Enter this oh-so-quaint yacht club about an hour away from us. It's absolutely wonderful. There is a beautiful old club house that used to be someone's lake house back in the 1920's or something like that. It has a big old family room and a nice sized sun porch. Upstairs are two apartments that members can rent for a week at a time each summer -- hopefully we'll be able to do that next year. There is a kitchen for the apartments, with two of everything - two sinks, two fridges, two stoves -- for the weekly renters. And there is a big kitchen for the club members to use when they are there -- and, of course it's used to cook the dinners and lunches that the club has too.
There is a little sandy beach (they bring in sand) with a grassy portion too. The lake only comes up to R and T's belly-buttons, so it's perfect for swimming for them. There is also a playground (albeit old, but still fun for kids.) Behind the house is a shed that has all sorts of water toys, which are available for the club members' kids...the boys sure love that! There is a whole bunch of picnic tables, patio furniture, and lounge chairs scattered around the beach and patio area. It's so quaint, it looks like a page out of the 1950's social clubs or something.
Oh yeah, and there are sailboats, docked on very nice SOLID docks. They race the boats a couple of times a month.
Okay, that's the backstory. Here's my real story...
Last Friday night, M had the opportunity to sail on Lake Erie, something he's never done before. We got a babysitter for Friday morning (I have half days on Friday's now that it's summer) because M had to be at the boat in Ohio at noon. His race started at 5:00 in the evening and he sailed all night, getting to the finish line around 3:00 in the morning. After a nap, he headed back home and we saw him around dinner time.
On Sunday, our club had a brunch. We had a bunch of things to do around the house, but we figured we should go to the brunch since we're new members. We want to meet other members and be social. We brought swim suits just in case we wanted to take a quick dip in the lake. As we were eating our tasty brunch, one of the other members asked M if he was going to race that day. M told him that we didn't have our sails back from the sailmaker, so we couldn't sail yet. "No problem, I have an extra boat you can race. It will be fun." M looked at me with excited eyes, and I said, sure why not? (I was to leave on a three night business trip the next day, but luckily had done all of the laundry while M snoozed the night before. All I had to do was throw it in a suitcase.)
These boats that they raced took two people to sail, so R was M's crew! R had a great time. They sailed three races that took four hours (from 1-5pm). Of course, R had on his life vest. Safety first!
T played on the beach -- he started off by himself, but then joined the other boys.
T had a great time splashing and swimming in the water and making sand castles, while I hung out on the beach watching him play in the water. I also got to chat with some of the other wives who were on the shore. T and I made a quick trip to the local general market to grab some food since we didn't plan on being there for so long. Here's a picture of M and R getting ready to get the sails up and head to the starting line. The picture below it is of the other boats getting ready to head out.
Here are all the boats out on the race.
M and R hung in there on the races, even taking a third place (out of 7 boats) for one of the races! They had a break in between the 2nd and 3rd races, so they came ashore. That's when T said that he wanted to sail too. So, M had both boys on the boat for the last race......which means...that I, for hte first time since having kids.....was able to read a book on the beach!!! One of my all-time favorite past times. How nice :>
All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.
7 comments:
What a great way to spend a Sunday. Oh-my-gosh . . . time alone to read a book. We ALL know how precious that can be. And good for M to add T to the crew, too. How cool to have a place like that nearby. It sounds quaint, and not so "snobby" as some clubs can be. Great story! I bet there are more times in your future to have that precious time-to-read-a-book at your leisure. Way to go.
I'm so glad to see the pictures. It's a beautiful "clubhouse" and the beach is gorgeous too. Is that T in the one picture with maybe your chair in the foreground? And your boat is named "SAM" - did she come with that name? Or is she named after you, "Sam Sam!"
Oh yes it is T . . . I enlarged the picture and recognized him on his little belly enjoying the warmth of the sand . . . and THEN I spotted that lovely beach bag your mom made you! Beautiful!
Okay...so I was washing my dishes thinking about your blog and it dawned on me that SAM isn't YOUR boat, it's a loaner! Duh! Can't believe all four of these comments are from your own Maaa, eh?
Maaa - you crack me up! I'm glad that you remembered that the boat wasn't ours...and yes, that is T lying on his belly in the warm sand (warming up from the cold water.) Sometimes I think that his goal is to get as many grains of sand on him as possible...which makes me wonder if he's my son! Oh how I hated to get sandy when I was a kid...and I'm still not a fan of it.
I do, however, LOVE the lovely beach bag my mom made me :>
Can I go.. can I go.. I want to be in the show... I want to be in the show. (Can you tell the place reminds me of Dirty Dancing..) How fun. That sounds much better for your situation. A little bit more of a drive but not too bad at all!
Yeah S!!! I bet you'll get more and more time to read as those lil guys get bigger and more involved with those guy things. Love to hear about all this stuff. Would love to hear what the boys had to say about the racing.
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