Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Stranded On The Icy Shores of Ghost Lake

When I was growing up, I learned to waterski on the weedy shallows of Chestermere Lake, just east of Calgary, pulled behind a boat that we borrowed for a summer or two. When we moved to the NW part of town, we bought a boat of our own and switched to Ghost Dam Reservoir (aka Ghost Lake), which is west of town. It's also dreadfully cold.


My family sold the boat long ago, but R's family still has a boat, which was purchased several decades ago, back when her Grandparents owned a pair of cabins on Invermere Lake. The boat is showing its age a bit, but it's still a lot of fun to take it out to Ghost Lake for skiing. This year, Scott had his first experience with the boat.


Unfortunately, that first experience was somewhat limited by a carburetor issue, and the boat never made it away from the dock. However, Scott still got to play in the frigid waters with his trusty life jacket and sun hat. It was a pretty hot day when they went (I believe I was at work or something).


It's fun to see Scott playing with his cousin H, who is just 6 months older. Although they frequent wrestle each other for desirable toys and shiny objects, they are gradually turning into good buddies -- and the wrestling produces more laughing and less screaming.


It's tons of fun to have cousins and aunts and uncles around to play with -- especially on those days when the boat isn't working.

(Scott's talented uncles managed to get the boat running and properly tuned for subsequent outings.)

3 comments:

Lisa and Doug said...

I love Scott in the last photo! So cute!

Anonymous said...

AAAH! The fun days of Chestermere and Ghost ! Scott looks like he is quite at home in his life jacket and hat--very cute !

Grandma Walters said...

I sure remember all the YEARS we spent at our cabin at Scofield and the boat and the skiing and the fishing and the fun and etc. etc. etc. So glad the Canadian cousins are having some of those same experiences. Ask Helen about any of her memories there. Actually Rachelle was blessed in the chapel there! All the kids learned to ski there, it was Grandpa's boat the first few years until he passed away and it came down to us for several years. Later we gave it to Grandpa's brother and we bought our own, later gave to Ken, who later sold it...too small for the 8 of them! History lesson
101.