Evening on Lake Quinsigamond...
It was a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky (for once!), not particularly hot, and a gentle breeze whispered through the trees. Too bad I had to work indoors all day.
I had loaded the boat on the way to work, hoping that the good weather would hold. And it did. I had planned to leave a bit early, but meetings and conversations with co-workers swept away my sense of time. Before I realized it, leaving early was no longer an option.
I dashed down to G's house. G leaves on the banks of the Lake Quinsigamond. I had been promising for weeks that I would bring the boat to her house so we could kayak on the lake. Finally, my schedule and hers coincided!
We get the boats down into the water and push off. It's a bit late for starting out, close to 6:30 and we only have about an hour and a half before it's dark. I don't have any lights with me so staying out on the water in the dark is not going to happen.
The water is calm, with the occasional motor boat causing a wake that we easily ride through. Poor G has some kind of white water kayak that is not suited for paddling in a straight line, but she gets her beast under control and we leisurely paddle down to the other side of the lake. The shoreline is filled with a wide variety of houses. Some that are run down and others that are huge and obviously very expensive. Everyone has a dock, of course. We pass one where a woman is feeding the ducks and swans something. There must have been about a hundred ducks surrounding that dock, all squawking and quacking and just have a good old time. Quite the party for the birds.
As the sun starts going down, we turn around and head back to G's dock. We pass a number of small cottages that are the archetype of lake community homes from the '50s. Small cottages, all in a row. It's an image from a very different time.
The amazing thing about this area is that despite it being very densely populated, it's amazingly quiet. We get back to the dock and just float for awhile. As the sky darkens, the lights come on around the lake. It's an incredibly beautiful view.
But, we're hungry, so we don't linger long. We get the boats out of the water and I decide I might as well get my boat loaded on the car before it gets completely dark. After loading my boat, we forget completely about G's boat, which she left on the little beachlet near the dock. We grab the food and start the grill. We're chatting away when G says, "Is that your boat?" pointing out towards the middle of the lake. Of course not...my boat is on my car. We suddenly realize that G's kayak has decided to take a trip all by itself and it is now drifting away from home. Brave, little kayak! G borrows a kayak from one of her housemates and goes out to rescue the little creature!
After that excitement, we settle down to cooking and eating. A fine evening was had by all.
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