Day Eleven: Geneva on the Lake, OH

Murphy's Law of Camping: It doesn't matter what the hour is - the minute you pour the cream in your coffee, the kids will wake up.

Miles Traveled: 150 yards

Memories:

Grace: when I named the green caterpillar we found: "Pistachio."

Therese: Beach-combing for smooth rocks on the shores of Lake Erie. Seeing a group of elderly people chain together and haul their buddy out of knee deep but very wavy water.

more to come...

The Run Down:

This was the first day of our vacation where we literally had nothing to do. All the activities and action have been fun, but the idea of nothing but the beach waiting for us was quite appealing.

After a leisurely breakfast and a few false starts, we headed to the Lake Erie beach.

The sand was beautiful with a mixture of sand and small bits of broken white shells. The motion of the waves and the pebbles shifting under the water made things too risky for the kids to swim. But they had a great time collecting rocks and constructing dams and castles only to see them washed away as the tide slowly came in.

I got to see the result of the strong undertow when a group of very senior citizens had to rescue their friend standing in knee deep water because he couldn't get a good enough footing to walk back to the beach.

Danny was intrigued by the sand volleyball court at the campsite so we stopped at the office to borrow a volleyball so we could play. Danny kept calling it a "Bocce Ball."

After a brief dose of Olympic Volleyball several days ago, Danny was ready to dive after anything that came his way. By the end of the afternoon, he was getting the ball over the net...once in a while.

We had a dinner of green beans from the Canton Farmer's Market, chicken from the Potsdam Farmer's Market, polenta from Trader Joe's and Mac & Cheese from Costco.

After toasting our final marshmallows of the camping season we headed to bed and fell asleep to the sound of the distant waves hitting the shores of Lake Erie.

Pictures:

1, 4, 5-7, 9): Beach shots

2) beautiful butterfly prairie on the way to the bathrooms.

3) Danny couldn't get enough of the drinking fountain.

5) The kids sleeping while the water boiled for my coffee.

8) Danny's Olympic moments in volleyball.