Lake time

It doesn’t matter how nice the summer is in Vancouver (and I admit, it’s been a VERY nice summer), the season just doesn’t feel complete until I’ve had my lake time.

We spent the last week with some friends in Vernon, and it was absolutely perfect. A little pool swim most mornings, a little quiet writing time mid-day, then the lake in the afternoons, all topped off with sangria and BBQs in the evenings. Does that not sound like summer?

I know I’ve raved about laketime before (and before), but in case you need convincing, here are the best five things about lakes:

1. They have no sharks. According to my dad, who used to yell “watch out for sturgeons” every time I wiped out waterskiing, they may or may not have fish large enough to swallow you whole. Still, no sharks.

2. They smell clean. Not dead-fish seaweedy, like some other bodies of water I could mention.

3. On a related note, when you get out of a lake, you’re clean. If you swim in a salty, seaweed body of water, you have to shower or your skin grows a crust. What is with that? Doesn’t it make more sense to swim in clean water in the first place?

4. Air mattresses. How often do you see someone rocking an air mattress in the ocean? Not often, because of those inconvenient wave formations. Air mattresses are made for lakes, so you can test relative air temperature and water temperature with different parts of your body at different times. Obviously.

5. Getting into a lake is an accomplishment. Even warm lakes are painful for those first few minutes. So once you’re paddling around, feeling as if you could stay forever, you’ve won. You’ve won summer.

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