The first week kept us by Lake Erie. We spent some great time with family, and since the cottage had a private beach right on the lake, the kids had a lot of fun playing in the water or running around the yard. There were huge trees all around, we took the canoe out on the lake and explored around a few bends of the shoreline, we could see turkey vultures gliding on the breeze, we could listen to the gentle sound of waves on the shore in the evening, and the mosquitoes didn't actually seem too attracted to us.
Sounds idyllic, no?
And for 98% of our time on the lake, I would say yes.
But as it turns out, this damp, cool region is heaven... for earwigs.
Our first run in with the pincer-butt demons of nightmares occurred the morning after having left Little Man's swim trucks on the back of a lawn chair to dry overnight. Mark handed the trunks over and an earwig fell out. Figuring that was the end of it, Mark told Little Man to pop them on. He refused, white faced and saying there were still bugs in there. A quick shake of the trunks knocked 5 more out, and we started to realize how conniving these bugs are.
From that point on, we only came across a single earwig here and there.
Until we left the canoe on the grass.
As it turns out, the metal lip around the top of a Plexiglas canoe is an IDEAL hiding spot for earwigs. Those little buggers had jammed themselves up and into that metal lip, so that when the canoe was tipped right-side up to carry it down to the lake, earwigs started spilling down the sides of the canoe and into the bottom of the canoe, where Little Man would be sitting and our bare feet would be resting.
Now, if you've ever had the misfortune to Google "earwig" you would probably have the same reaction that we did. (Note: If you want to sleep tonight - or this week - DO NOT GOOGLE EARWIGS) For about half an hour, the neighboring cottages could hear the non-rhythmic slapping of flipflops and sneakers on canoe as we tried to kill the flood of earwigs. That in itself was bad enough, but slapping the canoe with shoes caused more earwigs to fall loose.
All told, we killed over 60 earwigs in the canoe. A few others were allowed to escape so they would warn the others to stay away.
And THAT was how we spent our summer vacation.
At least in part.
Do you have a crazy summer vacation story?
