Traditionally, the Saturday of Rob's family reunion, aka Grandma's Day, is the lake day. Everyone meets at North Beach and stakes a claim on a bit of waterfront real estate. Then we set about putting up canopies, chairs and a volleyball net. This year the water was higher than it had been in 10 years and, consequently, the beach was smaller--nonexistent on some stretches of the lake. But on close inspection, it was determined that while North Beach was not the vast expanse of sand that stretched far from the road with plenty of space for parking your car, the twenty yards or so of sand was plenty--if you got there early.
But what we were met with upon arrival at Bear Lake was a notice stating that regular testing came back with above acceptable levels of E coli in the water along North Beach. Lovely. Luckily, the levels elsewhere were fine. And since the lake is 20 miles long and 8 miles wide, we figured we'd see where else we could enjoy the water.
The whole family lake day was cancelled and everyone decided to spend the day at Grandma's, but our girls wanted to get wet, so Rob, his dad and his brother-in-law Tim arranged to rent a boat from the marina (which was just below the townhouse Rob's parents had rented for his immediate family), about halfway up the lake. And apart from one minor incident when the "paparazzi" tube flipped, dumping Hannah and two of her cousins in the water--creating much shrieking and wailing and accusations of "I'm lucky I'm alive!", it was a fabulous morning for our group of six girls and six adults. Oh, except that the temperature was 46 degrees when we left the house for the marina at 7:45 in the morning. But the water was clear, calm and empty (and not nearly as cold as we expected), and before long the air lost its crispness and the weather remembered it was almost August.
Here is the evidence that it was indeed a spectacular morning on the lake:
