Another Monday, with High Winds and Rain

7:29

Fall kayaking

Kayaks at Ready

The Ugliest New House on the Lake (Booteys)

Attempting a final swim

The

The Excitement of a sinking sailboat at the Viking Club

It's too early to be up, about 6:00, pitch black outside, only a few lights off in the distance towards Bemus.  It's still warm, 53 degrees, and very windy, gusts up to forty five miles an hour later in the day.  I thought I heard rain last night but when I walked outside, it was still dry...not sure what I heard.

We were able to kayak yesterday, as it was unseasonably warm, in the low 70's, quite a contrast to the twenty four degrees of the other morning.  We went off towards Long Point, then the wind picked up as we headed across to Bootey Bay.  Once we got there, it was calm and easy for some reason, as we must have been sheltered from the gusts.  We did stop to talk with a couple who seemed to live in one of the cottages on the property owned by hotel magnate, sort of, John Mc Graw.  The women identified herself as a member of the family that owns the property.  They are in the process of dividing the waterfront in to lots, so I assume she must be related.  Next to their somewhat run down cottage, a new home has gone up.  It's about as ugly a new house as I have seen on the lake, and I guess it's owned by the Bootey's, as they have kept a piece of the lakefront for themselves.  I am relieved to know that homes may be going up along the waterfront rather than a ten story hotel but I still do not trust the John Mc Graw.  Supposedly he has gone bankrupt, failed to pay his taxes, so I am not even sure if he still owns the land.  All I know for sure is that I new house has gone up.

It was a beautiful morning to be on the lake, sunny and warm, so that we did not even need fleeces.  We were the only ones on the lake, other than a couple of fishing boats and this time of the year, all the kayakers seem to have hibernated till next summer.

The afternoon was spent putting together and baking a couple of loaves of artisan bread from a new cookbook.  This one has you bake the bread in a dutch oven, similar to the no knead bread recipe. We both did some reading, watched some football, and Evie even sat outside as it was that warm. And the wind was so strong, that it knocked our benches in to the water, our Adirondack's over on the dock.  I was able to fish the benches out with a rake.  Evie attempted to take a final swim, as the water has cleared, but it was too cold.  We both swam about this time last year but not this year, I guess.

The Viking Club, over on the other side of the lake, was having an Octoberfest, so we decided to go, thinking it might be fun, with music, lots of people outside drinking beer, brats on the grills.  What a disappointment.  When we arrived, there were so few cars in the lot we thought we had the wrong day. We went inside and there were about 30 people around the bar and that was it.  The dining room was serving brats, cooked in beer, but it was empty.  I did order and brat and we sat in the bar, had a draft, and watched the big action of the day, a buoyed sail boat slowly taking on water and turning over on its side.  That was it for excitement.  We did feel like youngsters, as most of the revelers were older than us.  We stayed long enough to finish our beer and bemoaned the fact that clubs like this seem to be losing their vitality, as most of its members are retired and the younger people don't seem to be interested in being part of organizations like this.

We had tacos for dinner, tasty and easy and watched The Good Wife before going to bed.

A Day at the Presque Isle Beach, Erie, PA

7:02

Kayaking in Presque Isle Lagoons

Perry Monument on Presque Isle Bay

Sun Bathing Turtles in Lagoon

Beach at Presque Isle

The Old Man and the Sea

Heading in for a beer and sandwich

It's another clear morning, not a cloud in the sky, as the sun fills our living room with light.  I was up around 6:40, a warm glow of orange on the shoreline.  It's 54 degrees, getting up into the high 70's later, a nice day, with rain and cooler weather coming in tomorrow.  I am off to Bemus for breakfast with the boys at 8:00.

Yesterday, we had another adventure, for us, as we put the kayaks on the roof of our SUV and drove to Presque Isle in Erie, PA, less than an hour drive.  We got their around 9:45, a comfortable time, and went right to the lagoons, where it's easy to launch a kayak.  We followed narrow paths through the lagoon, much different from what the maps suggested,  Most of the width of the lagoons was taken over by grasses, water lilies, and such so that what I thought was a wide open waterway ended up being a narrow pathway.  We stayed inland for about an hour and a half, but it got tiresome and repetitious, little change in scenery, so we back tracked, and ended up paddling out to the bay, across from the city of Erie, just beyond the Oliver Hazard Perry monument.  The wind was much stronger out on the open bay though not too difficult for paddling.  We stayed in the water for about two hours.  When we took our kayak out, another couple was hauling their boats in as well, about our age.  He works for LL Bean in Pittsburgh, was very talkative, and talkied enthusiastically about kayaking the river in downtown Pittsburgh, past the stadiums and buildings.  Sounds like fun.

After our paddle, we drove around the peninsula looking for a good beach, though there are many and all are about the same.  We ended up parking at Pine Tree, rock pile #40, an easy access.  We hauled out chairs, blankets, towels, picnic lunch, cooler and books, and spent the afternoon on the beach, a novelty for us the past few years.  The last time I remember laying on a sand beach, enjoying the sun, was in Gocek, Turkey, back in 2009,   And we have not been to Florida since Beth and Rami moved and that was at least five years ago.  As I may have mentioned before, the beaches at Presque Isle are some of the finest I have seen, including Hawaii.  Miles of sand, clear water,  sea grass, sandy bottoms when you swim, no rocks, no driftwood, an amazingly manicured beach.  Some of the beaches have pavilions, some volleyball courts, some just sand and water.  We had lunch, took a couple of walks, and lay in the sun, enjoying the beach and swimming, at least three different times, to the amazement, or so it would seem, of the few others on the beach, mostly retirees like us. We kept expecting salt water when we dove in, always a surprise to see it wasn't.  We didn't leave till about 4:30 when traffic and action was picking up, as more and more people were walking, biking, and coming to the beach as work was over, the beach was cooling.  We enjoyed it so much we plan on coming back more often, for a later afternoon picnic, to watch the sun set and in other seasons, especially the winter, when the water is rough and gray.

We drove home via #5, through old downtown Erie, watching the neighborhoods change, some great houses, mostly on the near west side of Erie, then along the coast of Lake Erie, as far as North East, where we stopped at the Freeport restaurant, for a beer and a sandwich, fish and roast beef respectively, before heading inland, through North East, home of Mercyhurst College, to RT 426, and home though Findley Lake and Sherman, our old route from Ohio.  It was a great day at the beach.

Last Swim of 2011

Chilling

A cloudy morning, 59 degrees, the first of many, as our week of Indian Summer seems to have ended.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful the week has been, how different from other weeks out here.  We literally had the lake and neighborhood to ourselves, except for the weekend, and we just relaxed on our lounges, on the dock, and read, dozed, and basically just enjoyed the spectacular beauty of fall here at the lake. The trees seem to be at their peak, the sun warming but not hot, the water filled with reflections of the shoreline, and nothing that we had to do. We would look around and not a neighbor was in sight, occasionally a fishing boat might appear off of Long Point.  It was like we were on an island, all ours. How nice it is.

More Chilling

We also got in the final swim; even I went in.  I have to admit there is nothing as refreshing as diving underwater in 61 degree water, shocking at first but then invigorating and energizing.  We did not stay long, though Evie washed her hair for the last time as well.  I got out, in my boxers, and didn't even need a towel the air was so warm compared to the water.  Of course, the warm air helped, encouraged me to jump in with Evie, but so did the beauty of the day, the sun, the colors, the water, the fact that we were alone in our world of Chautauqua. I am beginning to wax poetic so I will stop.  But it was exhilarating.

Lost?

7:10

Today, we start getting organized, Evie's getting her hair dyed and cut, shopping, and I have to take my boat up to the storage garage, hit the library, cancel mail and papers, little details like that.