A Day In Galveston

A Day In Galveston
Originally uploaded by killy

After throwing himself headlong into the hefty waves on Galveston Island, Adolfo comes in for a breather. He must have been out there a good two hours in total. We would force him inland for a good re-slathering of sunblock and to switch parents every fifteen minutes or so.

He would head back to the water in full gallop with his green floating tube hiked up around his waist with one of us trotting after him. Once in the water he would throw himself into the foam of the crashing waves and laugh. Then he would stand up and yell at the ocean "Ha! You missed me!" and then as another wave came crashing towards him he would throw himself into it. It was fun to watch him play with the ocean but i was never far away from him. It was like having him play with a very dangerous friendly dog - it wouldn't bite him as long as i was there.

And so at first i was nearly on top of him, holding his hand and helping him to keep his footing sure, but the longer he was in there the more confident he became and he would get away from me and run out deeper into the ocean.

"Don't go too far! The waves are big out there!" I would shout after him as i waded deeper into the gulf after him. He didn't even turn around. And as each wave crashed over him he became more and more cocky, laughing at the waves and then ....

the ocean filled his mouth with itself and he stood straight up spit it out and vomitted all over his tube. Almost immediately another wave washed it all away and i stared at him wondering what he was going to do. He was still for a moment and i motioned towards him to offer him my arms and he suddenly jerked around threw himself into the next wave...

and i let him. From then on, i followed about two feet behind him and he hardly even noticed that i was there until a larger wave would throw him into my arms. I wouldn't hold him, i would simply drop him back down into his tube and he would continue laughing and throwing himself into oblivion.


One thing i failed to mention earlier was something that he said to me, while i was trying to keep him from going out too far. I thought it was kinda zen. After a particularly large wave had crashed over him, i barked to him not to go any further out and reminded him that the waves got bigger out there and her turned to me in mid stride and said, "If you don't want to lose me, then follow me."

I laughed and pulled his intertube back towards land. He would have been angry had it not been for yet another wave crashing over him.