Once during the summer of 1983, my mom wanted to go for a ride down river because it was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was a nice calm day. So she asked my dad and he said, "Alright." She then told Joe Joe, Monica, Matthew, and I that they were going and asked if we wanted to come along. We all yelled, "Yeah!"

We were running all over the house looking for our socks, boots, coats, hats, gloves, and life jackets. We were so excited about going that it took us a long time to find them. But we did.

After all that was done, we walked down to the boat which was located behind our house and across the road.

We all got into the boat; my dad started the motor and we took off. He followed the slough slowly until he reached the calm, blue, cold river. When we reached it, he started to speed up. Faster and faster we went! It was exciting and fun feeling the nice cool wind against my face and flowing freely through my hair. It felt so good to be out on the river enjoying it as we sped along.

We cruised down the river, passing fish camps and other boats that were on the river. We waved at some of the boats because we knew the people in them. We passed a village called Oscarville then Napaskiak. We drove a little further downriver until we reached Napakiak. After looking at the village for a while from out on the water, we continued on.

We came to a little slough which we followed for a while. Then we stopped and had a little picnic of hot dogs, chips, and soda pop.

It was then that we noticed the clouds were starting to come in from the ocean.

"It's going to rain," said my dad. "We should go back."

By the time we reached the river, the sun was gone and the wind was stronger than before. The waves were pretty bad and we had to go very slowly. I was getting scared because itwas becoming very rough and we still had a long way to go until we got home.

We continued moving up river at a slow pace because of the big waves. And all of us in the boat were bouncing up and down as the waves hit the sides of the boat.

When we finally reached Napakiak, I was so happy! My mom and the others were too! We waited for a while in Napakiak until the waves got smaller, then we went on a little faster.

We passed Napaskiak and Oscarville and finally reached Bethel. By then, the waves

weren't so high and it wasn't as windy as down river. We all were very happy!

When we found ourselves home at last, we all went to bed and fell fast asleep. (And dreamed about boat riding!)

Martina Prince

87er