Lakehouse

In Amery, WI, we met up with Larry and Marcia Schwartz, friends of my dad. They had a beautiful house on a decent sized lake about an hour outside of the Twin Cities. When we got there, they could not have been more receptive and hospitable. Larry took us out on one of his four boats to show us around the lake. As soon as we got in the boat, I saw a side of Steve I had not seen before. His family had boat for pretty much most of his life until about 5 years ago and this was the first time he had been back on the water. He looked completely at peace, yet in the zone at the same time, I was happy for him. After a tour of the lake we decided to give water skiing a try. Joe and I had never been, and I wasn't even planning on doing it. Joe went right for it, got a quick tutorial from Larry, and got in the water. First time, he was struggling to get up and got up for a second. He had 4 tries and got up twice, but for the life of him, he could not get his knees apart. He was unnaturally bow-legged once he got out of the water and couldn't keep his balance. We all had a good laugh with that. Then it was Steve's turn. Not too much to talk about there because he just got up and tore it up. He seemed borderline professional, and if Steve could use his water skiing skills to pick up girls, he would be a happy man. It was then my turn and I was hesitant because of my gimp shoulder, but I thought what the hell. My first attempt I completely dropped the handle like a dumbass. From there I got up one my second try pretty easily and I was water skiing. Since I have downhill skied forever and I saw the sick turns Steve was pulling, I figured I would try to get fancy. Who was I kidding? As soon as I tried to carve, I fell flat on my back and got the biggest wedgie ever, but I loved every second of it. I tried one more time and had pretty much the same outcome. So I went water skiing for the first time, cross that off the "list." From there we played some ultimate bocce ball, which got out of hand at times. We had a delicious dinner and since I got about 30 minutes of sleep the night before, it didn't take much for me to pass out on the couch. Funny thing is I never even made it to a bed.

The next day Larry took us to the St. Clair Falls, and it was pretty cool. We headed back to the house, watched the ridiculously stupid opening ceremonies of Euro 2008 finals, made some sandwiches and hit the road for Milwaukee. Larry and Marcia, if you read this I want you to know we greatly appreciate all your hospitality and everything you did for us. Thank you from all of us.