I think it may be the first newsletter in which you are not the one going to the ER. Congratulations on dodging the bullet. Maybe the curse is now on Winston, you should warn him , those next couple of years are going to be rough
Deny, deny, deny anything happened to him at the cottage, unless he cuts you in for 23.67%, then reconsider. Anyway, virtual high five on the cooking, glad y’all had a great time, onto the next.
Get well soon Winston (and lots of energy to Virgina)! What a pity, because otherwise it sounds like a nice stay. Using the windbreaks and tents near a rather cool-temperatured water body is something people here tend to do quite often (though we recebntly opt for hiking instead of sunbathing), so with your installation you'd fit well among Polish vacationers. And a virtual high five from across the ocean for the food! It seems we've had a similar timing, because my family as well went to the dunes and beaches to spend a lovely weekend at our seaside near Łeba.
There were none - it was cold, windy and rained a bit. But my cat recently discovered it enjoys consuming insect, so while we're good, it may keep them!
This reminds me of countless summer trips to the beach in Cornwall, England and several losing battles with the windbreak. I remember that after the tenth time of finally getting the windbreak to stay in place, the sandflies attacked, and it also started to rain. My parents said we were leaving and I was not happy - possibly my logic was because the rain would drive away the flies. It was probably because I was a teenager and already grumpy. I think I said I didn't care if it was raining. Still, I'm someone who swims in the sea all year round, even when it snows, so my opinion on things might need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
When I was in late High School and early college, growing up in Hammond, my cousin, 2 work friends and I would often head out to a beach house said cousin's family had in Beverly Shores after work during the summer months. It was close enough and we were young enough to not care about the drive at that time of day (night??). Also we would often go to the Dunes during the winter months because it was one of the few places in NW Indiana that you can go tobogganing. I haven't lived in Indiana in 53 years now since I moved to the SF Bay area shortly after I got married and jobs dragged us to the west coast. But I still have fond memories of the time I did beach stuff when I lived in Indiana. BTW the beaches here in the Bay Area are generally gray and cold. The Pacific Ocean never warms up here enough to go in without a wet suit
It's weird to me that those gorgeous beaches have water that's too cold to enjoy. At least it's beautiful. And you also get perfect weather when you're on shore, so I suppose you're still winning.
Confirming Mary’s comment. Have lived in coastal California all my life. Northern CA beaches are very pretty to look at, but rocky, not sandy, and the water is too cold for most to swim. Southern California beaches are sandy and pretty, and maybe due to salt water rather than your lake fresh water, no bitey insects to speak of. But people do drown; look up sneaker waves and riptides. Best beaches I have experienced are in Bora Bora, where the water is clear and warm and calm, due to barrier reef surrounding the island so the waves break far offshore
Were you able to actually see the flies? South Florida along the Gulf has these ‘wonderful’ things called no-see-ums. You don’t see them at all, but they will eat you alive and they itch worse than the worst mosquito bites. Our first trip was not an issue, but the second one was awful. We got a few bites earlier in the first trip and found a spray that worked great and we weren’t bothered the rest of the time. On our second trip, we tried to get the same spray and nobody made it anymore so we tried something else and it did not work as well. At least the no-see-ums don’t come out until dusk, but we still got eaten alive. We found out that the best thing to do is to cover your body and oil, according to the locals.Avon skin so soft original is Supposedly the best and they will literally drown in the oil on your skin if you oil up enough. I’m ready to test that theory!
We live in southern Indiana and have been talking about going to Indiana Dunes. Our son has gone with his wife and really enjoyed it. When I’m finally able to do some traveling, I’m ready to give it a shot, but I’ll wait until July or August. And avoid June!
Vacations are treacherous, James. Probably the best part of a vacation, especially one planned away from home, is the actual planning of it. The anticipation of all the fun we'll have so often turns out better than the actual experience. Fantasy always wins the heart where reality crushes it into hamburger.
I can remember several summer family vacations when I was a kid that the most memorable event was a big storm. One caused a flash flood out West that was scary and caused the campsite to be evacuated to higher ground, or the one in D. C., where it blew everyone's tent clear across the camp, which made for some interesting hunting but also meeting our fellow campers was a lot of fun. Fortunately, no one was ever injured on a family vacation (well, youngest brother did get his head caught in a revolving door in New York when he was about 8 which made the seasoned New Yorkers angry and yelling words we small-towners didn't recognize, good thing). Hope this injury doesn't interfere with Winston's ability to enjoy the summer. BTW good "name" as my great grandpa's name was Winston. And congrats to Betsy for finishing her driving hours!
Aww. I hate bugs. Almost as much as orange face baboons. But that’s just me. I usually slather myself in bug spray but this year I have a problem. The spray, which I’ve been using for decades made me ill. The smell I mean. I did, however, find some that doesn’t stink as much but I’m not sure works as well. We’ll see because we had a storm. We had a neighbor’s tree break into our fenced yard. Matter of fact you couldn’t see the pond because the top of it landed firmly in it. We found out the hard way a few years back that if a tree falls in your yard, you’re responsible for taking care of it. Unless someone chops a tree down facing your house then you have a chance of suing. BTW, I think about you guys all the time with the insane weather we’re having. I think my son lives pretty close to you guys (or not) so when he gets hit, so do you (I think). I watch Maxvelocity on YouTube. He has saved both my and my sister (Oklahoma) butts more than a few times. That same storm that dropped at tree in my yard? Tornado about 15 min north of us. All we had was “high winds” and Max telling us a tornado was close. Our local weather guy was “Humm, maybe”. Max was like “GO TO YOUR SAFE SPACE!!” And we did. Anyway, the wind was hiigh enough to knock said tree into yard. I took my dogs to the park a little north of us and saw some real damage. The park walk was short because TWO trees were blocking the path. Ain’t it fun living in the Midwest???
It's always an adventure! The latest storms spared us, but they pummeled my hometown in Illinois. I open the book "How to be a Man" with a story about a tree falling and crushing a building we painted in a park. The storm hit the same park this week and knocked down even more trees. Mother Nature came back to finish the job.
I’ve always worry about my sister. She lives in a mobile home in the middle of Oklahoma and has already lost everything once about 7 years ago. I went down to help and you really can’t KNOW what it’s like until you see it for yourself. 300 year old trees ripped out of the ground. I felt pretty safe here but recently it’s been unnerving. I had no ideal tornado’s were this frequent or this bad. And I’ve seen Wizard of Oz!
Poor Virginia is going to need another vacation in a few weeks!
Poor Winston! That is going to be such a trial without a first floor bathroom.
I think it may be the first newsletter in which you are not the one going to the ER. Congratulations on dodging the bullet. Maybe the curse is now on Winston, you should warn him , those next couple of years are going to be rough
I broke my own streak! I'll have to start over at one with my next one.
Deny, deny, deny anything happened to him at the cottage, unless he cuts you in for 23.67%, then reconsider. Anyway, virtual high five on the cooking, glad y’all had a great time, onto the next.
I am so ready to lie in whichever direction is more profitable.
Get well soon Winston (and lots of energy to Virgina)! What a pity, because otherwise it sounds like a nice stay. Using the windbreaks and tents near a rather cool-temperatured water body is something people here tend to do quite often (though we recebntly opt for hiking instead of sunbathing), so with your installation you'd fit well among Polish vacationers. And a virtual high five from across the ocean for the food! It seems we've had a similar timing, because my family as well went to the dunes and beaches to spend a lovely weekend at our seaside near Łeba.
I hope the bugs were better over there! If you didn't have enough, we can give you some of ours.
There were none - it was cold, windy and rained a bit. But my cat recently discovered it enjoys consuming insect, so while we're good, it may keep them!
This reminds me of countless summer trips to the beach in Cornwall, England and several losing battles with the windbreak. I remember that after the tenth time of finally getting the windbreak to stay in place, the sandflies attacked, and it also started to rain. My parents said we were leaving and I was not happy - possibly my logic was because the rain would drive away the flies. It was probably because I was a teenager and already grumpy. I think I said I didn't care if it was raining. Still, I'm someone who swims in the sea all year round, even when it snows, so my opinion on things might need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
I'm sad to hear you have sandflies over there, too. Flying across the ocean isn't far enough to escape them. We need another planet.
My family and I are going to Pismo Beach the last weekend of this month. Looking forward to relaxing and seeing all my relatives.
When I was in late High School and early college, growing up in Hammond, my cousin, 2 work friends and I would often head out to a beach house said cousin's family had in Beverly Shores after work during the summer months. It was close enough and we were young enough to not care about the drive at that time of day (night??). Also we would often go to the Dunes during the winter months because it was one of the few places in NW Indiana that you can go tobogganing. I haven't lived in Indiana in 53 years now since I moved to the SF Bay area shortly after I got married and jobs dragged us to the west coast. But I still have fond memories of the time I did beach stuff when I lived in Indiana. BTW the beaches here in the Bay Area are generally gray and cold. The Pacific Ocean never warms up here enough to go in without a wet suit
It's weird to me that those gorgeous beaches have water that's too cold to enjoy. At least it's beautiful. And you also get perfect weather when you're on shore, so I suppose you're still winning.
You are thinking of the beaches of SoCal which are for the most part truly beautiful. Up here our beaches are good for things like the Mavericks. And when my daughter got her diving certification, she had to wear a dry suit in Monterey Bay -- it's that cold. but just to compare to Lake Michigan in say, January, this is at the beach at Half Moon Bay https://d3qf8nvav5av0u.cloudfront.net/image/9e4113b12e066ffbf2da1ab175113170.jpg?&x=1280&y=720&icq=74&sig=3201d7ae72a8cd7a9f99e7268ac4b3cd
Confirming Mary’s comment. Have lived in coastal California all my life. Northern CA beaches are very pretty to look at, but rocky, not sandy, and the water is too cold for most to swim. Southern California beaches are sandy and pretty, and maybe due to salt water rather than your lake fresh water, no bitey insects to speak of. But people do drown; look up sneaker waves and riptides. Best beaches I have experienced are in Bora Bora, where the water is clear and warm and calm, due to barrier reef surrounding the island so the waves break far offshore
Prayers for Winston and Virginia!
Were you able to actually see the flies? South Florida along the Gulf has these ‘wonderful’ things called no-see-ums. You don’t see them at all, but they will eat you alive and they itch worse than the worst mosquito bites. Our first trip was not an issue, but the second one was awful. We got a few bites earlier in the first trip and found a spray that worked great and we weren’t bothered the rest of the time. On our second trip, we tried to get the same spray and nobody made it anymore so we tried something else and it did not work as well. At least the no-see-ums don’t come out until dusk, but we still got eaten alive. We found out that the best thing to do is to cover your body and oil, according to the locals.Avon skin so soft original is Supposedly the best and they will literally drown in the oil on your skin if you oil up enough. I’m ready to test that theory!
We live in southern Indiana and have been talking about going to Indiana Dunes. Our son has gone with his wife and really enjoyed it. When I’m finally able to do some traveling, I’m ready to give it a shot, but I’ll wait until July or August. And avoid June!
Vacations are treacherous, James. Probably the best part of a vacation, especially one planned away from home, is the actual planning of it. The anticipation of all the fun we'll have so often turns out better than the actual experience. Fantasy always wins the heart where reality crushes it into hamburger.
I can remember several summer family vacations when I was a kid that the most memorable event was a big storm. One caused a flash flood out West that was scary and caused the campsite to be evacuated to higher ground, or the one in D. C., where it blew everyone's tent clear across the camp, which made for some interesting hunting but also meeting our fellow campers was a lot of fun. Fortunately, no one was ever injured on a family vacation (well, youngest brother did get his head caught in a revolving door in New York when he was about 8 which made the seasoned New Yorkers angry and yelling words we small-towners didn't recognize, good thing). Hope this injury doesn't interfere with Winston's ability to enjoy the summer. BTW good "name" as my great grandpa's name was Winston. And congrats to Betsy for finishing her driving hours!
Aww. I hate bugs. Almost as much as orange face baboons. But that’s just me. I usually slather myself in bug spray but this year I have a problem. The spray, which I’ve been using for decades made me ill. The smell I mean. I did, however, find some that doesn’t stink as much but I’m not sure works as well. We’ll see because we had a storm. We had a neighbor’s tree break into our fenced yard. Matter of fact you couldn’t see the pond because the top of it landed firmly in it. We found out the hard way a few years back that if a tree falls in your yard, you’re responsible for taking care of it. Unless someone chops a tree down facing your house then you have a chance of suing. BTW, I think about you guys all the time with the insane weather we’re having. I think my son lives pretty close to you guys (or not) so when he gets hit, so do you (I think). I watch Maxvelocity on YouTube. He has saved both my and my sister (Oklahoma) butts more than a few times. That same storm that dropped at tree in my yard? Tornado about 15 min north of us. All we had was “high winds” and Max telling us a tornado was close. Our local weather guy was “Humm, maybe”. Max was like “GO TO YOUR SAFE SPACE!!” And we did. Anyway, the wind was hiigh enough to knock said tree into yard. I took my dogs to the park a little north of us and saw some real damage. The park walk was short because TWO trees were blocking the path. Ain’t it fun living in the Midwest???
It's always an adventure! The latest storms spared us, but they pummeled my hometown in Illinois. I open the book "How to be a Man" with a story about a tree falling and crushing a building we painted in a park. The storm hit the same park this week and knocked down even more trees. Mother Nature came back to finish the job.
I’ve always worry about my sister. She lives in a mobile home in the middle of Oklahoma and has already lost everything once about 7 years ago. I went down to help and you really can’t KNOW what it’s like until you see it for yourself. 300 year old trees ripped out of the ground. I felt pretty safe here but recently it’s been unnerving. I had no ideal tornado’s were this frequent or this bad. And I’ve seen Wizard of Oz!