Our water day took us to a new location. We went out to explore Spanish Oaks Reservoir. It's another little man-made lake that is great for paddle boarding and swimming. Or at least, it would be great for swimming if it wasn't so frigid. Sure, you get used to the cold, but I'm not sure if that is because your body acclimates or because your limbs go numb.
Its up in the hills in a secluded spot. There wasn't much parking, so that was a little tricky, but after I dropped off the girls I found a spot up by the bike trail. The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was the noise. All the noise, noise, noise, noise! There were so many cicadas buzzing and humming.
Here are the kids getting ready and trying out the water. Guaranteed Pearl can't feel her feet out there. :)
And here are the hills behind me. The beach was actually very nice and sandy. Perfect for playing in or laying down.
The cicadas were not as loud on the beach, but their presence was still...present. They would land on you while you were sitting or you would find them on or under your towel. Along the water's edge was a line of dead cicadas swept back on shore. Here is a dead one that Robyn took a picture of.
The lake has fish, which I'm sure are sustained by the cicadas. Plenty of bugs were floating on the water and frequently you would see a fish snag one from the surface. Once I even saw a seagull come sailing down. I thought he was going to land on the water, but at the last minute he swooped down and came back up holding a good sized fish. (I wonder if the fisherman were as successful?)
Ivory decided at some point that she wanted to see if she could swim across the pond. It wasn't so large that it wasn't doable, but the cold was enough that it didn't seem like the greatest idea. But she can be very determined. The sides of the reservoir are concrete, except where there is sand. So Ivory started in one corner and swam to the other, with Daisy in the water with her.
When she tired, she would backstroke, but then she couldn't see where she was going, so she probably swam further than the actual length of the reservoir since she was often swimming in the wrong direction. I paddled along with her and yelled whenever she veered too far in one direction. And she made it!! Definitely an accomplishment in such cold water.
We had a lot of fun. All the girls crashed for a while. I recently purchased the giant towel and I love it.
We played some 500 with a frisbee later. That was a lot of fun too, but the wind kept taking the frisbee farther than we planned. It is always awkward to apologive when you hit someone with a rogue frisbee.
It was very windy at times. I'm not sure if Robyn is hiding from the sun, wind, or bugs in this picture, but she takes after her mother.
It was a really fun day. We stayed until we were done with water and sun. I should mention that the water felt a lot better by the time we left, so maybe it warms up slowly and you should go in the afternoon? But we'll keep this place in mind for another day.
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