There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues!

Instead of taking a full week of vacation time this summer, we've been taking a day off here and there and doing day trips. It's amazing how much fun you can have not too far from home, and then you get to sleep in your own bed at night!

On this day, my husband proposed that we go to Lake Raystown in Huntingdon and check out the swimming. There are two public swimming areas along the lake, Seven Points Beach and Tatman Beach - this is Seven Points Beach in this photo. And so we did. I am not sure I had ever been there before.

When we got there, we discovered a blue paradise of water - at 8500 acres, it is the largest lake within Pennsylvania. Kinzua is technically bigger, but it's not entirely within Pennsylvania, as part of it extends into New York. At its deepest point, Raystown Lake is 200 feet (61 meters).

While the first dam to create a lake in this area was built in 1905, construction of the dam and lake as they exist now was finalized in 1973 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as a hydroelectric project.

The lake has areas for swimming, fishing, boating, picnicking, hiking, and camping. There is a large marina - and a restaurant - along the side near the Seven Points Recreation Area, where many boats are docked. The marina is to the left, behind those trees.

There are many shady areas along the lake to sit, and a food concession, sandy play areas and a roped-off shallow swimming area for the little kids (and a water trampoline, which I have to admit looked kinda cool), and a larger and deeper swimming area for adults (the adult swimming area is shown in this photo). We sat in the shade in our chairs enjoying the view for a while, went for an extensive swim, and then hiked around this side of the lake before heading home.

I hope all of my blipper friends are having a good summer! Have you managed to fit in some good times? Have you come up with some fun ideas and managed to put them into action? There just may be many wonderful adventures you can discover not too far from home!

I chose the name of this blip because of all of the blues in this scene. The sky was blue and the water was blue, but I assure you we were not blue! :-) They tell me there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. The soundtrack is the song of the same name by Eddie Cochran.