My Happy Place – Lake Pilsbury

After spending the past two summers attending weddings and exploring my new digs (Switzerland, that is), I gave up the traditional summer of traveling around Europe in order to spend a few glorious weeks at one of my favorite places in the world, Lake Pilsbury. By way of definition, Lake Pilsbury is a small lake near Mendocino, accessible only by dirt road, and the summer destination for those lucky few to have a cabin on the lake or has a friend who has a cabin on the lake.

But for those who truly know Pilsbury, the Lake is so much more. For me it was where I spent every summer growing up, getting picked up by the parents on the last day of school with the car packed and boat trailer hooked up. It is where I had my first summer romance “thing” which ended with an infamous jet ski ride…I should have known things weren’t going to work out between the two of us, I was a boat girl, he was a jet ski guy. It is where I first learned to drive a car and a boat and where I had my first taste of tequila (Jose Cuervo to be exact) thanks to our neighbor Frank and his “teenage margaritas”. It is truly great place to grow up. The Lake for me is a large, every growing extended family, and I mean that both figuratively and literally (my sister married the son of another cabin owner, who’s own sister is married to our next door neighbor, whose mother in law, well, you get the picture).

After the quick drive up from the Bay Area, it took all of 6 hours after arriving to completely rid myself of all responsibilities, thoughts of work or the real life and get back into the Lake mentality. My days were spent waking up early for the perfect water for the perfect ski, followed by late breakfasts (heuvos rancheros on Sundays), afternoons on the boat either wake surfing, tubing, or when things got really bad, double skiing, appetizers and drinks starting around 4pm, an evening ski with the necessary pit stop at the friends cabin across the lake for some beer and gossip, and of course ending with dinner well after dark and inappropriate jokes that only come about with close friends and too much liquor.

The bliss of vacation could only be slightly dampened by me getting stung by a yellow jacket just before my college friends arrived. Apparently I hadn’t over exaggerated the pain of getting bitten as a child…it still hurt like a mother! And to make things worse I forewent immediate attention (i.e. baking soda and/or onion) in order to still make the morning ski resulting in the worst swelling I have ever experienced. It got to the point where I couldn’t close my hand and, to ensure the swelling didn’t continue to my heart, I marked my arm where the swelling ended so I would know if and when I should go to the hospital. Thankfully, the swelling subsided and I was back to normal in no time.

Two weeks into the holiday and it seemed like I had never moved away; everything was just as it should be. The holiday flew by too quickly and I look forward to going back. The holiday ended just as it should have, with an evening ski, shot of Hornitos tequila and dinner well after dark.

It is good to know that after 28 years, the only that has really changed up at the Lake is the quality of tequila.