My family, living twenty minutes from the Chesapeake Bay, have never really been water people. People assume when I tell them that I am from Maryland that I have great sailing skills, or at least played water polo once or twice or something.

We don’t really do that here in Columbia…

I take that back. My family has owned a boat as long as I can remember. But it’s a canoe. And it’s been upside down in our backyard, probably the home to many squirrels and small animals, ever since I was about ten.

My dad used to take me fishing a lot in our canoe. I’d go digging for worms in our backyard and then we would go down to the reservoir with my Disney fishing rod. According to my father’s speech at my wedding, I always caught some pretty big fish. Insert joke about brad being a big fish here. Nice work, dad.

Anyway, so last year our super close family friends decided to get a really sweet boat and named it the Live, Love, Laugh in honor of their wonderful daughter who passed away a few years ago and how she lived her life.

It was absolutely the best idea ever for a couple reasons. First, because it is so peaceful out there and really just gives them (and whoever they invite to ride) a great place to relax and find peace. And second, as Brad said today, the only thing better than owning a boat is having friends who own a boat.

Since Brad and I live so far away and have managed to be away most of the past two summers, we insisted on testing out our sea legs today. We left my parents house armed with sweaters, jackets, hats… It was 61 degrees and we were going boating, dammit.

Captain Mike even took the day off of work to indulge us (thanks Mr. Mike). Everyone was put to work, especially brad who grew up on a lake and loves boating life.

Somehow I lucked out and just curled up under the only blanket on board and just took pictures. What can I say?  I am a wimp.

Oh, and my brother and sister in law got us a ukulele today for our wedding present.  Of course, Brad brought it along and serenaded us while we shivered.

We took the boat across the river to a cute little restaurant that was absolutely empty and whose servers seemed kind of horrified that we braved the chilly weather for them. And while we ate our crab soup and crab cake sandwiches, the sun came out and warmed things up a little.

The sky was blue, the leaves were turning… it turned out to be a fantastic autumn day.

Days like this make me miss being close to home and the people I love. Thanks, Susan and Mike for loving and indulging us. Next time we come out for a ride though, I’m going to insist on having to wear less than four layers…