My family recently went on our annual catastrophic vacation to Presque Isle on Lake Erie. Our usual practice is to wait till the end of the season, when our shattered nerves are just about to shove us off the precipice into an abyss of despair. The purpose of the vacation is to vanquish the summer blahs, or at least exchange them for a different set of blahs. However, on our trips, disasters customarily abound.
This year’s excursion was better than most – disasters were held at bay, or at least at Misery Bay, with only a few calamities ambushing us. Other years have featured opening ceremonies involving thunderstorms, gale-force winds, and 62 degree afternoons. In a particularly memorable breezy year, the youngest curly-haired granddaughter gleefully tossed sand in the air, directly into her eyes. As it turns out, that’s the perfect beach buzzkill.
Ma Nature was agreeable this year, with warm temps and partly sunny skies. It was one of those rare lulls this season between stifling humidity and flooding downpours, which are the only two phrases modern meteorologists need.
We visited three different beaches on the peninsula; two were on the lake side, with moderate waves, and one was on the bay side, with calm waters, and all with nice sandy stretches. Our talented grandson displayed his stealth skills with perfectly timed ninja jumps into the surf. To prevent sunburn, I wore my usual beach attire of a suit of armor, filled with SPF 500 sunscreen, and hid under an umbrella in a grove of trees. I can burn in a dark room in a rainstorm just by thinking about the sun.
Our hotel adjoined a large water park. Using our proprietary timing and scheduling techniques, we booked for one of the few times all year the water park is closed. Fortunately, the hotel had a nice pool and hot tub, plus two Jacuzzi tubs in our suite. Suh-weet! Plenty of opportunity for everyone to get as pruney as they wanted, and what else does anyone want on vacation?
One night we ate pizza and Italian fare at a nice mom and pop place, which also has gluten-free options, a necessity for granddaughter the elder. It was so scrumptious, we may have walked away gluten-free, but just barely glutton-free.
The trio of grandkids assured that every minute was action-packed, from 8:00 AM Crazy 8’s games to 9:00 PM Trivial Pursuit games. Remember, a child’s pursuit of fun is never trivial.
As the sun set on another memorable beach vacation, we reluctantly headed down the interstate, our souls nurtured and vitality restored. We arrived home just in time for Ma Nature to resume her antics, with flooding downpours.
Tags: beach Erie Presque Isle summer vacation