Evanston, Labor Day

I took a big crew down for a Labor Day swim / Big Shoulders warmup, Ken, Heidi, Ellen (first time here for her, but she is a Big Shoulders veteran), Jody and your faithful correspondent. The conditions were not the best, a southeast wind pattern has been sitting over the area for a while produced a combination of swells, wind waves, and near the far wall, chop. The waves were only a foot or so and didn't look that bad from the beach, but the view is different when your head is in the water and your eye level is about 2 inches above the surface. Those 1 to 2 foot waves can look pretty big, especially as we have enjoyed mostly flat conditions so far this season. But the sky was sunny, air a bit cool but warming towards a hot day, and the water the warmest we have seen this season, 75 near the wall, 74 by the beach. It was a hard swim back, according to Ken it took us an extra 5 minutes for the round trip but this could be because having 5 people we chatted a bit more than usual by the far wall. Also this swim was not official as the conditions prevented us from actually touching the wall, we stopped about 10 yards out.