Yesterday Kyle and I went to Lake Mead. For once, I thought of everything. Ice box stocked full of water bottles and pop, check. Tube to blow up and float on, check. Backpack with books. And towels. And pump to blow up tube. And tow-line to tie tube to rock so we don't blow away. And snacks. Check. Rajan the very over-excited dog, check. With leash. Check.
You get the picture.
Dad, Mom and I had once been to this little cove near the old marina (which they moved when the lake got too low last year) that was nice and quiet and calm and pretty. I wasn't exactly sure where it was in relation to the boat launch but I was confident we would find it. Especially after I remembered to pack everything like that. I was on a roll. I was very proud of myself.
Until we got to the lake.
We parked at the boat launch and looked around. No cove, but a little ridge looked promising so we left everything in the car, took Raj and climbed up to get a better look. Slightly out of breath and at the top; lots of dirt, rocks, stray bushes and for some weird reason, a row of empty deserted dumpsters. But I had a good feeling. So we kept walking.
A few minutes later my good feeling turned out to be right. A nice, calm little cove, just like I remembered. I was excited.
Until I remembered how I remembered everything.
Ice box stocked full of water bottles and pop that two people seriously couldn't drink by themselves. Check. Okay, so the tube was a good idea but it was flipping heavy and hopefully those really sharp branches didn't poke any holes in it. (Check.) Backpack with books that we didn't even need, towels that interestingly enough get extremely heavy when wet and a pump that took way too much time to figure out how to use. We had just eaten lunch, too... Who needs snacks when you just had lunch? Rajan the very over-excited dog pulling my arm out of my socket with leash. Check.
A half hour later we dumped 'everything' by the shore of the cove and downed a few of the drinks from the cooler. By the time we got the tube blown up we were ready for some much-needed relaxation.
At first I thought stuffing a hyper, 100 pound German shepherd dog into the backseat of my car (where he drooled and whined the whole way) AND hopping in next to him to make sure he stayed down the whole drive was a bad idea but Raj enjoyed the adventure so much I was glad I brought him.
Raj spotted a duck swimming near the middle of the cove. He loves chasing birds so I told him to "go get it". He charged in with gusto before realizing maybe the duck was farther away than he had first thought.
There's his little head out there in the lake.
We stayed for about an hour before packing up and hauling 'everything' back to the car again. Ice box, backpack, tube, wet-tired-happy dog. Raj stretched out on the backseat, laid his head on my lap and didn't look up again until we got home.
