The forecast said rain for every day this week except today so I decided to plan an adventure. Years ago, when I had a motorcycle, (oh my) I rode it to the 7 lakes for fun. I drove around for an hour or so along these tree lined windy roads that didn't have any cars on them. It was very beautiful. I remembered passing (quickly) a lake with screaming kids in knee high water and I decided that today I would try to find it again. It seemed like the perfect place for Alexarya to play. I knew it was off of the Palisades Parkway. Turns out it is exit 16. It took about an hour to get there.
I hate to be unprepared a ways away from home so I brought everything under the sun including tons of toys for my little kitty to play with (Sand pail, shovel, rakes, a ball..etc) I brought two beach towels, sun screen, a change of clothes for both of us, extra swim diapers, snacks...So much stuff I wasn't even sure how I was going to carry it all.
After reading some road signs it seemed like the place I wanted to go was called Lake Welch. Turns out there are 7 lakes at the 7 lakes (lol) but this happened to be the one I came across years ago. It was very exciting to pull into the parking lot. I was thinking about how much my life had changed since the last time I had been there about 13 years ago. I was single and free and riding my motorcycle to the lake on a beautiful day. I remember I stopped by the side of the road and sat under a tree and wrote some poetry. It was a relaxing day alone and it stands out in my memories as a very peaceful one. So here I was 13 years later, no longer alone, certainly not going to have a chance to write any poetry and yet I was excited. I had seen this place so many years before and thought it would be a great place to play if you were a kid and now I had a kid to bring here..fun fun fun. So I parked and got out the stroller, not knowing if it would stroll on the sand but I didn't really have much choice, I was schlepping half my house with me.
Alexarya and I were already in our bathing suits. I strapped her into the stroller, which was bogged down with all our stuff, and made for the lake. Very exciting. By the way..you can push an umbrella stroller on the sand, it's just not easy.. ;-) I found a great spot by the water. There were kids everywhere, playing, screaming, building sand castles, splashing. I couldn't wait to get her out of the stroller and into the lake. I laid down our towels, unstrapped her from the stroller and walked with her down to the water. ;-) She went in up to her knees, turned around, and walked back out. She hasn't been to the beach much so I tried to show her how fun and magical the sand could be....not interested!....maybe a stroll along the sand!...nope..collecting shells?....waaahhh.. she walked back to her stroller, climbed back in, put her pacifier in her mouth and just sucked away. I tried a few more times to get her to go in or to at least play with the sand toys...forget it! So, I packed up all of our stuff and headed back for the car. By the way, its harder to stroll your stroller in the sand when you aren't hopped up with excitement.
Before we left I decided to get some fries.
As we were leaving there was a nice picnic table under the trees so I decided we'd eat them there. I sat Alexarya at the table with me. She wanted the fries too. We were kind of siting in the middle of someone elses picnic party but they seemed like a nice group so we just invited our self to join in. Alexarya's mood changed back to the happy girl I generally get to hang out with as she shared my fries and apple juice with me. She got
ketchup all over her face and she looked too darn cute..my heart melted.
Turns out the place where we were sitting is a big hang out for picnics. Lots of smiling multi-generational Mexican families, good food, hammocks, and respectfully volumed Spanish music. When Alexarya
