Days Eight through Eleven were all spent at Sandy’s beautiful house on Grindstone Lake hanging out with Dawn and Sandy and Andy and Judy.
I was usually up around six and spent the early quiet time catching up, doing some writing and just enjoying the peaceful serenity of the lake and sunrise. I made some good Kona coffee that we brought along and Dawn and Bub ambled in to join me sometime after 7. Andy and Judy and Sandy were the late sleepers but then my bedtime is 3-4 hours before they go to bed!
Some days, Bub and I went out early for tennis. Some days we waited and Andy went with us.
Bub prevailed all but one day when Andy and I got really tough. Andy used Bub’s racket and made him use the old Arthur Ashe one! We won 6-4.
Wimbledon was on and the finals of the Hockey Season with Andy’s Tampa Bay team playing. They won one and lost one. Hockey is something I know little about but Sandy and Andy were engaged!
There’s no internet here but there was a cable connection. For some reason, my phone would work for a few hours in the morning and then not the rest of the day, unless we went to town or the middle of the lake. So…deep breaths…I am on vacation with some of my favorite people and have no deadlines to worry about. The main thing that suffered was my plan to do these blog posts concurrently with real time. But better late than never!!!
Sandy took us out for a long, fun, leisurely boat ride around the lake one day. We went to the sandbar and dropped anchor for an hour or so while everyone but me jumped in (and gasped from the initial cold water shock). Lots of boats and folks were are the lake for the 4th of July weekend.
Andy did a lot of casting—from the boat and from the dock but only caught a crawdad!
Dawn went out for an hour or more on the paddleboard most mornings. Andy and I finally went out with her on one of the last days. I paddle boarded with Dawn to the island close by with the lily pads. I did stand up on the paddleboard a couple of times but my legs started to shake. I tried it kneeling but sitting was the best way for me to do it. I guess working on balance would be good for me.
Andy did better than me but he’s always been the athlete in the family. He is limited in not being able to bend his leg but 10% from being broken in the motorcycle accident when he was 19. We both had fun and appreciated Dawn’s patience and skill.
Bald eagles live on this lake and we saw them quite a few times. Dawn had a recording she’d done of one and it seemed to call them in. We saw two big nests. One past the little island near the house and another down by the sandbar. It’s nice to see them thriving.
A few days, Judy and Dawn or Judy and Andy went into Hayward to cruise the stores and Bub and I enjoyed the calm. I finished reading my book. It was one I had downlloaded to my Kindle with my “one free book a month” offer from Prime. I’d never heard of the author, Charles Finch, but this book, A Beautiful Blue Death, I enjoyed. It is the first in a series (The First Charles Lenox Mystery Book). Modeled a bit after Sherlock Holmes in England in the later 1800’s, I was intrigued all the way to the end. Looks like there are 13 more, so I should be set for mysteries for a while!
We ate decadently every day. Judy likes to play in the kitchen and calls it her “Happy Place”. Dawn and I were more than willing to let her have fun! Sandy got up one morning and made delicious pancakes with special bacon.
On 4th of July, Sandy, Dawn, and Bub headed out for golf in Hayward. It was a beautiful, cool day. They went in the afternoon and played nine holes. I’m not sure they kept score, because nobody could tell me who won.
In the evening about 9 (I did stay up that late!), we went out to the middle of the lake in the boat. Fireworks began around 9:30 and went on until after 10:30 when we headed back in. We had a 360º view and it was hard to see it all. You looked in one direction at spectacular red and blue and green explosions and the heard bam, bam, bam back behind. Sandy did a great job of just slowly rotating the boat around in a tight circle. Thousands of dollars worth of fireworks lit the sky in celebration of our great nation!
It’s been a relaxing and enjoyable week. Such fun to have Andy and Judy come up since we hadn’t seen each other in years. Sandy and Dawn’s hospitality was gracious and generous and I am so grateful.
Life is good!