The first weekend of June was a great weekend to escape from the grind for a little while and catch up with some great old friends.
Andrea and I met up in Milwaukee... took a swing by Lake Michigan and rented a fun little punch buggy to drive down to "Ringaland!"
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| Scout likes the boat too! |
RJ, Andrew and Colleen (some of the coolest people I know) live in Lake Villa, Illinois on Long Lake (a very beautiful place.) A few years ago, I went to visit them in January when the lake was frozen over. This time, it was a much different experience. Last time there was a lot of beer drinking and hockey playing... this time there was a lot of beer drinking and boat riding.
We did some cruises on the pontoon boat and spent some time with RJ's super cute little clones.
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| Maceo and Lincoln |
On Saturday we went to the GraysLake Beer Festival. There were hundreds of different beers from all over....it was a lot of fun. Hanging out, drinking beers all day reminded me a lot of the first time I met these great folks. Glad to know, not too much has changed.
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| Beer Fest 2013 |
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| Tatra Mountains 2006 |
The sense of community and lake culture is very strong at Long Lake. The Ringa family has lived at the lake for many generations and are highly involved in the neighborhood. RJ is the president of the Yacht Club and helps to regulate environmental factors as well as maintenance and upkeep of the facilities. Their dad has been sailing there forever and still races with one of his best friends from childhood. On Sundays throughout the summer they compete in a sailing race. I was almost recruited to help in Sunday's race (they needed more weight in the boat due to the choppy water and I had made the mistake of telling them I had learned to sailed in Girl Scout camp many many years ago)...luckily, a neighbor with actual experience stepped in and I was able to watch from the pontoon boat instead.
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