Ellie's 7th Birthday
Monte Rio
Oct. 10, 2004
While I tried to round up the 1st graders and herd them over ouchy rocks into the rowboat, Em, Kindy & Monica made like pirates and stole the Avon dinghy, dragging it upstream and paddling out of shouting range. Before I knew it, they were just specs in the distance, three white heads and a gray boat. Once I had the younger ones into the rowboat, I tried to fire up the Mercury, but the river was low and it was slow going keeping the prop above the gravelly bottom. As we finally got going, I could see that the gray boat was quite a distance from the three heads: two were splashing in the river trying to make their way towards it, while a third was running down the long length of rock island towards us, for help.
