Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day here. We headed into town about noon, took a wrong turn on the tiny, steep, scary gravel roads and had to back uphill out of a dead end. When we got to Heceta beach the sky was clearing with low clouds/mist breaking overhead. The ocean water is too cool and too wavy there, so we didn't do much more than wade. But we did get Grandma out to the shoreline, not too near the water, to sit on a big log and watch the kids play. Lucas hyperextended his knee and fell as he ran along. We got him a knee brace and some Advil at Fred Meyer and he seems better now. Later in the day we toddled down (a LONG way down) to the dock where I helped the girls get out in the two person canoe, wrenching my wrist in the process. Mike had me go out on the paddle boat with him. It's built for short people or something, because I kept getting a cramp in my thigh. We nearly ran into an overhanging tree because the wind was blowing a bit and the paddle boat wasn't going anywhere even though we were paddling as fast as we could. It's definitely a fair weather craft. Sean and Andrew set out in the two kayaks and went all around the area of the lake we can see from here. You can go to google maps and type in Mercer Lake Oregon to see the lake and surrounding area.
At some point the kids decided to jump off of the dock and go swimming. Sean has very good judgment much of the time, but he wanted to dive off the dock without first checking out the water below. Sometimes I forget they don't have much experience in outdoor things. I made him swim around there for a while before diving off. Turns out it's at least 10 feet deep. Kimmi and our friend Mike were afraid of the spiders on the dock. There were several of them, but come on! They are just spiders. At one point Anna said, "We are such city kids."
All in all it was a wonderful day.