WATER ADVENTURES

Celebrating Someone Who Was Born on a Friday the 13th

My dad’s birthday between wind and rainstorms

Sometimes things just work out perfectly. Sometimes they seem perfect until the weather decides to make a cut. And sometimes I don’t care and still make the best of the day.

I’ve been away from home for over 7 years now and when I say away from home I mean I’ve lived on different continents for 5 out of those 7 years. It’s not that I don’t like or miss my family and friends but I’m a traveler by heart. I love foreign countries and new challenges.

With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020, I did move back to Germany for a few months for the first time since 2014. While I did find work in my home country, it wasn’t that close to my parents but we did meet up on a regular basis.

The following year I came back for the summer just like this year. Our chosen work environment is now far from home despite me being in the same country. I’m working in northern Germany while my parents live in the south.

As you get older you get wiser and do appreciate the work your parents did and still do for you more and more and try to spend more time with them. Still being about 700km away from them doesn’t allow me to visit them having a 6-day working week.

But since my dad is retired and my mom is having school holidays they decided to come to visit us and explore a region of Germany unknown to them.

It happened to be over my dad’s birthday and by chance, that day fell onto a Monday, our only official day off work.

My parents arrived on Sunday afternoon and still watched my husband and me going up on the plane and landing with our parachutes. I’m sure it’s not easy knowing their daughter is jumping out of planes for a living but they know me for longer.

I’m not the normal kind of person.

Later that afternoon and evening we were sitting together outside our trailer chatting and watching the moon rise above the horizon. The clouds were still lit by the setting sun shining in orange.

Monday was the 13th and my dad’s birthday (yes, he was born on a Friday the 13th and no, that is not bad luck). I didn’t get any presents for him. I don’t buy presents unless you tell me a specific item you’d wish to get for your special day. I rather gift time, a unique trip or an activity spent together.

And so I had planned out the day. With or without the weather in mind we wanted to head out in nature, make a barbeque and go paddling on a lake or river.

The predictions weren’t the best but we didn’t let ourselves get intimidated by the weather forecast. We still packed the car, bought some meat, and drove off. I didn’t want to drive too far and had a small pond in mind that is used by a fishing club mainly over weekends.

Clouds were hanging low above our heads but we decided to get out on the water anyway. I tried to convince my mom to join us but she wasn’t having any of it. We have two inflatable paddleboards and a kayak for two people. Enough equipment to go on the water altogether.

The other thing is, my mom was in heaven. Lots of bushes, trees, and the shoreline of a small canal were home to hundreds of bird species. Before the rest of us had pumped up the kayak and paddleboard, my mom had placed her camping chair in the tall grass and had the binoculars pointed toward the sound of the birds.

She took a few pictures as we were getting on the canal behind the fishing pond and off we went.

I’ve been twice before on this specific canal and kind of like the route it takes me on. With a thick line of bushes along the shore of the river, countless birds were singing above our heads.

My husband and my dad were still figuring out the rhythm of paddling as a team while I was ahead taking a selfie of us in the wilderness.

There was another thing I didn’t tell the other two. Just a few hundred meters down the canal was this very low pipe kind of thing leading across the water. I had managed previously to get through by lying flat on my paddleboard but I wasn’t sure how high their kayak was and if it would fit through.

Guess what, it did fit. They had to flatten their seats and lie backward in the kayak but they made it through.

Another few hundred meters down the canal we had to get out of the water due to a dam and walk a few meters across the field to get back in the water on the other side again.

I started walking and didn’t realize the other two weren’t following me at first. They had looked back for a moment and saw the dark clouds moving in toward us. It was clear we’d get rain rather sooner than later.

I asked them if they minded getting wet. They were shaking their head. So, we continued.

We were now in the big river getting pushed forward by strong winds. It meant we would be paddling back against the wind but everyone was feeling strong.

I was brave enough this time to take my good camera out on the water transporting it in a dry bag on my paddleboard. I wanted to capture these yellow water lilies I had spotted previously on the river.

It was a bit more difficult than I expected it. I wasn’t standing still on the water. Even though I wasn’t paddling when I took out the camera, the current together with the strong wind from the back were pushing me rapidly downriver.

I felt stable enough to photograph but had a moving object in front of me. Might need some more practice for better results and clearer pictures.

The wind was picking up more and more and the dark clouds had almost reached us. I had told the others not to look back because it looked very daunting.

But we were lucky after all. Apart from the strong winds and a few raindrops here and there, the big storm missed us by a few hundred meters.

Anyway, the way back was long and exhausting. Especially for me standing on the paddleboard being a sail in the wind I got pulled backward. At moments I was standing still on the water even though I was paddling as hard as I could.

I didn’t record any of the journey back, fighting through the wind but my dad had filmed me on some stretches where we were a little protected from the wind.

The dark clouds were gone and the sun was out again. We found my mom at the same spot she was in when we left. With her binoculars toward the trees. She had been inside the car in between she said. But it didn’t rain as much as she had expected.

Even though the skies were blue we could see the next weather front moving in at rapid speeds. We still wanted to have our barbeque out here and decided to wait it out. Sitting inside the car for about half an hour waiting out the rain we were rewarded with a lovely afternoon.

My dad had jumped into the lake to swim a few rounds.

My husband and I were preparing food since we all were pretty hungry by now. Lots of meat of course but I also had a tomato-mozzarella salad, some olives, and spring onions from my parents' garden.

We enjoyed a delicious meal together out in nature while the winds calmed down and mom spotted a nightingale in the trees next to us. She was more than happy and so were we.

Feeling brave enough for the cold we decided to go for a swim. I knew I had to run into the water otherwise I would turn around as soon as I touched the cold wetness.

And so I did.

And this is how a lovely day in nature on and in the water comes to an end. My dad was happy with his birthday “present” and our kayaking tour, my mom was happy with all the birds she spotted and therefore we were happy too.

“Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.” — J.K. Rowling

Another response to the June writing challenge on the topic of water.

And if you’re interested in more water stories, check out the latest submissions:

Adrienne Beaumont 🇦🇺 with “It’s Another World Down There”

Allison Ditmer with “Who Knew Raindrops in Rome Would Be So Memorable”

Sam Millichap with “Defying Watery Curses in the Danube Delta”

If you’re interested in the monthly challenge, you can find the writing prompt here: “Flow Like Water — June Monthly Challenge for Globetrotters”

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