So our Sunday started off as a usual Sunday, breakfast some minor cleaning and what to do today questions. The response is…Wait…It’s the sunday after the fourth you know what’s going on. Then it dawns on me every fourth of July weekend Old Fort Niagara has an encampment. It has been our thing to go to this since my son was 2 years old. So we pile into the car and off to the fort we go. Its the same old fort but something about going every year makes it special. We check out the shops and of course I find yarn and that gives me a head shake from my husband and a “really mom you find yarn everywhere we go!” I didn’t buy any it was wool, and if you follow me you know wool isn’t this hooker’s thing. So we make our way to the outer wall and Dimitri notices people up on the wall where DANGER is clearly marked. He wasn’t too happy they were up there, but in the midst of being annoyed they couldn’t read the DANGER sign he saw a cannon, a big one. So we go up the steps and as soon as we get to the top he forgets about the cannon because he sees a boat. Not just any boat but a giant boat. It was docked at the Coast Guard station just below the Fort. He then notices the Coast Guard boats. He asks my husband if we can go look at them. We set off to try to see the boats.
We walk down the hill and just like the DANGER sign but not as clearly marked for an 8 year old is a sign that says US Government property no trespassing. That’s the adult version of DANGER. We tried to tell him that we couldn’t get any closer but he wasn’t having it, and we weren’t having getting arrested. We see a woman walk out and my husband yells to her. She walks up and he asks if our son can look a the boats. She says sure come on down. The joy radiated off of him he nearly skipped down the hill. She explained the giant boat is a research boat 
from Erie that docks there a few times a year, and not a Coast Guard boat. She took him to their boats and began explaining the different type of boats. She then asked him if he wanted to get on. He looked at me with panic and I said if you want to (he has never been on a boat). He has special needs my baby so new situations sometimes don’t go over well, but he took my husbands hand and went on a boat. She took him to the small SAR boat and explained they use it for search and rescues. She even let him sit in the drivers seat.
She then leads him to a much bigger boat and explains that it is a jet boat and goes real fast. His eyes light up and she says come we can get on this one too. So they get on that one and he looks a bit more scared. But he asks questions about where they take it and other stuff that I couldn’t quite hear 
because I was busy being nauseous and moving away from the swaying boat. I hate boats! They make me sick and just watching the boats sway was making me not feel so good. But he loved it and when he asked if he wanted to join the Coast Guard he responded yes.
Looking at the pictures made me think I really like the water but hate boats. So my version of exposure therapy, the real therapy didn’t work as I threw up everywhere, was to create a treasury on Etsy of the calm sea with a boat or two or 12. The first photo in honor of the future Coast Guard member is of the Canadian Coast Guard off Prince Edward Island. So check out the photographs that I have complied for you and enjoy a day on the water if you’re not like me and can stomach a trip out.
The Cotton Road 