On the river

Yesterday, my husband and I, and our son and his wife and her sister, and our daughter and her husband and their son and her husband’s parents all had a blissful ‘staycation’.

Here’s Jim and me with our beloved little grandson, watching the world go by, thanks to the gigantic paddle wheels.

copyright Chloe Findlay-Harder

We had a magical ride on the Edmonton Riverboat Queen, which paddles up and down the North Saskatchewan River in the heart of Edmonton, Alberta.

I have driven, walked, and biked over the river.  I have walked along it, and even dabbled my feet in it, but I have Never. Been. ON. it.

Jim and our son and his wife have all canoed and kayaked it, but not me.

I am a ‘fire’ person, not so much, well, not at all, a’ water’ baby.

But, oh, my goodness! I really got it about how wonderful it is to be ‘messing about in boats’, as Ratty in Wind in the Willows always says….

It was ‘time out of time’, and I had a whole new sense of the history of the city, as we saw how the original people of this land would have seen it.

And, also, how the Voyageurs would have paddled their gigantic loads up and down it.

The rain had been pelting down, so it started out cool and overcast, but in typical Alberta summer fashion, the sun soon poured through and layers came off.

We topped off the afternoon with a wonderful picnic, and the singing of variations on birthday greeting songs, as many of the family are summertime babies.

Truly a magical day, filled with beautiful times.

I am blessed.

🙂