Highlights

We took the boat out Sunday. I loathe taking the boat out. It's a 14-foot boat. Beautiful, don't get me wrong. Handmade by a family company in Rhode Island with mahogany seats and trim. Gorgeous. Art, really. But too small for a day on the Chesapeake. You get the snot knocked out of you.

Which is exactly what happened to me.

So I'm getting the snot knocked out of me and consoling my children, who are also being tossed around, and trying to not kill my husband, who calls this fun, when we pass an old Radar tower. And at the top of the tower is a huge nest, and in the nest is a wild bald eagle. The real deal. Perched, majestically, atop the tower, surveying his domain, looking just as regal as an American eagle should look.

There aren't words, really. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a bird person. They hang around my yard, they crap on my car, and they steal from my blueberry bush. Birds are for dinner, as far as I'm concerned. But this eagle, up there, wild and free and gorgeous...he was stunning.

My son thought so too. We've spent several hours online watching videos of eagles and learning about them, and he had to call Grandpa--the family resident bird expert--for a lesson on the creatures and to share his experience with someone who wasn't there but would appreciate it.

It's going to be a long time before I get on the boat again. I need a sturdy sports bra and a back brace, and several alcoholic beverages first. But if we go again, I hope we look up and see that eagle watching us. For reasons I can't pinpoint, it made my day.