It was July and we were on one of our regular camping and fishing trips. There was the 6 of us and another family of 4 in 2 river boats. This particular trip was to the Dean River in favor of steelhead fishing. After 2 glorious weeks of camping and living in the great outdoors we packed our things and headed back down the channel to the ocean. Somewhere along the way the rain started. By the time we got onto the ocean a storm had developed. Our boats would seem to disappear as they were taken by the gigantic waves rolling in on us. There was virtually no visibility for our dad’s to be able to get us out of the storm. As if this wasn’t enough, us kids couldn’t keep up with the bailing and our boats started to flood. Our parents knew that they had to get us out of there one way or another or we would all sink with the boats. Finally, someone spotted a bit of land. It was a rocky hill covered with trees. We headed over to the hill, as close as we could get, and my mom jumped out of the boat into the water, which was about chest high on her. My dad would wait out the waves and as soon as there was a break between waves he would pass 1 kid to my mom and she took us over to the hill where we climbed to the higher, flatter ground. After all the kids were passed over to the hill, my mom came to join us. The rain and storm were not letting up so we had also taken a pot and our sleeping bags with us to the hill. Our dads stayed on the boats bailing and riding out the storm. For us, on the hill, we could see our dad’s and the boats crest the waves and then disappear again. Now that we were “safe”, of course the first thing on our minds as children was food. We hadn’t been able to take any food from the boat so my mom got us to pick the seaweed that was on top of the rocks so she could cook it for us. We weren’t hungry anymore after trying the seaweed! It was horrible. The storm still hadn’t let up and we were all wet and tired so mom found each of us a tree on the hill to sleep under. Most of the trees had their roots exposed so we could curl up under the tree and have some shelter from the rain. I spent some of the night curled under a tree trying to sleep. At about dawn, mom woke me up to move to higher ground because the tide had come up and the water was now under me. I remember looking out over the ocean as I lifted my head from the root I was using as a pillow and seeing the surface of the water, a mirror of calm and peace. We were able to get back to our boats and get home safely that day. Thanks to that trip, I will always remember the strength and unsteadiness of nature that continues to draw us all out of our homes in search of adventure.