Valley Views

It just keeps getting better. Not to make everyone jealous or anything, as I can imagine many people weren't able to book last minute flights to South Dakota (aka God's country) for Labor Day weekend. In fact, I am still surprised, my open facebook invitation to spend some time with me in the upper great plains garnered no responses.

However, I am loving every minute of this homecoming. Including the perfect weather on Clear Lake yesterday. Our cabin, pictured above, has been upgraded considerably since my youth. When I was a Clear Lake regular, rather than a one weekend per summer Clear Lake wannabe, I stayed in the top bunk of the middle bedroom of our 1975 trailer house, which came complete with fabulous gold shag carpeting. Now, the cabin, the boat, and the dock (which should be an el camino) have all gone from lake livin' to lake luxury, depicting my parent's good taste and perhaps the near constant exposure to HGTV on our direct satellite dish.

Even more than the skiing and sun tanning opportunities, I am sad that I missed the first annual Clear Lake Open golf tournament held the weekend before I arrived back in the U.S. at nearby Valley View golf course. I was on the golf team in high school, which with my diminuitive size at that time meant lots of driving around to North Dakota golf courses, very little ball contact, and amazingly high golf scores. However, something must have stuck as my (extremely triumphant yet still high scoring) return to the course today brought some serious connections between the drivers and me. As my dad says, "There's nothing better than really hitting a good shot on the golf course." It's therapeutic.

Warming up before some therapy on the golf course, my dad, organizer of the Clear Lake open, and the first person in history to swim across Clear Lake.