Yu's Harbor, July 26

An almost perfect July morning. Clear, sunny and 68 degrees at 6:30 AM. The lake had long 1 to 2 foot smooth swells. Seems easy, and mostly it was but the longer the wavelength the more energy in the wave. So these seemingly benign waves could pack a punch and move you around, especially near shore where the breaks were larger than the wave height. The water temp was 71 so we had the unusual situation where the air was colder than the water. Jody actually got cold. I had predicted colder water than we actually had and had a neoprene cap so I was toasty. We did a wall to wall swim and came out happy. The recent weather has brought a lot of 2 inch rocks to shore at the middle of the beach making entry and exit hard, but for some reason there were none up and down from there, so it was easy to avoid.

It seemed like such a great beach day I mentioned to Jody that I wished we were retired so we could spend the whole day lounging around the beach. She reminded me that we were retired but that our day was already scheduled with lots of projects around our homes. So we reluctantly left.

Yu's Harbor, July 26,2018

An almost perfect July morning. Clear, sunny and 68 degrees at 6:30 AM. The lake had long 1 to 2 foot smooth swells. Seems easy, and mostly it was but the longer the wavelength the more energy in the wave. So these seemingly benign waves could pack a punch and move you around, especially near shore where the breaks were larger than the wave height. The water temp was 71 so we had the unusual situation where the air was colder than the water. Jody actually got cold. I had predicted colder water than we actually had and had a neoprene cap so I was toasty. We did a wall to wall swim and came out happy. The recent weather has brought a lot of 2 inch rocks to shore at the middle of the beach making entry and exit hard, but for some reason there were none up and down from there, so it was easy to avoid.

It seemed like such a great beach day I mentioned to Jody that I wished we were retired so we could spend the whole day lounging around the beach. She reminded me that we were retired but that our day was already scheduled with lots of projects around our homes. So we reluctantly left.

Yu's Harbor, July 25.

Now that cubs pitcher Yu Darvish has his home right in the middle of our Evanston place we can give it a proper name. Even though it's Wednesday all three of us independently had the same idea, "let's go to the lake". Snice this a rare week this summer when all of us, Jody, joe, and I, were around we got together and went. It was really pretty good, 70 degrees, sunny with about 1 foot waves. Though small the waves tossed us around a bit making it a bit hard to swim straight so I would only rate today 8 out of 10. We didn't see Yu.

Evanston, July 7

On the 4th conditions appeared ideal in Evanston but we defered to Joe since he is partial to Ohio St. Since Jody and I have diverging summer plan this may be our last Lake swim together for some time, so we really wanted to go to Evanston, especially since Joe was not available. But the weather has not cooperated, for example the lake has cooled down somewhat and the air more so and yesterday there 4th foot waves. Overnight the waves were subsiding and early this morning they were in the 2 or 3 foot range by the buoy. So we came.

The waves were around 3 feet when we came. The 66 degree water was fine. So with some difficulty we got to the far wall. I suggested trying for the near wall. But the going was harder, which was strange since the waves were from the northeast. So when we got to the beach we bailed and came home.

We felt good anyway, it was such a relief to not being pounded by waves that we should be able to cope with whatever the rest of the brought.

Ohio Street, July 4

July 4 is the traditional start of Lake Swim season, but we have already been three times so it doesn't have quite the excitement. Moreover, the 4th is generally barely tolerable but today is fine, although not quite as nice as June 30. We are again at Ohio Street because Joe again volunteered to drive. It was a bit choppy, more so at the curve. The water was in the 67-68 range and once we got in we didn't notice the temperature at all. We had actually expected 70 as 70s were seen around the area yesterday. Once again Jody and I swam to the curve and back, Joe made it all the way to Oak Street beach.