For Father’s Day, we bought my dad a kayak.

This was last year.

Since then, I’ve had a few people ask me if we ever took it out on the water. The answer was no, until recently.

We drove a ways to a nearby lake, perfect for kayaking as it has a marked off section for kayaks alone.

My biggest curiosity was how he was gonna launch himself into the water.

Husband and wife teamwork! In retrospect, I suppose us kids should’ve done something.

But someone had to take the pictures!

My dad has been wanting to go kayaking for the longest time, so this was a big deal. We all watched as he went farther and farther out, playing a version of Where’s Waldo? when we couldn’t see him anymore.

There was also a lot of joking about him “getting stuck.” The lake literally gave us a “if you need a tow” number to call if he were to find himself stuck in the middle of the lake.

I found this more hilarious than life threatening and entertained myself with different scenarios of the idea for quite some time. Imagine him stuck in the middle of the lake yelling, “WHAT’S THE NUMBER? FIFTY-FOUR? FIFTEEN, FOUR?? WHAT??”

I also found something that strangely made me feel right at home.

It was a floating head! “Head” being the military term for “bathroom.” I missed calling a bathroom a head. It took me back to my Sea Cadet years. I gave a little sigh.

My little brother and I laughed over the name being the “S.S. Relief.”

There was no diving allowed off the S.S. Relief.

We had brought chairs, but my little brother and I sat on the S.S. Relief as we looked out on the lake and at the people.

I also brought a book.

I know it’s sad. I’m still reading An Abundance Of Katherines. I’m on page 167 now, and I was wondering if you guys would like to do a little book club on my blog. We could read a book together and do a little Q&A and discuss it here. Thoughts?

It was fun being by the lake. I would love to do a lot of my writing there if I had a laptop that held charge (first world problems).

We weren’t there long. My dad returned after a good forty-five minutes, saying that he probably needed to watch a few more YouTubes before he became a true pro. Kayaking takes a lot out of you.

They’re now thinking the four of us should take kayaking lessons as a family. Though the thought of me being stuck in the middle of the lake somehow doesn’t sound as funny. .

We’ll see.