The Lake
Soon we're going to The Lake. It's my one annual vacation. For the past hmm, 7 years, I've not managed to get more than 2 weeks vacation because I've changed jobs 3 times. I did barely get my 3rd week while at Amdocs for 4 years, but that was because they changed the policy to make it 3 years seniority to have 3 weeks vacation...they made that change in july I think...when I had an out date in September. Gee Thanks. I earned 1 extra day of vacation in the meantime before I left. Anyway, let's just say my annual all week + both weekends 9-day spectacular Lake trip is the bestest time of the year. Better than Christmas! I mean, c'mon...how it can not be..we're going to The Lake.
Lake Nuangola, Pennsylvania. A small lake up in the Poconos, also known as the Appalachian Mountains. It's about 3/4 of a mile long and 1/4 mile wide and has a local population of about 800 or so I think. Let me think on my history here. My grandfather Norm's grandfather and great uncle built two cottages there near the turn of the century..pre-1900. One cottage would become my Aunt Peg's...she now spends summers in it, and the other one next door went eventually to my grandfather, Daddy Norm as we knew him. (Their younger brother, my Uncle Walt, spends summers down the street now in his own.) Our cottage was the destination every summer as I grew up... for weeks if I was lucky. Staying with my Dad for much of July and/or August I could spend all sorts of time in the water and hiking and being outdoors. Canoeing, sailing, fishing, swimming...a lot of swimming. I swam the lake (we refer to that also in capitals, Swimming The Lake) when I was 10, which is pretty good. That means you go across the width of the lake without your life jacket, which is I think about 500 meters or so. Not a bad swim for an adult, but hey I was ten, gimme some props. I understand nowadays that the kids have learned there are no alligators or freshwater sharks in there, so they can sometimes do it at age 7 or 8, but that's beside the point. The Lake is full of history, family and old friendships...some that go generations deep. My children will play with my childhood friends' children there...as I played with the children of my dad's childhood friends. It's a very cool place. To me, there isn't a better one.
I can't wait to go there. Blueberry picking, night swimming, sailboat races, campfires roasting marshamallows and if we're lucky listening to my friend Steve Koons(that's Stevie to his friends) play guitar and sing. He's quite good, and we played street hockey and goofed off doing all kinds of other things together when we were kids, so he and his family are some of the coolest Nuangola residents around. But you know...everyone at Nuangola is great. And probably 1/4 of them seem related to me at this point (1 in 20 actually ARE related to me I bet)...my family has about 7 cottages and we're related to a bunch of others through various marriages over the years. How cool is it that I can go to one place and see old friends from childhood, my aunt, uncle and cousins, my great aunts, great uncle and my dad's cousins...my second cousins, and my boys' third cousins - it just goes on! Plus, you can catch the odd 3 or 4 pound bass, water ski, play some volleyball, drink marguaritas (Happy Hour starts at 2. What day? Umm, all of them) kayak over to see some friends who live around the bend or down by the outlet, etc... and there's the Boardwalk, which is at the heart of many Nuangola memories itself. The Boardwalk is a plank walkway standing about a foot above the water where it cuts across the swamp and the lake's inlet...it has a arched bridge in the center that is just high enough to row under if you want to take your canoe/kayak over there. Lillypads abound, and at night you can hear tons of things moving around over there..if you walk slowly through you might see a few turtles, a snake, maybe a beaver...and a ton of frogs. For a nature-lover like myself, it's awesome. There's also frequently a board missing here or there, so watch your step... the muck can be waste deep, ask my cousin Kevin (ha...we won't ever let him live that down).
And at night you can lay on the dock (preferably with at least a little bit of bug spray on) and stare up at the sky..and the stars are so close. You can see a whole dome over you of bright stars and no city lights... I've seen shooting stars there before while looking up at that starry sky. The air smells so clean and it's so still at night, you only hear the frogs and then once in a while a fish will splash somewhere. Maybe I'll get to go night sailing this year..I've always wanted to do that...definitely night swimming is wonderful, but you need it to be warm. This year shouldn't be a problem for that--it's been 99 here in St. Louis, so I hope it's nice there...wow, 96 high today as I just looked it up. That should be intense...the water will be warm day and night.
This year we'll be there for Cottage Decorations, a fishing derby and then the Water Sports. Darlene will love the Cottage Decorations...everyone decorates the lakefront and arranges themes on their docks/lawns and then the judges and spectators will walk or boat around checking them all out. It's a wonderful thing to see the whole place lit up and you run into everyone you know while you're out looking. Water Sports has a lot of memories for me as a child..the kids swim in 2-year groups, so 11-12 year old boys, 13-14 year old boys, etc... because of that I won every year and got 2nd every other year until I was about 17, when I unfortunately missed a few years due to college. I've not been to water sports in a few years now--we've been going up for July 4th for quite a while now, but I do remember loving it... with any luck I can get into a good 4-person canoe team and maybe I'll try 2-man as well. I don't know if I still have the swimming legs in me at my age, but we'll see. Cameron can hopefully get comfortable during the week and will be able to race with his life jacket on... next year he won't need it, I can just feel it. The boys will both probably turn out to be fish ... somewhat due to the Lake no doubt, as it's in our blood.
Some other interesting things at the Lake:
hiking up the mountain
there are bears sometimes seen in the backyards or raiding trashcans
looking for baby catfish and crayfish in the shallows
swimming at Red Rock, the deepest part of the Lake
sailing...primarily small boats like sunfish, butterfly, laser
they play ice hockey on it during winter (I've never seen it in winter)
we saw a pair of swans there when we went on our honeymoon in October '95
ice cream socials...something our family is known for
cards, trivial pursuit, relaxing and reading
very good food....a lot of chefs in the family, including a few pros
moonlit walks
mosquito bites
horsefly bites...
family..friends...a lot of people who are both.
Anyway I can't wait to go. I've been almost every year of my life except those college years, and I hope that trend continues into my old age. Dar loves the Lake too, which is a good thing in a Coats wife... (I was told long ago that if she didn't I would have to throw her back.) Oh and this year Cam's going to catch a fish! Grandpa Roy is going to show him how it's done...I'm not a bad fisherman, no, but I will probably let the Old Master teach him. He taught me. I still remember catching that fish. I have a lot of memories from Nuangola...and every year I add more. It's an almost indescribable place, but hopefully from this, you get part of the picture.
Mike
Lake Nuangola, Pennsylvania. A small lake up in the Poconos, also known as the Appalachian Mountains. It's about 3/4 of a mile long and 1/4 mile wide and has a local population of about 800 or so I think. Let me think on my history here. My grandfather Norm's grandfather and great uncle built two cottages there near the turn of the century..pre-1900. One cottage would become my Aunt Peg's...she now spends summers in it, and the other one next door went eventually to my grandfather, Daddy Norm as we knew him. (Their younger brother, my Uncle Walt, spends summers down the street now in his own.) Our cottage was the destination every summer as I grew up... for weeks if I was lucky. Staying with my Dad for much of July and/or August I could spend all sorts of time in the water and hiking and being outdoors. Canoeing, sailing, fishing, swimming...a lot of swimming. I swam the lake (we refer to that also in capitals, Swimming The Lake) when I was 10, which is pretty good. That means you go across the width of the lake without your life jacket, which is I think about 500 meters or so. Not a bad swim for an adult, but hey I was ten, gimme some props. I understand nowadays that the kids have learned there are no alligators or freshwater sharks in there, so they can sometimes do it at age 7 or 8, but that's beside the point. The Lake is full of history, family and old friendships...some that go generations deep. My children will play with my childhood friends' children there...as I played with the children of my dad's childhood friends. It's a very cool place. To me, there isn't a better one.
I can't wait to go there. Blueberry picking, night swimming, sailboat races, campfires roasting marshamallows and if we're lucky listening to my friend Steve Koons(that's Stevie to his friends) play guitar and sing. He's quite good, and we played street hockey and goofed off doing all kinds of other things together when we were kids, so he and his family are some of the coolest Nuangola residents around. But you know...everyone at Nuangola is great. And probably 1/4 of them seem related to me at this point (1 in 20 actually ARE related to me I bet)...my family has about 7 cottages and we're related to a bunch of others through various marriages over the years. How cool is it that I can go to one place and see old friends from childhood, my aunt, uncle and cousins, my great aunts, great uncle and my dad's cousins...my second cousins, and my boys' third cousins - it just goes on! Plus, you can catch the odd 3 or 4 pound bass, water ski, play some volleyball, drink marguaritas (Happy Hour starts at 2. What day? Umm, all of them) kayak over to see some friends who live around the bend or down by the outlet, etc... and there's the Boardwalk, which is at the heart of many Nuangola memories itself. The Boardwalk is a plank walkway standing about a foot above the water where it cuts across the swamp and the lake's inlet...it has a arched bridge in the center that is just high enough to row under if you want to take your canoe/kayak over there. Lillypads abound, and at night you can hear tons of things moving around over there..if you walk slowly through you might see a few turtles, a snake, maybe a beaver...and a ton of frogs. For a nature-lover like myself, it's awesome. There's also frequently a board missing here or there, so watch your step... the muck can be waste deep, ask my cousin Kevin (ha...we won't ever let him live that down).
And at night you can lay on the dock (preferably with at least a little bit of bug spray on) and stare up at the sky..and the stars are so close. You can see a whole dome over you of bright stars and no city lights... I've seen shooting stars there before while looking up at that starry sky. The air smells so clean and it's so still at night, you only hear the frogs and then once in a while a fish will splash somewhere. Maybe I'll get to go night sailing this year..I've always wanted to do that...definitely night swimming is wonderful, but you need it to be warm. This year shouldn't be a problem for that--it's been 99 here in St. Louis, so I hope it's nice there...wow, 96 high today as I just looked it up. That should be intense...the water will be warm day and night.
This year we'll be there for Cottage Decorations, a fishing derby and then the Water Sports. Darlene will love the Cottage Decorations...everyone decorates the lakefront and arranges themes on their docks/lawns and then the judges and spectators will walk or boat around checking them all out. It's a wonderful thing to see the whole place lit up and you run into everyone you know while you're out looking. Water Sports has a lot of memories for me as a child..the kids swim in 2-year groups, so 11-12 year old boys, 13-14 year old boys, etc... because of that I won every year and got 2nd every other year until I was about 17, when I unfortunately missed a few years due to college. I've not been to water sports in a few years now--we've been going up for July 4th for quite a while now, but I do remember loving it... with any luck I can get into a good 4-person canoe team and maybe I'll try 2-man as well. I don't know if I still have the swimming legs in me at my age, but we'll see. Cameron can hopefully get comfortable during the week and will be able to race with his life jacket on... next year he won't need it, I can just feel it. The boys will both probably turn out to be fish ... somewhat due to the Lake no doubt, as it's in our blood.
Some other interesting things at the Lake:
hiking up the mountain
there are bears sometimes seen in the backyards or raiding trashcans
looking for baby catfish and crayfish in the shallows
swimming at Red Rock, the deepest part of the Lake
sailing...primarily small boats like sunfish, butterfly, laser
they play ice hockey on it during winter (I've never seen it in winter)
we saw a pair of swans there when we went on our honeymoon in October '95
ice cream socials...something our family is known for
cards, trivial pursuit, relaxing and reading
very good food....a lot of chefs in the family, including a few pros
moonlit walks
mosquito bites
horsefly bites...
family..friends...a lot of people who are both.
Anyway I can't wait to go. I've been almost every year of my life except those college years, and I hope that trend continues into my old age. Dar loves the Lake too, which is a good thing in a Coats wife... (I was told long ago that if she didn't I would have to throw her back.) Oh and this year Cam's going to catch a fish! Grandpa Roy is going to show him how it's done...I'm not a bad fisherman, no, but I will probably let the Old Master teach him. He taught me. I still remember catching that fish. I have a lot of memories from Nuangola...and every year I add more. It's an almost indescribable place, but hopefully from this, you get part of the picture.
Mike
posted by the squeaky mouse gets the cheese at 8:07 PM
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