A great body of water is compelling.  When I was a kid family vacation involved spending a few days at Carolina Beach.  The car trip to the seaside always involved mounting excitement the closer our destination.  I gazed intently from the side window straining for a first glimpse of the ocean.  That first sight of the long blue horizon still has a magical effect upon me.

Yesterday we visited the lakeside twice, morning and afternoon.  There is the excitement of preparation as sun tan lotion, and mosquito spray are applied.  Yes, we must walk a ways through the woods to the sandy beach of Lake Michigan.  There are sand shovels, plastic buckets, to be included in our bags. The beach towels too are important.

A beach towel laid upon the sand is one’s home for the few hours of the visit.

Of course there is the joy of taking a swim in the cold (refreshing) water of the big lake.  A sand bar some distance

away from the shore allowed for a swim of some 30 yards or more without the hazard of deep water.

The projects of the day were using the wet sand for construction of castles, and other imagined real estate developments.  Here are a few pictures taken of the construction projects.  There is an endless supply of building material, the summer is endless, and one shovel full after another is satisfaction.  Let’s see what happens, what can we do……….

Sandcastles were built, and the big project was an effort to redirect a stream of ground water flowing into the lake.  The flow of cold fresh water was damned and directed into a smaller “lake” which we dug into the beach sand.  The secret of success was several boards of drift wood that were effective to redirect the stream flow.

The day was concluded by a marshmallow roasting, smore party, by the firepit.  A glass of cherry wine, a specialty of the area, also helped a lot.