Waking up in Empire found us refreshed and ready to hit the trail for more fun. Yeah right, we were both ready to roll back over and go back to sleep! It felt good to be back in a real bed, no getting up every couple hours to soak up water, and no fear of large waves crashing over our bow. We were both a bit bummed we did not get to sail on Lake Charlevoix but that can be another trip.
We finally crawled out of bed and made our way to breakfast. Once again we ate way too much, at least I did as I conned Carrie into digging the leftover blueberry French toast out and warming it up. Man is that good stuff! After breakfast we took a long walk around Empire and checked out the lots as were house dreaming which one we wanted as our vacation home. We had no trouble picking out several.
We walked down to the beach and the lake was really calm as the wind was barely blowing. We could see rain off in the distance across the lake and radar showed a small shower headed at us. After loading up my pockets full of rocks we headed back before we got wet. On the way back I asked Cindy if she would like to paddle her paddleboard in Lake Michigan after the rain passed. She was excited and said Sure!
On the way back to the inn I stopped and reserved a paddleboard for me to paddle at the Empire Surf Shop so we could paddle together. While at the surf shop the rain set in but it was short lived. We stopped in the Empire Village Inn for the best, I say again, the BEST BLT ever! I suggest getting it on wheat bread instead of sour dough but either way it is absolutely delicious!!!!
Returning to the inn to get the inflatable paddle board out of the boat and aired up while Cindy changed I was greeted with sunny skies and warming temps. Funny how the wind was picking up too. What is it with wind on this trip? Off to the surf shop to pick up the paddle board for myself and leg tethers so we did not loose our boards. That turned out to be a really good idea on our parts.
Arriving at the beach parking area the wind was really starting to howl. Those calm waves that were there earlier when we got this idea, long gone! They were replaced with 2 and 3 foot rollers that were still growing. Oh, this look liked fun! What turned out to be even harder than paddle boarding in 3 foot waves was just getting the dam boards to the water. Their curled up nose made walking into the wind almost impossible as the wind would catch your board and take you where ever it wanted to take you. We struggled into the wind and finally arrived at the waters edge. How hard could this be? We have paddle boarded a lot down south, on nice smooth lakes, in no to light winds. How different could this be??
Well, lets just say A LOT!!!! Neither Cindy nor myself had ever surfed before but we have seen it done on TV so surely we can figure it out. NO WE CANT! To start with just getting away from the shore line is not as easy as they make it look. I got washed back right into Cindy to start with and knocked her over. In my attempt to get up I got flattened again! Time to regroup. Lesson #1 keep the board on your down wind side, maybe I should have shared that with Cindy. If it is on your downwind side if the wave lifts the board, and it will, and the wind catches it, it will, the board does not get slammed into you knocking you over. Lesson #2, get out away from the breaking waves ASAP!!!! The sooner you do the less chance a waves will break right on you. Again, should have shared with Cindy.
I finally got back to my feet and on my board then paddled like hell to get out away from the shoreline. Once I was clear of the breakers I was able to just bob up and down in the surf. Sometimes I could look back and see the shore, sometimes I couldn't the waves were rising and galling that much. I kept waiting on Cindy to join me, and I waited, and I waited. Finally I got up on my knees and looked back. She was struggling. Here, you watch and see what I mean.
God love her. No matter what happened she never failed to have a smile on her face. Just one of the many things I love about Cindy.
Sadly, the best part was not captured as I turned the camera off thinking how interesting will it be to watch me help Cindy get her board back to the south end of the beach. Well, as it turned out it would have been hilarious! Cindy was really struggling to get her board back down the beach as the wind and the waves were doing what they wanted with her and her board. So me, being the caring husband I am, went back to help her. I grabbed the strap on the front of her board and started dragging it through the surf and rocks but it seemed very heavy for some reason. Battling the waves I just thought it was the waves so I continued on. Finally I turned around to see my pretty little wife partially submerged with one leg canted towards the back of her paddle board and her other leg up in the air like a stick bobber with her frantically trying to reach her leg that was pointed towards her paddle board. Oops! I did not realize she was still tethered to her board. Seems I overlooked that part. I hollered back to here "take off your tether!!!" as she was climbing to her feet. She replied, "I am trying Genius!!!!" as another wave knocked her back down. At this point I should probably point out that very few people are in the water but there are quite a few peeps on the beach and pretty much everyone of them are laughing their asses off at us by now!
Finally free of her tether I get her board back down the beach and up the shore to the grass. We are both winded by now and laughing hysterically. How hard can it be to paddleboard in 3 foot waves? Pretty dam hard!
We went across the parking lot to South Bar lake and enjoyed the warm water for a bit while we rested up for try number two at the big water. The waves on South bar were not an issue but the wind still was. Not sooner than you stood up the wind would blow you towards the far end of the lake so fast you did not need to paddle and you were still making a wake. I figured out pretty quick that if we let it take us the whole way down the lake we would have one heck of a paddle into the wind to get back. So we got over to the west side of the lake pretty quickly and still had a pretty hard paddle back as we tried to stay out of the wind as much as possible.
Not ones to give up easily, we decided to go back out to the big lake and give it one more go, this time minus the paddles. Surely it would be easier just using our arms to paddle us out. Again, we have seen this done on TV, how hard can it be? Stupid question on my part as the answer again was pretty damn hard! With my long arms I did fair a bit better than Cindy as her short little arms barely got to the water on each side of her board. She finally did get out past the breakers and was able to bob up and down in the waves for a bit. We let the wind and waves carry us north till we were down to the light house at the north end of the beach before we "surfed" our way to shore. At least I tried to surf in. I was happy I had the tether as my board would have been found on the south shore of Canada a few days later if I had not been tied to it!!! We returned the rented board and just responded "it was an experience" when they asked how it went LOL!
After getting cleaned up we headed up to Glen Harbor to do some shopping before returning to the beach to stake our spot by our favorite fire pit for the sunset fire. It was another gorgeous sunset and the fire felt great. We stopped by Joe's Friendly Tavern on the way back to the inn for a night cap before going back and crashing. It had been a fun day but sadly we were down to just a few more before would have to return to the real world. With Cindy asleep on my shoulder I vowed to make the most of every minute we had left on our trip as I did not want it to end...
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