Kayaks make for the ultimate stealth photography platforms. If you are careful you can glide right up to all sorts of creatures without disturbing them. What they offer in quiet approach they certainly lack in stability and it took quite a bit of skill and perseverance to get this shot of a dragonfly (Maya informed me upon her return from camp that this is actually a damselfly) without any motion blur considering I was bobbing on the water, being carried by the current, and shooting a tiny subject from a great distance in low light.

About halfway into my six-mile tour, I caught a fleeting glimpse of what I believe was a muskrat. He was in the deep shadows, which required a long shutter speed to make the image.

After dropping Maya off at camp I stopped just outside of Townsend, MA to do a little kayaking in the Nashua River. I was not on the water for ten minutes when I discovered this spider walking along the surface. First time I have ever seen one of these and I studied it for several minutes. He walked as if on dry land and rode the largest of waves lake a skilled surfer. Quite a marvel of nature. See if you can distinguish between the eight real legs and the eight reflections.

 
After the opening ceremony Maya meets her bunk mates and counselors. If there is an opposite to separation anxiety Maya would be the poster child for it. She adjusts so well to new situations and makes friends very easily. After unpacking her bags and making up her bed (top bunk, naturally) she was ready to give her dad a big hug goodbye and he soaked up every last bit of it.

Maya and I travelled to southern New Hampshire this afternoon where she will be spending a week at camp Wildwood on Lake Hubbard. Run by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the camp has a strong focus on understanding and appreciating the natural world. This will be her second year here and she was so anxious to arrive that she coerced me into leaving two hours earlier than necessary. We had a very nice lunch date at the Main Street Cafe in Groton and I scouted potential kayaking venues along our route to consume the extra time.

Before heading back to the ferry, Maya discovered these dancing water fountains and can’t resist a quick transit through the randomly timed blast of water. Fortunately she avoided a direct hit and was only moderately soaked. Click on the photo and see if you can find her right in the center of the action.

After lunch, we enjoyed watching this street entertainer whose grand finale involved juggling three very sharp machetes with a spinning plate supported by his teeth while balancing one legged on a rope tenuously supported by members of the audience.

After touring the Tall Ships, we hop an inter-harbor ferry for Long Wharf and then walk to Quincy Market at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where we enjoy a relaxing lunch. It was constructed 1824–1826 and named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy.

We enjoyed perfect weather and Maya paused to cool down in this water park just off one of the shipyard piers. It is something of a jungle gym for aquatic monkeys and just far enough off the beaten path that many casual visitors are not aware of its existence.

Here we stand in line before boarding the Bluenose II out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, acknowledged to have the largest working mainsail in the world. It measures 4,150 square feet. The total sail area measures over 11,000 square feet and is 143 feet in length. Since 1937, an image of the original Bluenose has graced the Canadian dime. That ship, the undefeated racing champion among North American fishing schooners, reigned as Queen of the North Atlantic until it foundered on a Haitian reef in 1946. Her daughter, Bluenose II, was launched in 1963, built to original plans by many of the same workers.

 
Maya and I head over to the Charleston Navy Shipyard to take in the visiting Tall Ships. This week long annual event feature some of the most beautiful antique sailing vessels in the world as well as many modern naval ships.

 
This morning Maya and I dropped Nicolai off at the Boston airport for his trip to Minnesota. When asked to pose with his sister as we bid him farewell, Nico seems to be setting a double chicken wing. This, I suppose, should come as little surprise after he spent the last week in wrestling camp. I cannot begin to imagine how he is going to great his cousins when he sees them this evening. Nico was very pleased with his camp experience which included three 2-hour wrestling sessions per day. He feels he made significant improvements to his technique and returned with arm muscles that would put a gorilla to shame.

 
Nicolai’s wrestling camp culminates in a tournament today where he placed 2nd to the New Hampshire state champ winning two of his three matches. Tomorrow he leaves for Minneapolis where he will spend a week with my brother’s family. Before he left for wrestling camp he completed this set of croquet mallets as a gift for his cousins. The heads were made from the trunk of a cherry tree we harvested from our property. I rough cut the blanks and Nicolai did everything else including the finishing. Kyle suggested making a chipper club for situations where you need to jump an opponents ball. We combined that concept with a shorter mallet head which comes in handy in other situations.

This morning I found these two girls on the couch. To say that Maya loves Nala would not really capture the full measure of their bond. Jeanine and Kyle left this afternoon for a 10-day adventure in Transylvania. Jeanine is one of the chaperons travelling with our church youth group to visit with our sister church in Romania. Most Americans associate Transylvania with stories about Dracula, the rest of the world regards this part of Central Europe as a scenic region nestled below the Carpathian Mountains.