Land o' Lakes

I love Michigan.  Have I mentioned that before?  It’s such a great state for so many reasons.  This summer, however, I have gained appreciation for the fact that it’s a peninsula.

There is seriously water everywhere.  You can’t walk more than ½ a mile in any direction without walking into a lake.  Granted, this isn’t so wonderful in preventing the mosquito population (mosquitos lay their eggs in water), but it’s a beautiful thing for every other reason.

We are discovering that there is nothing better than jumping in the lake after a hot, tortuous day of rehearsals and working in mostly non-airconditioned buildings.  In fact, I think the phrase “go jump in a lake”, and its connotations of punishing a person, are used in complete error.  If somebody told me to go “jump in a lake”, I would be tripping over my sock removal as I catapulted my sweaty, miserable body into the cooling waters.

Here in Michigan, we are discovering the beauty of these lakes.  If we have an upcoming evening concert, nothing sets us up better than getting out of work and rehearsals at 4 p.m., jumping in the lake to cool off, swim around, head back to the house to get dressed and head to the concert.  It literally lowers the body temperature.  The best thing?  We can just walk to a multitude of choices.

We have had some great conversations so far while swimming around.  We have laughed, and talked about serious things.  The kids have decompressed about their days, about the music, about their conductors.  I have tread water for 40 minutes, refusing to put my feet down, and we have tried to highjack a private swimming platform.  We have seen people fly by on their water skis, and seen others wipe out on tubes pulled behind boats.

So far, we’ve swum in Green Lake and Duck Lake and in the next few days, we’re headed to Crystal Lake.  Although we can’t walk to the new one, everyone says it’s worth the drive.  Caribbean-like clearness of the water.  Some of the lakes have sandy bottoms, others have spongy bottoms.  Some have lake plants and others lots of dragonflies.  The things that tie them all together, however, are the cool water and the chance we have to be together.

(One of these days, I'll remember to bring my camera along.)