Girls’ Weeknight Away (Part Two)
After packing up our gear the next morning, (an incredible amount of infrastructure for just two people…ha ha),we headed out to secure breakfast and were surprised to learn that most places in the village only opened at noon.
Luckily, the old fashioned candy shop served breakfast so in we went and enjoyed their version an ‘egg McMuffin’ which was quite a bit tastier too. It was fun to see the candies that we used to eat as children like “Thrills” chewing gum, “Good & Plenty” and “Nerds” for example.
Next stop : the beach!
Pigeon Lake is massive and it was fantastic that Paula has been there several times previously and knew the ‘ins and outs’ of where to park and enter to find the least amount of people and the most shade, etc.
We found a parking spot immediately across from a close entrance and right beside the path there was a nice, shady spot near the calm, clear water.
We had all the gear necessary to set up a nice spot including big hat(me), umbrellas(thank-you, Terry), a large, colourful blanket, lawn chairs, waters, suntan lotion and…well, you get the idea.
At 42 degrees we needed to get into the water immediately so in we walked , noodles in hand. (long, colourful beach floaties for those that don’t know that term.)
The sand had a fair amount of seaweed as we entered the calm water but I could walk fairly well because there were no waves.
The cold water actually felt amazing but there were so many sand bars that it was difficult to find a place deep enough for me to float..ha ha…as I’m quite tall.
We decided to do some of our daily prayers together in the water and it was just the most perfect experience …for awhile.
I think it was the second time we were returning to the chairs and I was feeling pretty confident that I could walk unaided (Paula was keeping me steady as my knees are so ‘bone on bone’ with arthritis), so that when she said,”Are you doing o.k. now on your own?” I no sooner said a confident,”Absolutely!” when my right foot and ankle fell into a hidden hole under the seaweed and I smashed down onto the sandy water….and knocked Paula over with me!
It was SOOOOOO funny that I could barely stop laughing. I looked over at Paula with her sunglasses dripping with water and I think we both kept picturing how funny we must have looked falling over like that. Oh man. Luckily, Paula was able to help me back up…ha ha ha.
Upon sitting back down onto the safety of our chairs I happened to look up and notice that the fir trees near us were absolutely covered in cobwebs. I pointed this out to Paula and we noticed hundreds of them glinting in the sun and just covering everything near us …like the bench chair in the yard nearby, the stairs…. AND there were spiders on OUR BLANKET, and OMG there was a big, biting kind on MY LEG!!!!!!! They were suddenly EVERYWHERE ; in our bags, and all over the sand too. We felt like we were in a movie called “Arachnid”! O.K. time to go.
We packed up pretty dang quickly, got back up the hill with only two trips, in the car, and went off for a lovely lunch at the nice café back in the Village.
Stay tuned for part three : return trip.