I got up... went to pee... and decided to take a stroll. One night into camp... and one of the two toilets was already clogged with toilet paper and sh*t. How are we gonna survive??? I got to the beach and the scene was majestic. God is amazing. He truly is. I got my me time in and walked back to came and it was feee-reeezing!!!
Tried lighting the fire again... cuz it was so cold. Had a lot harder time this time because our fuel was damp from the morning dew. Thankfully, we were able to borrow a torch from our neighbors. Before we knew it... everyone was awake and we feasted on a warm meal of instant noodles and canned Vienna sausages. Ironically.. everyone was complaining how noisy it was at night... and here they were speaking a high volume. I cringed and rolled my eyes at their hypocrisy. Oh well...
Slowly and surely, everyone got up and within a blink of an eye... it was time to set out. Yu Tai was brave and bold enough to take the kids to Treetop. While the rest of us went to enjoy a nice hike in the wilderness. But unfortunately.. all the trails we wanted to go to were closed for construction!! Boo... ended up hiking a long road down to Emerald Bay and back up. I got so bored with that hike... I took a detour just to walk some rough rocky terrain. It's a hike, for crying out loud!!!
After the hike... we would rendevous at the harbor for our 2 hour pontoon ride. Yes, there was valet parking, but no, I wasn't about to pay. So I parked on the street... sent the address to the Tat's and Yu's. GUess what... they followed my lead!! HA!!
Everyone got together... and we got on our pontoon. Everyone was disappointed. We wanted a boat with a slide... or a faster speed boat. But we got... exactly what it's described as... a friggin pontoon!! Ok...it's not that slow. From South Tahoe... it was 30 minutes to Emerald Bay. The water was freezing cold. I brought an ice chest... but didn't bring any adult drinks (much to many people's disappointment) and no one was in the mood to get in. We finally park at Emerald Bay... and I needed to set an example. Everyone wanted to go in... but no one dared. So I finally put on my life jacket and dove head first. DANG the water was freezing. Once I got in... some of the girls followed. DANG... the water was freezing. Then I tried to swim back to the boat... but the current kept pushing me away. I saw the two girls successfully swim back. I got jealous, but relieved. They were safe. Farther and farther I drifted away. I strugged and I tried. I kicked. I crawled (figureatively). But the boat got smaller and smaller.
My head suddenly thought... would I freeze to death??? (It was in the high 60's... no where near freezing). Then I thought... would I drown??? (I had a life jacket on). For some reason... no one on the boat cared... and no one was coming to save me. Then I saw these three paddle boat guys. I waved to them..."Can I get a ride?" The first person waved back... and started leaving. I'm like, "No... don't leave me!!" I thought he was making a U-turn... but he never came back. His two friends started coming and I called for them again... this time, the sorta kinda understood me. I waved and pointed to the boat. And I said, "You speak English?" They said, "No... Ukraine." Ohhhhh... no wonder the first dude left. The two friends tried to circle... and they were having a hard time pushing towards me due to the current. With their broken English and my zero Russian... they asked why my friends won't come. They even shouted on my behalf, "Your people!!!!" By now... the third friend realized what was happening and turned back. We were able to communicate with "You tired?" and "You cold?" They quickly realized that I needed a place to hang onto. And they know that the current was simply too strong. The pontoon had a big tube for us to play on... and they finally tossed it in the water. My three Ukrainian friends went to grab it and brought it over to me. Even then... I wasn't able to simply hop on the tube, they had to give me a giant lift.
After what seemed like eternity... I finally got on the tube. It got roped up. And I was back on the boat. Phew...... this is the 2nd time of nearly drowning!! The first time was in Hawaii in that little lagoon. Man.. .I needa get better with swimming.
Anyhoo... I got back on the boat and I wanted to show everyone I wasn't scared or nervous. So I immediately decide to play on the tube and have the pontoon drag us. Part of it was to show everyone that I wasn't scared. It was nothing. Dust it off and continue playing. I think it worked to some degree... but as I found out later, it backfired. SW was first one up... none of the other kids wanted to play after seeing what I went through. But after seeing us have fun... one at a time, everyone started playing. And even some of the adults got into the action!! WOOHOO!!
I finally got into the boat... and someone told me... (I forget who).... your daughter is upset. It turns out NN was balling her eyes out. She was worried sick with me not being able to get back on the boat. And once I got on the boat... I didn't check in with the family and went straight out to the water. Oops! My bad. I tried apologizing...but she wasn't hearing it. Woe is me.... I screwed up big time.
I finally got in the boat... and was freezing my @$$ off. I changed... put on new clothes... but the wind chill was still killing me. Ah wellz... I had to man up and take it and not show signs of weakness. We finally got back to the pier, parked, and changed. Everything was calmer now... and the last thing I had to worry about... a missing iPhone that turned up in lost and found. Boom... time to head back to camp for a night of camp life and chill.
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