Allison and I had an
adventure on Saturday; we went to Hemet Lake campground to visit with Grandma,
Papa, Gabriel and Xander who went there to camp for the Fourth of July weekend.
We got up, packed some snacks, threw some water bottles in the car and hit the
road headed toward a lake I have not been to since I was a kid.
My sister and I were very
lucky as children to have both sets of Grandparents to spend time with. In our
family a vacation was a camping trip. When other kids at school talked about
“going on vacation” they meant hotels and beach resorts but when my sister and
I talked about vacations we meant trailers and campfires. Every Memorial Day we
went to Bishop and watched the Mule Days Parade then camped at French Camp near
Rock Creek and fished until we caught our limit. Most other three day weekends
were spent at Table Mountain, Idylwyld or Hemet Lake. During the summers we
would go out to some campground set up and then stay for weeks at a time with
our Grandparents while our parents commuted back and forth for the weekends. So
armed with many happy memories of camping and fishing at the lake I headed out
for the day with my own daughter.
The lake was a dark steel
blue and little waves were continuously pushing onto the shore, there were very
high clouds swiftly moving across the sun giving everything a hazy warm feel. When
we arrived the boys had been fishing for most of the morning but so far had
caught nothing, it might have been the absence of the “fishy song” that my
Sister perfected over our fishing career. She really was the only one that was
ever able to make that song work on her fishing pole. An umbrella and fold up
bench were set up on the shore next to two gently swaying fishing poles. As
soon as I sat down the umbrella leapt off of the pole and flew away. Gabriel
and Xander screamed with delight and chased after the mischievous umbrella.
Later they told me that the umbrella had been trying to run away all morning,
this was the fourth time they had retrieved it.
Everyone agreed it was
time to pack things up and try our hands at kite flying since the wind wanted
to play so very badly. Thanks to Uncle Tom we had brand new kites, which we
made in Oceanside on our trip the week before, to use. A blog on that trip to
come! Yeah! More memories flooded in as we sent those kites into the blue sky.
On one trip to Hemet Lake a large group of my Grandparents friends went with
us. Julie and I were the only kids and that was just fine with us! We were the
center of attention. There was a real telescope set up and we were able to see
Venus at night, we caught tadpoles and played with little dogs. Everyone seemed
to have a small dog skipping around their site. Each RV had pin wheels and
windsocks decorating the awnings in a rainbow of colors, the vehicles seemed to
be dancing while the wind blew the ornaments. Then we had kites, dragon kites,
we flew them every day. I remember the red tail of my kite swirling back and
forth as I used little tugs to keep it up and floating on just the right
breeze. As we flew our new kites on Saturday I was reminded of all the fun I
have had there and I was glad to share new memories with my daughter and
nephews.
After the kite flying we
decided that it was time to eat. Gabriel said, “If we had caught any fish we
would be eating that but now we are going to have hot dogs and corn. Corn is
really good, almost as good as fish.” So we all headed back to the campsite
where there were people sitting at our table. When we asked what was going on
they pointed at a car that was in the lake! Someone had driven their car
straight into the lake and it was slowly being towed out. The story was that
two people were in the car and somehow the car had slid down the side of a hill
and right into the water, the two people got out but the car was completely
submerged. The tow truck driver had to swim under the car and attach the tow
line to slowly pull the car out. He had to do it slowly to allow all of the
water to drain out of the interior and it was A LOT of water. When it was
finally on the truck all of the campers cheered and clapped, then the tow truck
driver took a bow.
After eating we went on a
walk around the campground to the tether ball courts and the HUGE communal fire
pit. The pit was cold and we sat around it to watch Gabriel play tether ball
with some other kids camping. Grandma and Xander played “I Think An Ant Bit You”
a great tickling game that had Xander in stitches.
As the day grew long it
was time to head home. My little baby was tired and we still had two more hours
to spend in the car. As I drove down the winding rode the sun set and I had a
lovely view out my windshield. The day ended in a splash of color and then soft
blues.
Enjoy your week everyone!
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