On the ferry

Vacation officially starts when the ferry pulls away from the dock. Kelleys Island is only 20 minutes away to the north, but this short crossing always does the trick.

On the way to the ferry landing we'd stopped at Netty's Famous Chili Dogs for one to go, with onions and cheese. Once the boat got underway I peeled the greasy paper away from the dog and bit in. Pretty good. The chili was as tasty as the Hot Dog Inn's, better than Johnny Hot Dog at the Market, but the dog itself wasn't as tasty as Johnny's. I'd give Netty's a B+.

This year getting ready for our Kelleys Island vacation seemed to take longer than usual. We planned to leave around noon and actually left close to two o'clock. Part of the delay was my last-minute arrangements for An Event Apart in Chicago. I had to register online, book my flight, fill out an expense report for the college and gather together the paperwork to document it. On the way out of town we stopped at the Lakewood Library so I could make copies of the receipts, then put everything into an envelope and mail it. One of these days I'll learn how to do things earlier.

Since we were at the library it was a good opportunity to grab some worthless fiction. I got several spy novels of some sort. I don't usually read stuff like that, but it makes great vacation reading. Nothing too weighty. One of the books is non-fiction, the story of a man who battles severe depression and decides to become a war correspondent in Bosnia as a way of making his life more real. The book, Hello To All That by John Falk, has made me laugh out loud a couple of times. It's also painted a pretty sober picture of both depression and Bosnia. I could easily finish it tonight, but I'm trying to make it last a little longer.

 

 

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On the beach

The next big milestone after reaching the House on the Lake and unpacking and putting away all the food and drink, is our first visit to the lake. Walking through the backyard and down the rocky incline, folding chairs in hand, here's what we saw. The water was higher than some years, about the same as last, with a lot of seaweed floating in it. The day was kind of hazy but sunny. We sat there for awhile, eventually reaching yet another milestone: first gin & tonic of the vacation. Not too shabby.

 

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