The Boys' Excellent Adventure

[Devana 0]

<p>My 14 yr old has been studying art history at school. He and a friend were so inspired by the "Group of Seven" (Canadian artists) that they wanted to emulate them. They decided to "go into the wilderness and paint".</p> <p> </p> <p>The "wilderness" is a little island just out in front of where we live. The problem is, is that we're on an estuary, right at the end of one of those mud bottomed fingers and are very dependent on tides. We can only get out to (and back again for that matter) the main Water at high tide. It's a very narrow window of opportunity.</p> <p> </p> <p>They couldn't get out to the island until 8:00 pm last night, and so they went, with the boat laden with camping supplies, art supplies and enough food to feed an army.</p> <p> </p> <p>It lasted until 5 am when I heard them coming into the house. </p> <p>It turns out that they got a bit creeped out by all the drumming that was going on nearby. There is a First Nations' longhouse on the other side of the bay where all night ceremonies are sometimes held. When we're at home, going out in the middle of the night and hearing the drumming is kind of nice, but I guess when you're kids sleeping out alone it can be a bit unnerving.</p> <p>Then they looked and thought they observed the tide going out and figured they had better get back. They loaded up just a few things and headed home, but couldn't make it all the way because there was not enough water. So they hauled the boat up on the estuary grass and walked the rest of the way.</p> <p> </p> <p>I had shown the knuckleheads the tide tables and I thought they understood that 6 am was the time they had to come home. They crashed out into bed and slept through the high tide. There won't be another one until 11pm tonight.</p> <p> </p> <p>So my husband helped them bring everything home. It involved some wading and mud and he said it was the continuation of the adventure for them.</p> <p> </p> <p>So they're home, dry, happy and fed and consider their adventure a success in that they stayed up most of the night and have some wonderful artwork to show for it.</p> <p> </p> <p>I love kids!</p>