Green Boat, Green Ocean / Breakfast in America

There was originally a dentist appointment scheduled for this day. But it got cancelled, and moved up to last week. This meant that when the weather looked like it would be very nice on this day, my husband and I could do whatever we pleased. We decided to go out for a nice breakfast in the morning, and in the afternoon, go for the very first swim of the year, at Canoe Creek State Park.

It's about a 40-minute drive to Altoona, and to the closest Eat 'n Park restaurant we know of. They serve a delicious breakfast, but the price goes up a bit at 11 a.m. This means we like to be there, ordering, before that time. We're not as much morning people as we once were. But we made it with 10 to 15 minutes to spare. Sat down, placed our orders, and then ate like champs when our food arrived.

I had ordered the senior super griddle smile, and my husband had ordered the original breakfast smile. You may see a photo of our delicious meal in the extras. Mine included eggs, sunny side up, potato cakes, bacon, and toast; my extra side was two grilled stickies, which I put in containers and saved for our bedtime snack. My husband had eggs, over medium, potato cakes, sausage, and toast. Everything was as good as ever, maybe even better!

From there, we set out for Canoe Creek State Park. It's about 15 to 20 minutes from the Eat 'n Park to the swim area. We parked my car in the shade, and went into the beach house to change into our swimsuits. One of the first things I do now, since I've encountered stuck wildlife more than once in the restrooms there, is to walk around and check all areas for stranded birds. Both doors were open. I encountered nobody in distress, at least not this time. Good.

We picked a shady spot on the hill, under a tree, set up our chairs, got out our books. The table in the shade next to us had some stuff piled on it, but nobody was there. A cell phone began to bark out regular staccato rings; it would not stop! Within five minutes or so, somebody walked back up from the beach, sat down, and killed the ringer. Thank goodness.

I walked around and took pictures, of the lake, of the boats, of the gorgeous green water. It was sunny and breezy and beautiful out, the temps in the high 70s, just about perfect, in the shade. A young woman on a green boat floated on an ocean of green, and it looked like the life of riley to me, as we say. Now, THIS is living! Nothing under you but water. Nothing above you but the clear blue sky.

And an osprey! Yes, as it turns out, a large osprey was fishing from the sky overhead. I watched as it made laps around the lake, and then dove down, smacking the water, hard. It was difficult to believe how LOUD a slap it made. I hope it came up with a fish. I got a shot of the disturbed water; alas, no great close-up shot of the osprey or its (possible) catch. Hoped for a better, closer view; did not get one.

I walked back to my chair, and discovered a bunch of people had shown up at the table next to us. Multiple families, in fact, with tiny children, waiting to play in the nearby playground area, as soon as it was vacated by the group that was there before them. 

I was not listening closely on purpose, but their language was quite rough. The "F-bomb" was used at least 20 times in just a few minutes. I know, I like that word too (and its relative, "the big M-F!"), but if you really want that word to have impact, you only pull it out and use it judiciously!

Somewhere nearby, a park employee began to mow. "Oh, goodie. Thank God for the mowing man. It feels just like HOME!" I said, sarcastically. (Tuesday is a day that two of our neighbors have off work, both the vet lady next door and the car salesman across the street; and so, quite often, the main noise we can hear at our OWN house on any given Tuesday is the sound of endless mowing.)

Shortly, my husband and I moved my chair and most of our stuff closer to the beach. Stripped down to our swimsuits, and went for the first swim, which was chilly, I'll admit it, which made getting IN the water a bit of a challenge, but it was fine once you were in. We had a lovely swim, and noted that this was quite possibly our latest "first swim" ever. It's been a cool, damp spring; only of late has it seemed warm enough to get in.

It was the maiden voyage for my new neoprene aqua yoga socks. I saw them on Amazon for $5.99 (in black; colors cost more), and decided I needed them. You can wear them around the beach and even into the water. In prior summers, I've gotten at least one bee sting per year on the bottom of my foot, while getting into and out of the water to swim; one summer, I got two in a row. Bee stings on the feet are no fun; in fact, they can yield crazy-itches for days. I thought the aqua socks might prevent further stings. So far, so good!

After our swim, we went back to the changing rooms and showered. I tried two different showers before I got some warm water. The water pressure was no great shakes, but in the end, I was clean and so were my bathing suit and my new aqua socks.

We adjourned back to our chairs under the shady tree. But a new group of people showed up to the table in front of us. "Is that a tiny baby or a really little dog?" I asked my husband, as I saw something small moving around in the grass near them. As we watched, the lady in red got out a cigarette and lit it up. The smoke traveled right up to us. Yuck. 

Then she picked up the tiny baby, which may have been the smallest baby I've ever seen out in public. It could only be a few weeks old. Yep. Cigarette smoke with a baby. That poor kid's gonna have a pack-a-day habit by the time it's ONE. By this time, the picnic table beside us was empty. The group of people had departed, leaving behind a dirty diaper on the table. (!!!) 

We were tired of the smoke, so we moved our chairs over to the boat rental; sat and looked at the water until we decided it was time to leave. Hit the restrooms one last time before we went. My husband discovered something disturbing there. We'll get to that in a sec.

We took our stuff and walked back up to the car. When he saw a ranger truck drive by, my husband flagged her down and told her some bad news. While he was in the men's room, my husband noted that someone had had a "bathroom accident," of the number 2 variety, in the urinal in the men's room. 

And on the floor, in several places. (We hope that the culprit was somebody too young to know better.) My husband regretted having to share this disgusting news. However, as he has worked in a hospital, he knows that such a thing is not only unsavory, it is a health threat. Best for someone (NOT us!) to clean up such a thing before somebody steps in it. I know, ooh, gross! Yep, that's me, keepin' it real!

On the way home, we decided to stop in Tyrone and get a pair of Mac's hoagies for the cooler. I have discovered that I can eat most food, now that my broken tooth has been repaired a bit, if I can cut my food down into tiny pieces that I can insert mostly into the left side of my mouth. So we did not go home empty-handed: we had hoagies waiting, and of course, those lovely grilled stickies as a treat for later.

So that's the story of our first visit to Canoe Creek for the summer, and of our first swim, and of some other stuff that happened on this day. Most of it was good, some of it was not so great. But over all, we had a pretty good day!

I've got two photos so here are two soundtrack songs. First, for the photo above, I've got Lyle Lovett, with If I Had a Boat. For the second photo, of the delicious breakfast, I've got Supertramp, with the Logical Song, from Breakfast in America.