Message in a Bottle...

I realize it’s already Wednesday and I’m just now getting around to telling you about my weekend, but things have been busy. Well, maybe not so much busy, as I’ve been lazy and I've been competing in the new Olympic event of "couch-surfing".

Anyhow, it was a long weekend in Canada. It was one of those holidays that you get, but you don’t really understand its purpose. I’m okay with that – it was a holiday and I am thankful for it nonetheless.

So, part of doing nothing exciting all weekend involved yet another couple of long walks on the beach on both Saturday and Monday. Once again, it was peaceful.

After the wind and rain we had on Sunday, the beach was full of glass treasures on Monday, so I was in my glory. Apart from all of the beach glass, shells and driftwood we find, we also find lots of other junk that’s floated away – plastic bottles, old hats, beach balls, sand pails, sunglasses and garbage. This weekend, I found something I’ve never found before…my first message in a bottle.

I could tell from the bottle that it hadn’t been in the water that long and that the bottle itself was from a local winery. I was a little dismayed that it hadn’t originated from some far away land, but guess with it being found in Lake Erie, the most exotic I could have hoped for would have been Sandusky, Ohio or perhaps Chicago, Illinois. Regardless, I was intrigued by my find.

We weren’t equipped to open the bottle right there on the beach, so we brought it home and before we opened it, we took some photos.

Upon opening it, we discovered that it was written on behalf of a 5 year old girl, vacationing in Port Stanley (about 80 kms/50 miles) from where we found it. The note was written on July 27, 2012 and we found it on August 4th. If I was any good at math, I would calculate rate of travel per day, but I’m not, so we will leave it at - it travelled 50 miles in approximately a week.

The note asked that if we found the bottle, we would write or phone the little girl and let her know where and when we found it. I plan on sending her a postcard in the next day or so. We also plan on writing our own note, putting in the bottle and sending it on its way again.

With the flow of the current in Lake Erie, I anticipate the bottle could make it as far as Buffalo, New York if the conditions are right. It should be interesting to see if we get a response to our note.