Camping Hot.

"My pillow is soaked and I can't get up because there are pools of sweat in my eyes." (Juliana - Thursday, July 21st, 8:30 a.m.)

We had been camping on the shores of Lake Huron since Tuesday.

It was supposed to be a relaxing week at the beach - reading, biking, eating, hiking, and sleeping.

We just hadn't planned on a heat wave.

What can you do?  We rolled with it.  We did the slow march down to the beach several times a day, spending hours in the waves cooling off. On Thursday, when the news talked of a heat alert, we drove (ever so slowly with the van's A/C on full) to the grocery store.  I think we needed 5 or 6 things.  But we walked (again, ever so slowly) down each and every aisle.  We shopped slow and we paid slow.

Then we returned to the beach to swim away our sweaty crankiness.

That night we had a campfire but we all sat r-e-a-l-l-y far back because there was too much heat from the flames.  (Although the heat didn't stop us from roasting the world's largest marshmallows for our s'mores.)

By Friday the humidity began to break a little and the pools of sweat on our eyeballs disappeared.  We biked to the store and back for ice cream, we fought for time in the hammock, we swam and played more games of frisbee in the water than I can count.  We sat in the shade doing crossword puzzles.  We napped.  We visited the local Flea Market on Sunday and bought sunglasses, books, beer nuts, and an overpriced fuzzy-worm-thing that does tricks.  (Well it did tricks when the guy was demonstrating.  Unfortunately Wormy isn't so obedient for Juliana.)

Surprisingly to many, myself included, I totally loved the biking.  (My bum thought otherwise for a few days but, whatever....)  This was the trip that Juliana became a full fledged off-road cyclist.  If she wasn't in the water then the chances were good that she was trying to find someone (mostly her good sport brother) to do some bicycle exploration with her.  She had many trips to the camp store with Peter and she convinced me to come out on the 18 km bike trail that Peter had taken the kids on earlier in the week.  And they all were right - I had a blast!

  And the sunsets, Jennifer.  Don't forget about the sunsets.

Every night after dinner we would head back to the beach, sometimes for a swim and sometimes not, just to watch that gorgeous, hot sun go down.  A slice of heaven is what that beach became at 9:00 every evening.

Near the end of the week we had a cloudy night but we all trudged to the water anyway.  The air was starting to cool off but the lake still felt warm.  We watched the rain approaching from the distance and then, as it arrived, we swam, exhilarated, under the gigantic raindrops hitting the water.  Walking back to the campsite in the pouring rain I felt like a kid again.  Juliana and I lingered, dripping wet in our bathing suits, barefoot in the puddles, laughing as the rain beat down on us.  It was definitely the highlight of the week for me.

As the temperature dropped a few degrees and the nights became easier to sleep we were able to enjoy the rest of our relaxing week.

Thanks to Lake Huron for the memories.  We miss you already.