And we had a fantastic time.But there's a kind of hot where you don't mind mosquitoes sucking your blood, as much as you mind the fact that they are generating extra body heat with their skin to skin contact.
It was that kind of hot.
My Cabela's, 40 below mummy bag was thoroughly disgusted when it was tossed aside the entire night through for a single towel underneath. A towel that was otherwise unused-
Because the first thing we asked when we drove into the campsite was "Where's the swim beach?"
They replied, "There is no swim beach."
A stunned moment later, I spluttered, "Uh... What do you mean there's no swim beach??"
Did they realize we drove three hours to this lake? Could they not see we were all in swim wear? Did they not realize Hydn had been saying, "deep water" for the past 24, long hours? Had they not looked at the temperature gauge lately?
"It doesn't necessarily have to be at this campsite, but there's got to be a swim beach along this lake somewhere!"
I'd never heard of such ridiculousness!
"No, we don't recommend swimming."
"What? Alright, never mind." Then laying the map on the desk somewhat testily, "There are three other lakes on this map within driving distance. Do you know which of them has a swim beach?"
"None of 'em."
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Nope"
"But why?"
"Gators..."
OH.
Well then!
With no swimming, we had to find other means of entertainment.
Hydn pretended to be Justin-
When that got dull, he pretended to be Dad.
We had oodles of bad mitten tourneys,
And we finally got a trip to the long awaited Diamond mines.
The kids made fun of me the whole way.
It was all my old archeological dreams come true.
Despite their ridicule, I found them searching pretty diligently themselves.
Except for maybe Justin and Hy.
Calder made up for the both of them.
It was a dirt throwing, dirt rolling, little boys paradise.
We were happy to find water where we could dip a hand in without loosing it.
Maddie took her 'finds' to be examined and was told they were awfully pretty, but that they were just quartz. She was disgusted they didn't even do a 'scratch' test and took them to a new tester. Who again told her they were quartz. If any of us deserved to find one, it would have been her.
And that's not water that's accidentally dripped on Hy's head. That's sweat.
There really wasn't a snowball's chance...
But we stayed the whole seven hours to make sure.
Only then did we call it.
By the third day, our fear of the water had pretty much sweated right on out of us.
We decided to rent canoes.
Maddie had nightmares for weeks...
Good thing she was in the canoe ahead and couldn't hear the park ranger as we rounded the last bend from her sight,
"Now you all be careful!"
"Alright, and thanks! Hey, by the way, exactly how many 'gators' are we talking?"
"Roundabout 3 thousand in this here lake."
I think that was the scariest canoe ride of my life.
And the kids.
And Berts.
Especially when a monstro fish tried to jump in our boat after Bert hit it with a paddle.
Or when the wind picked up, and the suddenly choppy water threatened immediate capsize.
Or when we had to park and go to the bathroom...
But it wasn't near as scary as the hike Bert, Justin, Maddie and I stupidly went on at dusk. That snaked it's way around the river at feeding time. With no way back, but forward.
And speaking of snakes,One dripped right out of a tree and onto the ground in front of us.
Nasty, nasty, nasty place to be at night.
Especially with no flashlights...
We won't be doing it again any time soon.
These daytime pictures just don't do it justice.But if you look real close you'll see a couple of eyes peeping up in the distant water.
(And you'll find that that's exactly the same background where I took a picture of the kids in the canoe.)
Or maybe the head in this one.It's making me jumpy just typing this.
It was certainly a memorable birthday.
Happy 14 Calder!
