Memories of Childhood

Everyone has something that stands out from their childhood.  When they look back, it’s the first thing that they remember.  For me, it was my family’s annual summer trip on our sail boat to the 1000 Islands near Kingston, Ontario.  Every summer we took three weeks holidays – one week to sail down Lake Ontario from Toronto to Kingston, one week spent relaxing in the 1000 Islands, and one week to sail home.

My memories of those times include:  camp fires, exploring the islands, swimming, reading on the deck of our boat, sailing, windsurfing, sunbathing, camping out, early morning freezing cold swims instead of showers, fishing, picking blueberries, making new friends, ogling the handsome Parks Canada summer employees, eating all the bad foods that we weren’t allowed on a regular basis at home, making pizza in an outdoor wood stove, and even some very wicked storms.  Those were the best of times!

My parents now live in Kingston, Ontario and still own a sail boat, so a few summers ago we decided to introduce my two sons to the sailing life over a long weekend.  We sailed from Kingston and spent the weekend at a couple of our favourite islands.  The boys had a blast.  You have to understand – we live in a small rural village in the country with about an hour drive to any large body of water, so they had never experienced life on the water before.  They explored, fished, and swam, just like I did at their age and younger.  It was so nice to be able to share that experience with them, so they could understand a little more about my childhood.  I hope they will always remember that weekend.  It was very hard to pick just one picture to post today because each one shows a different aspect of the 1000 Islands experience, but this is one of my favourites because of the sense of peace it conveys.