Messing About In Boats

“There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
Rat, in Wind in the Willows

I went on another early morning walk this morning. The sun was shining and there was blue sky but also clouds. I watched a boat being put in the water, and walked around some residential streets. It wasn’t expected this early in the day, but it started raining while I was out. I got back just in time before the heavens opened. We had torrential rain for about 3 hours. There were streaks of lightening and some loud claps of thunder. At certain times you couldn’t even see the other side of the lake. The grass in front of my room became flooded for awhile. I was glad to be back safely in my room! (See Extra photo collage)

Finally by late morning the storm ended and it was safe to go out. I met up with some of the cousins and we went for a late brunch at the little restaurant in town called ‘The Loon’. Although the name has changed from ‘The Sugar Bowl’, and ownership has changed, the restaurant has been serving since the 1940s. They’ve been getting quite a bit of business from out group this week. We took up 3 tables, and I know that there was another group earlier. The table group in the picture are the Georgia cousins.

After brunch a few of us went across the road to the ‘Fife Lake Dairy’ and had some ice creams. I ordered 2 scoops and forgot how huge the portion sizes are here. I couldn’t finish it, but thankfully I have a fridge and freezer in my room so I was able to save half for later.

Suddenly in the late afternoon I heard that a group was going out in the pontoon. It was mostly a group of the little girls (first cousins twice removed?), and one of the moms, with my cousin Dave as the captain. and ME! I was eager to get out on the lake again. The bottom middle picture shows us pulling away from the small hotel where we were staying. We occupied almost all the rooms of both brown buildings.

We went out to the middle of the lake where there was a sandbar, and that gave the girls a chance to safely play in the shallow water. It was hard to believe that it had been so stormy just a few hours before.

This was our last evening. When we got back it was time to get ready and the whole family group went to the restaurant across the road and had a pizza dinner. The bottom right picture of the extra collage shows my 3 cousins. Except for me - all the family members of this 40 person group are their kids and grandkids.

A group of us decided to drive down to Grand Rapids late this evening instead of staying until the morning. Tomorrow I fly back to Denver after staying briefly with one of the cousins.