Let the South Lake summer commence!

First trip of the year to our happy place this weekend. Linc and I went in with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday night, the girls joined us on Saturday morning. Dined at Michael's Alder Creek Inne for dinner on the way in -- chatted up the proprietor's mother but forgot to ask her the most important question: Why the Medieval English in the name? Methinks Inn would have been just fine for her clientele, nearly all of which was over 70 except Lincoln and me. The Friday fish fry, however, das schmeckt, as the Germans say.

As for the visit, it was very buggy. Best to be outside only when moving rapidly or on the water or after the sun was down. Turns out the little buggers need to sleep like the rest of us. But we got the dock in, sort of, enough so the barge could be parked, anyway, and replenished the wood pile, and burned all our tax returns before 2009. For the record, I also won 2 out of 3 Wahoo games (Linc triumphed in the final contest), Greta won a game of Shabotzky (even Google can't spell it, but it's a card game where you try to collect one suit with a value of 31 points each round), and Mom and I tied Carey and Greta in Perquackey. Also had a lovely dinner Saturday night of fish tacos that Mom cribbed off the Food Network or something similar.

TEENAGER.

Portuguese Water Dog.

GRE rocks. Dad wanted this photo taken for some reason.

Lt. Col. Patrica Merrill, Ret.

Almost 12-year-old.

First Dog.

500-piece puzzle in a little over 2 hours.

Two Mug Selfie.

If you ever doubted the pride of grandparents....

Alpha & Beta, guess which is which.