I love lakes. I grew up going to
Camp every summer in Vermont. Lakes
in the South are not the same as lakes in the North. Lakes in the South
are muddy. Good old red clay muddy. I don't like that kind of
lake...there are snakes down here as you know. I like to see in the
water to know if there is a snake and you can't in the South so, do I
don't swim in them. Lake Jocassee is in South Carolina and I will swim in it.
We rented a pontoon boat with the Martins and spent the day on it. Lake Jocassee is emerald green and so clear. It is 300 feet deep and there is an
abandoned (obviously) town under it. If the light is shining just right
you can see and old church spire. It has several waterfalls bringing
nice and chilly mountain water into it. And the best part is Aaron did
some research and there aren't actually water moccasins in that part of the state. YIPPPPEEE! Don't get me wrong there are snakes there, we saw 2. I am, of course, the one that spotted both of them. We saw one when we were pulled into a cove to see a waterfall. The one you will see later in this post with Della and Jake in front of it acting like they are incredible strong. :) It was sunning itself on a log right next to the boat. . .I was not happy. The other one was swimming along the side of the lake. I was in the deep water by the boat. Jake, Della, and Addie Kate were playing on a tiny beach and it swam by
them after I had screamed for them to come back to the boat. They got half way back and Aaron said it had gone up on land and that they could go back to the little beach. . .That is when it swam past them. Can you believe I kept swimming? I did because the water is crystal clear and the only snakes that would be there only swam close to land and on top of the water. The lake is way to big for them to swim across. I was pretty proud of myself for getting over it, I have to say.
There are a lot of places you can jump off of and of course we did that. In fact we didn't just jump; Aaron, Jake, Riannon, and I all dove off of it. There are pictures of Jake and I jumping off, but the rest of the pictures are on Ranee's camera and I haven't gotten them from her.
We had so much fun! As we were leaving town to go the lake it was raining. Big time raining. But we only got sprinkled on for maybe 5 minutes the whole time we were on the lake. It was perfect weather because it wasn't so sunny that we were dying of the heat. You know those days when it is so hot the only way you can really stand to be outside, is if you are
in the water? Well, if you don't live in the South you may not know what I mean. HOT heat + humidity= misery. We have been really lucky this summer because we haven't had as many as those days as usual. In fact we have
only had a few of them....What happened to global warming? Now that I have said that, we don't be able to leave the house for a week!
There are only a handful of houses on Lake Jocassee and I think those people must be amongst the luckiest there is. I could live there no problem. :)
At the end of the day when were headed back to dock we found a nice beach and the water was light green. Next time we will make plenty of
time for it. It was beautiful! It was even more clear there because the water was such a light color. If you stood still for a few seconds, these little fish would come up and check you out. I was standing in water almost up to my chest and I could still see my toes. It is so beautiful! If you ever get a chance to visit South Carolina you need to put Lake Jocassee on the top of your list. This is a new summer family tradition.
