Floating for Two

We took a family vacation the week before last. In many ways it was our first. So many of the trips we have taken have either been as a result of set itineraries. There is a wedding... This trip had no set agenda for five days except going to Pere Marquette State Park.

Claire and I have different ways of traveling. She starts packing way in advance and doesn't forget the kitchen sink. I throw stuff in one small bag the night before and hope that I remember to grab the toothbrush in the morning. While I wonder if we need the sink she notes I am packin three cameras, a computer, an Ipod, and a portable DVD player--although in all fairness the Dvd player helps Amelia pass the time. I like to leave at the crack of dawn and come back at the last minute. Claire says she would like to lounge in the morning but is cleaning or doing something by 8:00. I truely can sit till 10:00 or later So Tuesday morning I felt like I was flying standby as I waited for Claire to announce we would leave. I wanted to ask but didn't. It tried my patience but I was trying to give her the leisurely start she had dreamed of. So at noon we were leaving , literally eating sandwiches as the car pulled out of the driveway and I'm wondering why we didn't stay home for fifteen more minutes. Claire does not need to go far while I pre fer something somewhat far and new.

The trip to Pere Marquete grew out of a trip Amelia and I took this spring to see Dad. She and I spent a night at the lodge built by the Conservation Corps in the 30s because I had always wanted to stay there and Amelia always wants to stay at a hotel with a pool "to swim" although she does not. We had a good time and thought it looked like a place that Claire would like. We came home and told her about our trip and how it was the kind of place she would like. On this trip I learned that she had heard that we wanted to take her there and so she planned our vacation there. So we drove six plus hours to a place I already knew--but we had a great time.

Amelia has not yet learned to swim. She will be taking lessons this summer and is looking forward to them but she doesn't want to do any of those things that everyone wants you to do when you learn to swim. Her idea of swimming involves a life vest that she has now out grown. (We are getting her another for boating and canoeing.) She can hop in three feet of water for eternity, enjoys it and calls it swimming.

Now I am not a great swimmer having been taught in what always felt like a 'let me drag you out to deep water and let you go' fashion. I still don't like to have my head under water. I think I was 40 before I actually learned to float on my back and figured out it was easy, could be done forever, and doesnt require putting your head under water. So I can empathize with a six year old who doesn't want to leave the 3ft 6in mark and calls hopping swimming.

I stayed in the pool for hours on end for those four days playing with Amelia. I would occassionally offer to help her float and she wanted no part of it. We had alot of talks which ended with me saying that I wasn't going to make her try anything she didn't want. I spent a lot of time floating on my back--I have grown to love it--as I didn't want to be on the opposite end of the pool from my girl as I am not a terrrific swimmer. By the third day she let me hold her in a float position once or twice and wanted to be pulled around the pool.

On our final morning before checking out we went to the pool one last time and Amelia said, "Popi, I want to do it." "Do what?," I asked and she told me she wanted to float on her back. I said think of something pleasant, visualize it, and keep it in your mind. She did that and began to float on my hand. After we had done it several times I asked if I could lower my hands but stay right there. She agreed. She floated but in her excitement went down. We talked about keeping focused and then she floated for a minute and a half. Amelia told me her pleasant memory, which should not have come as a suprise as she has cited it before; it was the day she got Mulligan and Boz out of barrels at the Rain Forest Cafe.

Amelia was so proud as was I, and then we challenged each other for Mulligan repeatedly so of course she had to float longer then her father on the final float. It was the highlight of my vacation.

We went hiking, saw deer and birds, took in KAmpsville and the Koster site. The Koster site was a little depressing in that the old limestone house has fallen into a bad state of repair--its roof has collapsed in and the farm house looks care worn. Ted Koster kept an immaculate place--now it looks old. Of course the hole is gone. Th 93 flood also wiped out most of Kampsville as I knew it--there are a lot of empty lots. In the museum there was a 1976 photo of someome standing in front of the grocery store that is now the museum that Claire swears is me--although I am a doubting Thomas.