A day at the lake

Arcadia Lake, that is. Belchertown, Mass., home of the Rivards. Ilka went to Ithaca with Carey. And in a strange coincidence, Ilka grew up with my Middlebury roommate Kipp, in western Mass. Anyway, we drove across the Berkshires and back on Sunday to hang out with her and her 7-year-old daughter, Isabelle, before they move to San Diego in August for her job at Apple TV. But first I had the family drop me off at Mount Holyoke Park, about 8 miles away, for some morning mountain biking. Rooty trails around a pond, where I spied a couple with French accents skinny dipping! She asked me if swimming was allowed at the pond, thinking I was a local. I didn't think of it until later, but I should have said: "If you're shirtless, swimming is allowed anywhere." 

I made it to the lake house shortly before 1pm, just in time to enjoy a burger and a hot dog, with potato salad and cole slaw. The rest of the afternoon we lazed around in the lake, drinking La Croix (me) and Corona Lights (Ilka and Carey). Yeager joined us and was deferential to his canine host, Cookie, a weird mutt who's part chihuahua, part terrier. A lovely way to spend five hours on a sweltering summer day.