The Human Water Balloon

We gathered up the whole family--sixteen bodies--and went to Holland Lake for a few days of rest and recreation. More of the latter than the former, which my body is now reminding me every time I move. Hiking, canoeing, water skiing, the works.

Montana lakes are not warm in early July, or late August in most cases, so my sister and brother-in-law who recreate regularly own wetsuits, which they brought along for the rest of us to borrow when we water-skiied.     Considering I literally could not breathe the first time I hit the water even with the wetsuit, I shudder to imagine what it would have been like without.

Or maybe that should be shiver to imagine.

I water ski approximately once every twenty years. Oddly enough, my technique doesn't seem to be improving. I did learn one thing, however. When you skip like a rock across the surface of the lake on your butt, water shoots up the legs of your wetsuit and you become a puffy black balloon with stick arms and legs.



Since someone is bound to ask...Holland Lake is east and south of Flathead Lake, just north of Seeley Lake. It does not show up on any map we own. Those are the Mission Mountains you see in the background. Nice place, huh? 


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