A Great Lake indeed...

It's Friday, June 5th and it was a spectacularly beautiful day on Lake Erie. Molly and I ‎are visiting her grandmother, Wilma, for a couple of days in Angola, NY. And if you are ‎like me in your presumptuous opinions of the Great Lakes, you may suspend your ‎suspicions about Erie. I've always thought that these lakes were polluted and ‎disgusting and probably some shade of orangey-green, but today Wilma's little private ‎beach completely proved me wrong! She lives on a dead-end road that is maintained ‎by her and her neighbors. At the end of the road is an old cement staircase that climbs ‎up and over an old dune. At the top of the staircase you begin to see the view of the ‎lake, but the wonderful overgrowth of trees prevents a wide scope. The wooden ‎staircase that descends to the beach replaced a suspension bridge that blew down in a ‎violent storm about 25 years ago. The bridge used to connect to another tall dune that ‎once separated a creek from the gigantic lake. Jim, Wilma's neighbor who has a ‎beautiful home on top of the surviving dune, told me that before that series of violent ‎storms, every home on the dune had a private suspension bridge to the other side. ‎Crazy. ‎
Anyway, we spent most of the day enjoying the sun and collecting beach glass. ‎Charley absolutely loved the freedom he had on the surprisingly long stretch of sand. ‎The pup also had his first real encounter with the doggy paddle when Molly carried him ‎‎40 yards out to a sandbar and made him swim all the way to shore. He did very well ‎and was excited to sprint up and down the shore to dry off! Wilma, at the healthy young ‎age of 86, took the kayak for a spin up the creek that feeds into this part of the lake. I ‎swear, I'll be ever grateful if I am half as active at her age! I was bugging her all day ‎about getting some authentic Buffalo, NY buffalo wings, so I'm hoping tomorrow she can ‎make that happen for me! And if you are reading this on Saturday the 6th then that ‎means we have also squeezed in a trip to the public library for some good ol' interweb ‎time. Big day ahead so I'm gonna hit the hay a bit early tonight. Oh, also, I have poison ‎ivy on my neck from hugging a dog. It blows. Sweet dreams everyone! J-dawg out. ‎