June 6, 2013

• Usually water sports are front and center at our family reunions, but usually our family reunions take place in August.  We knew this one would be different as we were dealing with Lake Superior in May/June.  The water temp was in the mid-50s.  However, some of us are intrepid, as witness Stephen water skiing.

  

  

  Larissa likes to try new things.  Here she captains the boat for the first time.

  

  Those white patches are snow – on May 29th!  They had 314 inches of snow up there this winter.  It’s not a place for the faint of heart, but it’s beautiful all year round.

  

  Our older granddaughters, Natalie and Catherine.  Every year I take a picture of them in the back of the boat.  In the background the guys get ready for a boat  trip.

  

  

  Alas, boating was cut short this year as the boat hit a rock while going a million miles an hour.  It ripped off the skeg and ruined the prop.  Richard was able to find a new prop up there, but a couple of days later the motor stopped dead when we were several miles up the Portage Canal because of gear problems no doubt caused by hitting the rock.  We called Ken to come get us in a car.  David went to the rescue in his jet ski, but it too died before he could tow the big boat back to the house.  Richard, David and Stephen paddled the boat  a mile and a half to a launching ramp (NOT an easy job as the boat is 21 feet long and heavy) where both it and the jet ski were loaded onto trailers and taken back to the house.  Thus ended boating for this trip. 

  So there were two disasters at sea, and one of our people had a fender bender with a car.  Other than that – things went smoothly .

  • 3:44 pm
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