Several of the lakes in town have such concession stands. Lakes Harriet, Calhoun and Nokomis all have them, as does the Minnehaha Falls. My favorite was the Tin Fish, at Lake Calhoun but just as the city (illegally, it turns out) changed the name of the lake, so they took away the lease from the owners of the Tin Fish. Last year, Lola on the Lake opened in its place. It served neither ice cream nor popcorn.
No one mourned it when it burned to the ground during a thunderstorm early this spring. The story of a lightning strike only lasted until video footage of a couple lighting a hooka under the eaves of the building and accidentally lighting the place on fire was discovered. Now, there’s nothing left of the building and when I drive by, the shore of the lake looks so foreign sometimes I can’t remember where I am.
I don’t like the food at Bread and Pickle but the ice cream is good, even if it is over-priced. I mean, you can’t really put a price on having ice cream at the lake with your Dad, can you?
We sat at a table near the edge so we had an unobstructed view of the water. There was a sailing class coming in off the water because of the rain. We finished our ice cream and I went and got the car. Since we couldn’t walk; Dad can’t risk getting a cold, it would slow down his physical therapy, we decided to drive around the lakes instead.
They’re beautiful in the rain.
Dad pointed out all the different places around the lakes where he’d lived back in the very beginning of his career, before the Reader’s Digest. Then he pointed out the houses of several of his friends and one acquaintance who invited Dad and Mom to dinner in the hopes that Dad (a famous writer by then) would write an article about him. Dad did not write an article about the guy.
It was a fun morning!
I got home and put a second coat of paint on my porch ceiling. Oh yeah: I decided to paint my porch ceiling the same color as the walls in my kitchen. It’s a gorgeous soft pale teal called ‘watery’ by Sherwin Williams. It looks like a muted Caribbean green/blue. I started painting the porch ceiling the other evening and it was dark outside by the time I finished the first coat. I was a bit worried that it was too dark but when I looked at it this morning, I decided I love it. The porch is small, only about 10X12 but it took a long time to paint the ceiling, what with moving the furniture out of the way and throwing down a drop cloth. But it’s all done now and it looks fantastic.
The sun came out while I was painting…then it rained again. Off and on, rain, then sun, all day long. Now, the sun is on it’s way down, there’s not a cloud in the sky and it’s perfectly gorgeous out. The one thing that has remained constant all afternoon is the breeze; it’s blown across the park and through the house, filling it with the fresh scent of rain. It’s wonderful!
Oh for Heaven’s sake…another cloud bank just popped up over the western horizon. I think it’s going to rain again!
I’ll sleep well tonight.