A'sailn' we did go

Our summer read-aloud for our annual trip back "home" to South Dakota was "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome.  This book, which is the first of a 12-book series was recommended to me years ago by my biggest early homeschooling supporter, Amy.  Amy, who could have a whole post of her own, has been great at giving me lists of great books my kids have to have read to them.  Ah!  Too many tangents I could go with this post, but I'll get back to the point.  Sailing.

"Swallows and Amazons" is about 4 siblings who are having their holiday in the lake country of England.  They have been giving permission to man the little sailboat at the vacation home and have adventure after adventure.  Think "Boxcar Chidlren" meets "Narnia", but the only "magic/fantasy" that happens is in the children's imaginations.  Great read.  As a treat (for all of us) we just started the second of the series, "Swallowdale".

With sailing on our mind it was perfect when our Bishop dropped by unexpectedly, on his way to another part of the diocese, and invited us to his house to go sailing the following weekend.  So, during Labor Day weekend, we made the 2-hour drive up the South Shore of Lake Superior to go sailing.

I volunteered to be a land-lubber since in my old age I've been more prone to motion sickness, and I wanted the older crew to be able to enjoy a nice long adventure without having to turn back for me or for the two littles who would rather not be contained to a sailboat. 

The only disappointment to the kids was that Bishop Peter didn't say "coming about", but rather "watch your head." Since he is a true sailor, they decided they didn't need to correct him.