A beaver lake bummer, but a strawberry surprise, and a lake by dusk.

As planned, once school was over we had a quick lunch, and headed out to Beaver Lake to rent some Kayaks. The weather was beautiful, and we were both excited to glide on the water and take in some sunshine. We arrived a took a few moments to explore the nature center before we asked about kayak rentals. Could you believe the crush we had when we were told that the rental didn't start until tomorrow. With a little disappointment we decided that we will try back tomorrow. The Beaver Lake staff was nice enough to re-emburse my $3- entrance fee, (which they really did not have to do, they had insisted) and we headed back towards home. On the return ride I noticed a sign for you pick strawberries. I have never picked strawberries, so I insisted that we stop and get some.

We pulled in and I asked how the processed worked and how the strawberries looked. Apparently peak season for strawberries was last week sometime, but due to the heavy rains there were still some good looking ones in the patch. I was not going to be deterred so I purchased a 10 cent bucket, and went on my search. I was able to find some small ones but they were exploding with sweet juice. I even convinced Mr. Grouchy pants (my son was still angered about the kayaks) to eat a few, he had the prepared for disgust face on well before the strawberry hit his mouth, but after one bite he was cheered! The are/were yummy. I only picked about $1.25 worth, but it was fun just the same.

They didn't look like much.

They were pretty small.

Not 100% convinced about the berries.

The strawberry fields. Next week is blueberries down the road.

With our fill on berries, we headed home, where we debated about what to do the rest of the day. Friends over for Gavin, book reading for me. I headed to the new and improved outdoor living space,  and Zombies were killed in the living room with Gavin's friend Ryan. Ryan went home around 5:30 and after dinner Dad, Gavin and I played poker, as Gavin awaited a call back from Ryan about sleeping over. No can do, so he called his buddy Luke and it was a YES to a sleep over. We got Luke and had plans to bring the dog to the good dog park, but I had no idea how to follow the detour signs posted to get to the street. We tried another park, that was also closed and finally settled on Onondaga Lake Park in Willow Bay. It was getting late (around 8:30) but still light out and there were several people having BBQ's, playing on the playground, and enjoying the warm spring/summer evening. The boys followed the families of geese all the way to the lake and once in the lake the "parent" birds hissed and hollered at the boys to STAY AWAY.

The lake with the sun setting was beautiful. We headed down the lake and took a walk on the pier (if that is what you would call it) it is basically a pile of huge rocks piled together that jets out into the lake with a tiny "light" house on the tip of it. Getting to the end was quite tricky as there were big sections of missing, slanted and sometimes broken rock along this pathway. I had to hold Peanut as I was afraid he would fall in between one of the cracks stuck forever!

Here is a picture off the pier, you can see the city of Syracuse in the distance.

  Here is Luke standing on the pier; this is what we had to walk on to get to the end. See why I had to carry our tiny pup.

 Gavin, trying to be "cool". I SOOOO WISH HE WOULD RID THAT SWEATSHIRT!

There were several fish jumping out of the water to catch themselves a buggy dinner. We tried to anticipate where they would jump next. The boys had fun walking along the pier towards the bay, doing what boys do. Peanut sniffed and lifted his leg at EVERY tree, bush, shrub, picnic table, bench we walked by. Clearly he was in the ZONE.

Waiting for a fish to jump.

The boys did one final walk with the geese, who had returned from the water and once again purely by bad luck ran into these two, and were soon walking back towards the lake to free themselves of the annoyance. We ended the evening with a $1- ice cream from McDonalds. ( I had a diet coke) and the boys were ready to play some video games before bed.

Although there had been a few set backs during the day, (No kayaks, no sleep over for Ryan, and no good dog park) we had a nice one just the same. I anticipate the rest of the summer will be just as "easy" going.

Today predicts a Kayak ride and a birthday celebration for Hubby, (Grocery shopping for MOM) and tomorrow my Little Princess walks the stage for Graduation.