That is a direct quote from my daughter. Apparently our vacation was a bit too low-key for her taste. We arrived at the cabin on Friday night (the 20th) and when we woke up Saturday morning, she asked, "How many days do we have to STAY here?" On the second day, she advised us that relaxing is just downright boring. I told her what my mother used to tell me: only the boring get bored. Also, my sisters and I, in our youth, quickly learned never to use the B word within earshot of the woman who gave birth to us. All you had to do was form the thought in your mind and you'd have a bottle of 409 and a mop in your hand before you could fully articulate your state of utter ennui. I have not said the B word aloud in some 35 years. The woman is six states away from me now but I would not put it past her to overnight some Windex up here if she thought I might be bored. We did try our best to entertain the kid while on vacation. I bought her some watercolor paints and a pad of paper. She spent one afternoon churning out rainbows at an alarming rate. I bought a deck of Crazy 8's cards. We played, she cheated. We took her out for ice cream twice (and this was no small feat, as the nearest ice cream joint was a good 30 minutes away from the lake). We made a fire and had s'mores (she doesn't like to eat the fully-assembled s'more, though - she insists on consuming the raw ingredients separately). Sunday was hot, so we swam in the lake. On Wednesday, we went hiking at a nearby state park. We even took a detour to a look-out tower, an excursion that involved a hundred million steps, give or take.
The TV in the cabin only gets two channels, and both are PBS. So, we watched some educational programming and children's shows. I am not sure why there aren't more channels - something to do with the remoteness of the lake, I suppose. I can't exactly ask my friend, "Hey, thanks for letting us use your beautiful cabin for free and all, but can you possibly hook us up with Nickelodeon next time?" P and I read a lot. I plowed through about 250 pages of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." He read nerdy books. The dogs laid around like carcasses. For the most part, we just spent lots of quality family time. A likes to play a game she calls "tackle hug." She starts out from across the room and winds up her arms. Then she flies at her target (and for a petite little croissant, let me just say that she runs FAST) and delivers the hug. When she tackle hugs me, I get an elbow to the boob ten times out of ten. One day at the cabin, she yelled "tackle hug!" and flew at P. Annnnnnd plowed full-force into his groin with her knee. He gasped. I think I literally saw the stars he was seeing at that moment. The kid had no idea why her dad was doubled over - a tackle hug should really be a joyous moment, you know. All I can say is that I'm glad I don't need his nads for anything, since we can't reproduce anyway.So, that's our vacation in a nutshell. The four-hour drive was the only real challenge (particularly when someone asks "are we there yet?" and we are still on our own street). The trip was very enjoyable, despite the wee one's boredom. Next year I'm hoping one of my sisters can come so that A has cousins with whom to play and to cheat at Crazy 8's.
