Today was essentially do nothing day. We woke up early and rowed over to Norman's Cove to hang out on the beach all day and relax. It turned out to be a windy, cloudy day, which was actually decent weather for what we had planned, because we wanted to sit on the beach but not get roasted again, and because we were going to bar-B-Q over an open flame, and you don't want to do that in 85 degree heat.
We always picked the worst days to go row boating. The waves were very, very high this morning and rowing over was a real struggle. I added some new blisters to my hands and other places). The waves and wind kept turning the boat the wrong way, and, coupled with the fact that i was still confused about rowing backwards, we sometimes found ourselves facing the shore we were supposed to be rowing away from. Priscilla was kind enough to point out when i was "rowing the wrong way", of course. (did i mention i get motion sickness very easily?)
We finally made it in one piece. Priscilla did her tai chi in the cove instead of on the cottage beach this morning while i walked around and took some pictures.
I apologize for rod taking this picture of me looking like i'm fending off some invisible salesperson.
Then we sat on the beach and read for a while (and priscilla took the stealth shot of me below), until a family of ducks came to investigate us. The children (mostly grown at this point) walked right up to us and looked us over, and then moved beyond us looking for things to eat on the ground. The mother kept a suspicious eye on us the whole time. No pictures of the ducks.
After they left we gathered up some twigs and branches and started a fire in a stone fireplace that is on the beach, and we cooked our veggie dogs and corn on the cob. The picture below is completely staged. The fire was already going well at that point and didn't need any tending.
As we were finishing eating it started to rain. We debated sitting on land a while and seeing if the rain let up, since it's probably better to be on land instead of on a rowboat in the middle of the lake when it is raining, but we decided to go. Once we got out on the lake the rain let up a bit and we found that the wind had died down, so we just sat out in the middle of the lake for a while and let the waves rock us. Then we went back and it started raining for real. It rained the rest of the night. In fact, the power went out at one point, but neither of us knew it until a neighbor said something because i was out on the deck reading and priscilla was taking a nap.
This is the same neighbor who came with his wife and we saw leave his cabin twice the entire week. I'm pretty sure he spent the whole time watching tv until that awful night the power went out and left him with nothing to do but stand on the porch hoping for passerbys to talk to. His wife, on the other hand, swam in the lake and went out in a canoe daily. She also ate breakfast every morning out on the porch by herself. I know this because we also ate our breakfast outside and our cabins were across from each other. It's certainly not because i'm nosey. Oh, shut up.