Today was the longest day of the year, but it was cloudy and it rained all day. It didn’t exactly feel like the pinnacle of summer. There was no infinite sunlight and no brilliant sunset.
Even so, we joined Katie’s family for a Father’s Day boat ride on the lower St. Croix. It rained off and on so we kept the bimini up and huddled underneath it for the most part, sipping drinks and snacking, enjoying the much-reduced boat traffic on the river.
The river and its valley are very broad there, flanked by well-proportioned bluffs of hardwoods mixed with white pines, cabins and homes generally concealed in the woods. Cruising along the banks, I wonder about the little beaches with fire pits and volleyball nets under arching cottonwoods. In such an expansive place, I can look around and see in just that one glance more than I will ever know.
We anchored at the outlet of a nameless coulée where the sand extended into the river. When the rain let up, I wandered around the sandbar with Lola splashing around too. The saturated air made a view of any distance up or down the river valley a picture of haziness, merging the colors of the green river banks, the blue river and the gray sky into a romantic and mysterious vista.
Later, we grilled dinner at Katie’s parents’ house. The rain really came down while we tended the grill. I stood talking with her dad and her brother under big patio umbrellas. It was still perfectly warm and the rain fell straight down. The trees and other foliage couldn’t have been a darker shade of green and I appreciated that this too is part of summer.
Birds call from the bluffs
Waves lap against sandy shores
I swim in the river
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This is why I prefer my Father’s Day events indoors. Nothing but good times then.