Sail Away with Me…

Ever dream about grabbing a pal or a lover and escaping for the day?  

Lake Erie, Port Stanley, Ontario

Whenever I daydream about a little escape, my thoughts always gravitate to the water.  It calls to me.  


Pacific Ocean, Gualala, California

I feel a sense of serenity when I’m near the sea or a lake, that is unmatched by anything else.  


Lake Michigan, South Haven, Michigan

I think about how it streams down from the clouds, flows down from the mountains, and eventually joins together with all the other bodies of water wrapping around this playground we call planet Earth.


Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles, California



Pacific Ocean, Malibu, California



Lake Superior, Ashland, Wisconsin 

It doesn’t matter if I’m zipping in a motorboat with friends, lazily floating on a raft feeding ducks with a sweetie, or just bobbing in the waves - smelling the salt on my skin and feeling it twist my hair.  I get a sense of rejuvenation in my soul…  Just from looking at it.  Huddling around a campfire on the beach with buddies, drinking and laughing and listening to the magnificent roar of the sea in the dark, is my idea of heaven.  


Pacific Ocean, West of Hwy 1, California  



Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, California



South Saskatchewan River, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan   



Pacific Ocean, Malibu, California



Atlantic Ocean, St. John’s Port Authority, Newfoundland



Sturgeon River, St. Albert, Alberta



Lake Okanagan, Quail’s Gate Winery, British Columbia



Atlantic Ocean, Cape Spear, Newfoundland  



Diane & I at Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Alberta  



Lake Okanagan, Kelowna, British Columbia



Pacific Ocean, Gualala, California

Scientists say that we’re 2/3 water, so maybe this feeling I have is just nature calling to itself?  Water reflects the sky and the clouds and the moods of the weather.  Like our souls, it absorbs and dissolves, it darkens, and refreshes.  It sparkles at one point and churns and crashes the next.  It is both supremely flexible and unyielding.  It’s the universal solvent, it wields the power to kill, but is necessary for life.  


Lake Erie, Port Dover, Ontario



Pacific Ocean, Point Arena, California



Pacific Ocean, Hwy 1, Northern California


“Blue, you sit so pretty West of the 1

Sparkle like with yellow icing

Just a mirror for the sun”

- Road Trippin’, Red Hot Chili Peppers



Bow River, Banff National Park, Alberta




Bow River, Banff National Park, Alberta



Pacific Ocean from the air, Vancouver, British Columbia



Lake Erie, near Aylmer, Ontario



Me at Lake Michigan, South Haven, Michigan  (photo by Brad Ballantyne)


Lake Ontario, Toronto Harbour, Ontario



Ken at Lake Okanagan, Summerland, British Columbia



Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica Pier, California



Diane, Steve & I in the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver, British Columbia



Lake Okanagan, Gray Monk Winery, British Columbia



marks in the sand from the Pacific Ocean, West of Hwy 1, Oregon



Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta



Atlantic Ocean, Cape Spear, Newfoundland


Lake Erie, Port Stanley, Ontario



Lake Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario



Lake Michigan, South Haven, Michigan


“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.”

-Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

(photo via Flikr / pitrih)



Point Arena, California


“In the love of narrow souls I make many short voyages but in vain - I find no sea room - but in great souls I sail before the wind without a watch, and never reach the shore.”

-Henry David Thoreau


(photo via weheartit.com)


Arena Cove, California



“Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.”

 - Paul Carvel


(photo by Brad Ballantyne)


Me at Lake Michigan, South Haven, Michigan  (photo by Brad Ballantyne)




Forget lying semi-preserved in a box in the cold ground -  when I die, just put me on a raft, light it on fire, and push me out into the inky dark.  I’ll dissolve into the minerals that one day make up someone else’s tears.


(All photos by Jenna Adams, except where noted)