to do it again.

There were HUNDREDS of kayaks on the river.

We then got to a split-off trail which advertised itself as leading to an "overlook" in .5 miles.

When we lived in CA, we had (have) close friends who were avid hikers, and we went with them often. Thing One and Thing Two were littler, and they whined a lot. It annoyed me. I would find time to go with my friend alone as much as possible so I didn't get Whined At.

But this weekend - my girls did their momma proud! They HIKED! My Beloved and I were hard pressed to keep up with the little sprites! It was quite a climb. A gorgeous and wonderful climb, and the girls were all for it.

We arrived at the overlook about 45 sweaty minutes later, and it was amazing. Mountains all around, the river a tiny squiggle down below, the air fresh, the breeze seeming SO LOUD, and us all feeling great. Well, sort of. Thing One got slightly freaked out by the height. She relaxed after a bit though, and I can't wait to go print my pictures.

It did strike me, however, that I had been going to this part of Vermont for 30+ years!! And we never ONCE went hiking. My Beloved and I are already planning on finding some beginning ways to get the 4 of us into a canoe, or a river raft, or something that perhaps can work us up to enjoying the river (hopefully right side up) like those we saw. (The canoes and rafts stayed above the water, so perhaps I'll pick one of those, at least for the times the kids are with us!).

But all my parents ever did was go SHOPPING. We had the world's best day outside, hiking, sweating, oogling over the river. I wonder why we never did more stuff like that when I was little? Or at least littler?

I suppose this is what we do. We grow up, we find our own definitions. We create our own families. I hope my children don't grow up wondering why we always went HIKING, when we could have spent all that time SHOPPING.

When I woke up this a.m., the river was dry again. Thing One wanted so badly to cross it, and do yesterday's plan. I was afraid, however, that "Whitewater Weekend" meant both Saturday and Sunday, and that we would cross the river, and then get stuck. We didn't have as much time budgeted for today, because we had to drive home, and I had a lot of laundry to do. And we had to get the house ready for the week, and my Beloved has his first day of a New Job tomorrow, and we had to go through the homework folders, etc.

Oh yeah, and I'm in law school. Oops.

posted by Zuska @ 10:53 PM

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