... Inside, it was downright palatial. The dining table was large enough to seat 10, and the kitchen had more counter space than ours at home. For a sailboat family like ours, -used to a cramped port-a-potty behind a curtain, the separate toilet facilities with hot-water shower were completely luxurious...

...What the kids wanted our first night out on the lakes was a fish fry. We hadn't even left the dock... - in fact, we were still loading up the boat with a week's worth of provisions - when Bethany and Tyler each let out a holler for me to come quickly. Both of them, vibrating with joy, were poised at the end of the dock with their kid-size fishing poles arched over the water. It had never occurred to me that 8 and 5-year-olds would actually catch anything, especially at precisely the same moment...

...What my husband probably wanted... was to stay on those glorious lakes and not head inland on the canals at all. Neither one of us had counted on the mystical beauty of the lakes. The cool air was something to revel in. There was also stillness, a quiet gentleness that crept out over the lakes at twilight. More than once I found myself looking over my shoulder, sensing some unseen presence flowing in around us as shadows fell across the far-off land...

... That first night, we lay anchor in the lee of one of the uninhabited fir-studded islands and listened to the water gently slap against the houseboat's pontoons. A full saucer moon rose up in the sky, flooding the top deck of the boat as if it were a stage and we were about to perform. An owl called "whoo, whoo" from somewhere close behind us, and loons sang across the watery expanse to one another, their loud clear trillings echoing in the deepening dark...

... We spent the next morning, playing in the lake. First order of business was overcoming our fear - the kids' and mine - of the water slide... After a few minutes of stalling, I climbed to the top deck, opened the safety gate and sat on the bright blue plastic. I was off before I had time to hold my breath. Catapulting from the slide into the lake was like plummeting into hundreds of unraveling bolts of fine silk. That's how clean and soft the lake water was, so unlike the saltier Chesapeake we were used to. Once the kids saw how fun and fast it was, the slide became one of the week's highlights...

... We swam to the shore of the deserted island and I sunbathed on the boulders while the kids dug around in the dirt for what they imagined to be fossils or Indian artifacts. This may not have been so far off the mark, since these waters were part of an ancient Indian canoe route long before Samuel de Champlain and his voyageurs came through in 1608 to claim the territory for France...

... We sat on the top deck and watched night descend as the purple silhouettes of canoers paddled against the backdrop of fading yellow and pink ribbons of light. The horizon of dark green firs on the far off shore changed to black and, one by one, the first brilliant stars appeared in the sky...

Barbara R. Bodengraven is a freelance writer- in Falls Church.