The kids enjoyed the sun and the sand at their grandparent’s cabin during our vacation. They spent hours playing in the sand, fishing, tubing, catching frogs and feeding ducks.
We saw three ducklings without a mother on our first day at the cabin. They kept swimming by the shore, stopping to eat and sleep under the dock and then were back out swimming along the shore. We saw them several times during the day, but still no mother. We also saw a bald eagle in a large white pine tree on the island near the cabin. We were fairly certain that we knew what happened to their mom. Another mother duck swam by with babies of her own that were larger than the orphan ducklings. We hoped she would adopt them, but she only frightened them away so that her own babies could eat. We didn’t see the orphans on the second day. We were hopeful that they were okay on their own. On the third day, we saw a mother with six newborn ducklings…and the three larger ducklings. The orphans were following the family around. The mother seemed fine with her newborns and the bigger ducklings. They had been adopted!
We also saw this guy walking along the shore looking for fish and flying by throughout our time at the cabin.
The kids did a bit fishing from the dock while we were there. They caught sunnies and rock bass and Mike pulled in a decent size northern pike. Big enough to fillet – much to Sophia’s distress. “Why are you cutting off his head?”, she asked.
One of Sebastian and Sophia’s favorite things to do at the cabin is to catch frogs and toads. They have it down to a science. After breakfast, the first thing they do is go down to the lake shore. There is an old fishing boat laying by the shore that the frogs and toads like to hide under. They have an adult flip the boat over and then they grab frogs and toads like crazy with their bare hands or with a net until they can’t hang on to anymore. They are usually very successful as you can see from the pictures below.
M. Sullivan Photography 