Beaver Lake

Sunday. July 26th. Feast of St. Anne

Last night, we went down to the lake at dusk. The lake was so still. The outline of the hills was dark and hazy. It was so beautiful!

Later, as we were roasting marshmallows, someone set off a lot of fireworks over the lake and we could see them glittering through the trees. A racoon made his way in to our camp as we sat around the fire. The dogs scared him off pretty quickly.

I made breakfast over the campfire this morning. We enjoyed tomato, green pepper and cheddar omlettes with texas toast and hot apple cider. There are few things as wonderful as meals cooked over a fire.

We packed up camp and went down to the lake for some snorkeling and kayaking. Paul helped perfect the dogs swimming skills. Bella's always been afraid of water, but she wasn't about to let Snoopy get her tennis ball when Paul threw it into the lake.

The lake was the best lake I've found for snorkeling, so far. The lake has been flooded since spring so some of the campsite are under water. Technically, they don't want people hanging out in that area, but the stone barrier surrounding the former campsites is under water and has become a home for lots of fish. I spent over an hour swimming and taking pictures of fish.

We paddled around for an hour or two. There were some great cliffs and overhangs. All and all it was a lot of fun.

Sadly, I failed to apply the proper amount of sunscreen and ended up so burnt that I was in tears as I went to bed (more on that later).

There was a 4pm Life Teen Mass in Rodgers that we went to. I literally cried several times during Mass because of how amazing God can be and because I was homesick for Franciscan.

We parked for the night at Walmart. It was directly across the street from the spot were Sam Walton opened the very first Walmart (La-di-da!). I was in so much pain from the sunburn that we googled ways of taking the sting away and discovered that vinegar is supposed to do the trick. Paul went and bought Aleve, white vinegar and aloe.

The directions said to soak strips of cloth with vinegar and leave it on the skin for 20 minutes. I looked like a mummy and smelled like a pickle/salt and vinegar chips. Yuck! It didn't seem to help much, but that could be because I had shaved my legs that day AFTER swimming (I know-STUPID!).

What did help a little was Paul going across the street and bought me a Key Lime Concrete. They put a whole slice of Key Lime Pie in a blender with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

In the words of that song that came out around the time I graduated high school- "Don't forget the sunscreen!"