I love the foliage in New England, and it's best from on the water on a sunny day, one of my favorite places being the Connecticut River near Deerfield, MA. I tend to fish and kayak there quite a bit, and one afternoon I just got the "bug" and decided to take the kayak out and enjoy the scenery.

It was a year ago, back in mid October, when the weather was caught between cool and warm, and the autumn haze had that look to it that we only enjoy for a few weeks of the year. I was just getting ready to end my day when a female grad student (we talked afterwards) came riding her bicycle down to the beach area with a big old fluffy Husky on a leash. I barely paid attention to her, but as she parked the bike, she says "Hi " to me as I'm pulling my kayak out of the water and dragging it to my Jeep. Next thing I know she's out in the water up to her neck with the dog, and I realize she's wearing her clothes. In a few minutes she comes back to the beach and lathers the dog up with baby shampoo until the dog is nothing but a big ball of lather, and she pretty much is too. As she's talking to the dog, and making a few comments to me, I couldn't help myself but say something because she's wearing capri jeans and a turtleneck sweater. So I pop out with "Nice bathing suit" and she starts laughing, looks me up and down and says I see you have yours on too - ribbed turtleneck and jeans with a canvas overshirt. Well, to make a long story short, she took the dog back in to rinse him off. She got about ankle deep in the water and asked: "Are you coming?" I thought about it for a minute and got rid of my shirt and walked to the edge of the water - to the cat-call of "Don't be a chicken!" I waded right in and walked out to her. I ended up swimming with her and her dog for the better part of a half hour until it was almost completely dark. Almost the entire conversation we had was about what we were wearing, with some school stuff thrown in. She made it clear that she doesn't bother with bathing suits for stuff like this,and lived so close that she did it all the time, usually with whatever she was wearing that day before it went in the wash. Fun time, we were supposed to do it again and the weather turned to shit and she left after intersession because she got her degree. I'll probably never get that lucky again in my life.