Another Afternoon At The Gowanda Slovenian Club Picnic

Evie And Polka Band Guys

7:26

It's strikingly quiet both in our neighborhood and on the lake. No boats to speak of and a partly cloudy sky. At 8:00, it's 68º but will warm up later in the day to the 80s with a chance of rain. It's 9:30 and I paddled for forty minutes, shot an osprey and heron and talked with my kayak buddies, Tina and Jim for a few minutes. 

Kayak Morning

North

Osprey

Wood Duck

Same Old Heron

Yesterday was a different sort of Sunday. It began with a brief coffee and breakfast with Evie's sister Elaine and her husband Jim because they were leaving by 9:00 for a picnic with family on Grand Island, just outside of Buffalo. Once they left, as always, the house felt empty and we were not sure what to do with ourselves so we relaxed with a coffee and finished up the blog. By mid-morning, Evie deemed the lawn dry enough to mow, so she fired up the electric lawn mower if that's what you would call it and began the mowing. I was good at watching her but also moved all the lawn furniture out of the way so she did not have to stop except to take a break. 

And that was it for the morning and much of the afternoon. For lunch, I had a leftover burrito from Saturday night's dinner and watched some of the Olympics. Once I was finished, I finished my book, started another and napped. We had planned to go to the Slovenian Club picnic but Evie was pooped from the weekend and mowing the lawn but reluctantly agreed to go. I didn't want to 'let the old man in,' and hoped to convince her to take the hour drive to Gowanda. So we were on our way by 4:00, arriving around 5:15. We easily found a parking spot because the gathering started at 1:00 and many were already leaving. When we went to pay, the gals selling entrance tickets left,  so we got in for free. 

Gowanda Picnic

We quickly grabbed a hot dog and sat down in the shelter, ate and people watched until the polka band, which had been on a break, started back up. The beer was free as were the hot dogs, beef of weck sandwiches, cucumber and tomato salad, baked beans and lemon squares so we had plenty of dinner as we listened to the band. The sad part of the picnic is few if anyone dances, either those who know a polka are too old to dance, or too young to know how to polka. One gentleman, in his 90s, who we remember from last year's picnic, did dance but could hardly leave the dance floor afterward without falling. 

Still Got It!

We stayed until 7:00 when the band took a break and talked with the same accordion player and his family for a few minutes. This is our fifth year, and he has been there every year. He's from Michigan and for the last two years, his son has played the banjo in the band. I asked him if he brought the cole slaw and kielbasa as always and he did. They get together after the picnic with others back at the Slovenian Club and party. We have always wanted to join them but we need more time.

Our hour ride home was easy, on a beautiful, sunny afternoon through Amish Country, the fields and trees lush with green. When we got home, we watched the Olympics until we got tired and were both in bed by 10:00, a long day.