A Day at the Lake: Memorial Day 2016

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My daughter, her boyfriend, and me decided to spend today at Lake Powhatan, a nearby small lake where there are “rooms” (clearings) along the forested paths, each one containing a picnic table and a grill.

This year I made sure not to forget the tinfoil (last year we didn’t have any and most of the hamburger fell through the grill vents into the fire–we fished them out and ate them anyway) but we forgot the lemonade I made last night! So at the last minute we stopped in a convenience store and picked up a bottle of Sprite. Guess I’ll be having lemonade with my dinners this week.

We found a good “room” with a view of the lake that was shaded all around by trees, but the mosquitoes were having a field day and I have the red welts to prove it.

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That’s the actual name of the lakefront we went to.

We had the usual Memorial day fare: burgers, baked beans and potato salad. Everything tasted wonderful. There’s nothing quite like meat cooked outside on a grill, and it wasn’t scorched this time from falling into the flames.

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Come and get it!

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It was really too cold to swim, although some people were (especially the kids) but we weren’t that courageous. My daughter and her boyfriend stayed safely on the sand. Me? I can technically tell people I “went in,” since I waded in up to my knees, and then waded back. The water hasn’t really warmed up yet. But it felt good just standing there in the shallows feeling the gentle breeze.

As we were walking back to where we parked (a good 3/4 of a mile walk because the parking area was full), we saw these two black snakes in an…intimate moment. Nature always has so many surprises, but I still felt a little guilty taking pictures of them.  (You can click on the photos to get a closer view).

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17 thoughts on “A Day at the Lake: Memorial Day 2016”

  1. Hi Lucky, thanks so much for telling us about your Memorial Day outing today. Hard Times, what a weird name for a lake with beach, and rooms! The rooms sounded cool. I would have loved to have been there myself. I enjoyed the pictures and your description of the day’s events and I had no idea that snakes did it like that, but, I never stopped to think about it either. How interesting. Reading this blog post of yours makes me realize I so need to ‘get a life.’ I’ve got to improve my situation. It’s going to take time. I’m patient. But I went away for a few minutes vicariously here while reading. The day sounded refreshing and stimulating.

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    • I don’t have too much of a life either, so it was really nice to get out and enjoy the day today. I had no idea snakes did it like that either! We could get pretty close (I don’t know if they were poisonous or not) because they were too busy to even know we were there, lol.

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  3. egads! on snake its huuuge! I also went to the lake today.well a huge pond.. I took photos of very large (two feet) koi goldfish, saw 50 turtles , ducks, took photos of all. beautiful weather too here in Virginia. ate a lot of pizza… I wanted the hotdogs hamburgers chips.. but .. well someone else wanted the new papa johns burger pizza! (swiss hamburger mushroom onion with garlic sauce) yeah good!
    I noticed even if my whole life.. seems to be in shambles in some worldly sense I hardly care about anymore,or spend most days in ptsd angst and what not..anxiety depression,. I ALWAYS make sure I celebrate and enjoy birthdays and holidays! its a rule 🙂 glad you did too!
    I wish I could apply that magical thinking about “its a holiday!:)” or someone’s birthday etc.. to just about everyday.well its because its REAL.. its steeped in tradition.. and community.. energy all around….yearly memories to back it up too, all good

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    • I know what you mean. I don’t get out much. I prefer to isolate myself but I know it isn’t healthy. Too much of that and I start in with my negative CPTSD thinking patterns. Once I make the effort I usually have a good time though. It helps to get out and do other things once in a while. It’s a sort of mindfulness.
      Yes, the snakes scared me at first, but we were actually pretty far away. They were big! I don’t think these are poisonous, but I wasn’t going to get too close to find out!

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