A Day at the Beach

We traveled an hour south of Columbus to Logan and spent the day at a little, FREE beach on Lake Logan. We have been planning this since our anniversary when we traveled to Logan for the day without the kids. We had a restaurant.com certificate to use that day, and the restaurant ended up giving us our meals for free because of one problem after another which lead to us not getting our meals for 90 minutes. We took it in stride, but it meant that we still needed to use that certificate. The restaurant was a little upscale for kiddos, but, since we  knew they had a kids' menu, we figured they must not mind having children dine with them. They didn't, and our kids behaved beautifully while we were there tonight.

That was the end of our day in Logan, however, so let me back up a little. We first went to a bulk foods store that I had spotted the last time we were there after closing hours. It was a great little store. I was nearly out of all-purpose flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour and oats, so I picked up all of those for much less than I would normally spend as well as a few other staple items like quinoa and bulk spices and herbs that I needed. Honestly, it's worth the hour drive to get to the bulk food store. I will be planning to buy these things there from now on. I should only need to go every 6-8 weeks, and there's so much to do down there. Once the weather cools, we'd love to visit Old Man's Cave or go hiking in the Hocking Forest. Anyway, I believe I am digressing a little.

After the bulk foods store, we headed to the lake and ate our picnic lunch and then swam all afternoon. The kids had little interest in the sand until the last half hour we were there when they wanted to build a sand castle and moat. The lake was, well, not the best I've ever encountered. I have been a fresh water swimmer for my entire life, and I have to say, this lake was kind of gross. It wasn't polluted, but it wasn't clean either. It was murky and slightly smelly and rather stagnant. I didn't see a single fish, which I thought was odd. 

The temperature of the water was kind of creepy. It was warm enough to bathe a baby. Seriously. Even when I was in the deeper water, it was still warm. I realize that isn't something that can be controlled. It's August. The water is warm, right? While I don't want to swim in frigid water, I guess I found out that super warm lake water isn't my thing either. I hesitate to say it, but I just kept thinking, "It feels like we're swimming in pee water." Go ahead and laugh. We did have a good time while we were there, so I guess that's all that really matters, and we all got lots of exercise!

While we were at the lake, we were blessed with lots of bird sitings. The kids thought a group of vultures were hawks. That allowed me to teach a spontaneous creation science lesson on why God created vultures. We also saw a hawk sail right over our heads, a blue heron visited for a while when we first arrived, and, our favorite siting of the day, a pair of swans spent the afternoon at the lake! They were gorgeous!!!! I don't think I've ever seen swans in the wild like that before today.

We arrived home tonight with two very tired kids ready to hit the showers and bed (actually, they wanted to just go straight to bed, but I made them shower). We're tired too, but it was a great day. I encourage you to take some time to spend with your kids and spouse. Appreciate that time. Love them. Make the little things special. You don't have to spend a lot of money to make the best family memories. In fact, we rarely spend anything, and we have made many priceless memories this summer. Sometimes it takes a little creativity, but it's always worth the effort.