Temp: 28 degrees
Okay, so 28 was the high at Green Lake, so I suspect it's much warmer back home - but who cares, this is a GORGEOUS day here!
We were up around 9AM, which isn't much of a sleep-in considering the late night, but the anual Green Lake Horseshoe tourney is today, and my start time is at 10AM ... Carole's team play at 10:30, and I need to "hydrate" and make some breakfast. Yeah, I probably should have been drinking more water along with all that beer yesterday, but a bottle of water, two juice boxes, some fresh fruit later, and I easily shook off the groggies. For breakfast I made French Toast with fruit salad - Yum! a good start to a great day.
Well, Carole and I were both knocked out of the horseshoe tourney in our first rounds, but it was still a great day - it's a blast to watch, everyone is such a character.
At about noon, when all of the fourteen teams had finished their first round games, Carole and I slipped out to do some geocahing. I had marked down six chache locations around the lake, and it turned out to be an awesome way to find all of the provincial parks and public access beaches in the area. We had no idea how many Provincial parks, campsites, picnic sites, public beaches, and free boat launch sites there were on this lake! For the first time, we got around to the north side of the lake, and I dare say it's even nicer than the south side... this is seriously a place that we'd consider buying recreational property... if only the area weren't so popular! It's not crazy like the
Shuswap, and there are literally dozens of properties for sale, but lakefront ANYWHERE is a hot commodity, and prices here are pretty steep...
We also zipped out to the 70 Mile House general store to pick up some marshmallows and more beer. Just as we arrived back at the campsite, around 2pm, the final horeshoe championship game ended - perfect timing!
It was definitely warmer today, at least 28, possibly more as the afternoon progressed, but I didn't check after about 2PM. We grabbed some camp smokies for lunch, slicked up with sun tan lotion, and hit the beach. We also got out on the boat for a bit, which is always a blast.
Later, I decided to pump up the dingy we had bought at a garage sale 3 years ago, but had never used... Carole and I grabbed a couple of drinks, hopped in, and went for a nice 30 or 40 minute paddle around the area. It was an awesome idea, and when we finally got back the the beach everyone remarked at how peaceful and romantic it looked, just to two of us lazily toodling around out in the lake sipping our drinks and chillaxing on the cool green lake in the hot summer sun. Ah, lazy days and crazy nights - this is the life...
For dinner I made steak and superfries with salad, while others whipped up butter chicken curry, cedar plank salmon with dill creamcheese sauce and asperagus tips, and other equally impressive creations. Oh, didn't I mention? This camping trip is also a traditional unofficial "show off your culinary skills" competition ... not to be outdone, every year the meals are more and more exotic. It's pretty funny actually - we're sleeping in tents, subsisting during the day on beer and hotdogs, but come dinner time, everyone eats like a king.
After dusk, the same late night campfire hillarity ensued, though this time Carole actually got into it and sang half of the Rush and Led Zeppelin repetiore as Colin played guitar. She got so many compliments about her perfect pitch and uncanny ability to reproduce every inflection and nuance in a song, both that night and the next morning, that she may, just maybe, actually think about singing in front of people again sometime... a thought that has traditionally repulsed her, and sent oggies up her spine. After a couple of erupting rounds of applause when she flawlessly reproduced two guitar solos (using her voice) in order to keep the songs flowing between vocal parts, I think she got sufficient ego boosts to get her over the imobilizing shyness that would generally keep her from doing something so wild as singing along with 20 other drunken campers!
It was a blast, it really was - but all good things must come to an end, and we've gotta head home tomorrow, so shortly after midnight we packed it in. It was a much warmer day, followed by a much warmer night - and the sleep was quite warm and comfortable.
Posted by Calvin at August 6, 2006 10:09 AM