Ducks in a row

My daughter and I were canoeing in a swampy cove the other night when we saw six--no, seven mallard ducks all sitting on a tree limb stretched over the water, but the minute I reached for the camera, they scattered.

That's kind of how our family vacation weekend went: one cabin, three cars, two boats, five adults, and one baby gathered and scattered, grouped in various configurations: the two young men on the sailboat, the two women in the canoe, and grampa with the baby; grampa and daughter in the canoe, mother and son playing Bananagrams, daddy with the baby. I think we had every possible combination of adult pairs in the canoe without ever throwing the baby to the wolves.

But of course we saw no wolves. On the first night we heard a great horned owl outside our window and over four days we saw hosts of kingfishers, cormorants, and carp, plus herons and waterfowl and five deer running through the woods. Several fish were caught, none big enough to eat--but that's okay, because we had plenty of food. More than enough. One of the great thing about vacationing with adult children is that one brings the meat and one brings the snacks and I bring the pots and pans and everyone helps in the kitchen and before you know it, we're feasting like kings.

After four days with no cell-phone service, television, radio, or internet access, I feel a little clueless, a little sunburned, a little sore in the lower back, but I wouldn't trade this vacation for all the grading in the universe. I've got the rest of my life to grade papers, but for one weekend I enjoyed having all my ducks in a row.  

And if we have to scatter for a while, well, it's only a matter of time before we gather again.