Summer Nights.....

And so it was. Just as Fall threatened to scoop up the eternal fire of summer within...it happened. Two nights filled with utter and complete summer activities renewed that sense of sunshine in my spirit and has set me up for a great day. First we went up to the lake after taking Zachary out of school an hour early (scandalous for it was only the 3rd day of school) in order to get in as much boat time as possible. Charlie was there...the captain of our ship, also released from the confines of school a bit early as we could not have gone without him. We toodled around the lake that was as smooth as smooth could be. So flat in fact that you could see a complete reflection of the sky dancing on top of it. So smooth that when Charlie took a sharp turn it almost felt as slippery as ice. The kids swam off the back in Job's Creek, we then went to the sandbar where there was NOBODY! In fact the entire lake was ours for the taking. We then made our way into George's Mills and sent the kids off to the store to buy anything they wanted within a 20 dollar limit! They were in heaven. Ahhh....summer. No restraints, no rules, no schedules. Perhaps that is what I love the most about it!! We ended our evening eating out in Sunapee Harbor at Bubba's. The kids took one final swim off the public dock and then we made our way home across the lake with a million bats swooping down on us. There was nobody else for them to detect! And as I left I saw the moon over the water. A beautiful crescent moon, and I took a deep breath, thankful for one last night on the boat, just women and kids having a great time and savouring every moment possible. "Those summer nights..."
And so we had to have more!! Of course! Emma and Maddie, being the prep school girls that they are don't start school with the rest of the public, and so Lisa and Maddie came over yesterday and we drove up to Ogunquit with the roof off the jeep, the wind blowing through our hair and hair...well...hair just everywhere!! When we arrived we were shocked at how crowded it was. Were we not the ONLY ones with this idea? Apparently not!
As we searched for the perfect spot on the beach our body temperatures rose with each step in the passing sand. It was HOT!! It was hotter than hot. It was THE hottest day of the year as far as we could remember. We could barely set up our chairs before stripping and running to the water...the water that was frigid. Not the foot-numbing frigid, just the frigid that made for slow going getting in. The waves were ENORMOUS!! So large in fact that I was a bit hesitant of them. And then it hit me. THE biggest wave of my life and I was IN it. I was in that place that was no man's land, the place you do NOT want to be as the wave crests and curls over your head and scoops you up like a grain of sand tossing you about as your legs and arms hurl around you like loose appendages. I could only hope for the ride to end soon, as I needed air. Where was the ground? I could not have told you and when I finally did come up for air, there were Lisa, Maddie and Emma all smiling and laughing at me. My hair was completely disheveled and well...I couldn't see or breath or even talk. Respect for the water renewed itself as I moved in a bit closer to the shore telling Emma and Maddie to follow suit. They laughed at me and told me that I should have dived into it. That was what they did...but they were just that much further out than me. They did not understand and it was not until Lisa had the same experience that she looked at me, hair drooping in her eyes, mouth open in horror that she said "I think I have had enough!" Never mind the times that she would look to a wave, see it's enormity, look at me, start to run and say, "Nothing good is going to come of this!" And so it went. Sometimes you could escape the wrath of the wave and others...you were a pawn in it's game. There was no telling for sure, but trying to find that "just right" spot where you could either "pop it" or "ride it" or "go into it" was key. It was that space in between that was the danger zone!!
But these waves did not keep us out of the water. No, it was too HOT for that. And so we would all go in together and honestly, Emma and Maddie were better at navigating the waves than Lisa or I. I can just hear Lisa now...no, that is not true!! But it was!
As the day was winding down a surfer flew past us in an emergent fashion. I perked up and watched as he headed out to gather a few people that seemed to be in trouble. Within minutes, there were several surfers and I could tell that these people were being swept away in a riptide. The surfers swam parallel and eventually brought them all in! Of course we found out later that the hurricane Hanna was wreaking havoc on the oceans and that there were warnings all over the radio. Sorry we were listening to the i-pod on the way up! We decided it was better that we didn't know because we would have been even more scared than we already were!! We topped our day off with Emma and Maddie's first lobsters at Barnacle Billys, an ice cream cone and a drive home in the topless jeep. It was the warmest of warm nights and we belted out American Pie and then songs from Grease...pulling into the driveway, all four of us singing at the top of our lungs..."Those summer niiiiiiights." Tell me more...there is no more to tell. It was sheer perfection. It was the savouring of the last of our summer nights...that is until next year. And although I have ordered my sunlamp in an effort to ward off the fall blues...this was the perfect medicine for me! Those summer nights.....