CLEARLAKE

Our time in Clearlake, California was so very eventful! 

But first: 

Clear Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in California.  It is 2.5 million years old, the oldest lake in North America.  It has 68 square miles of surface area.

Mt. Konocti is located across the lake from our cabin and has quite an interesting history.  The Pomo indians claim that there is a huge tunnel at the base which they can see during extreme droughts.  Inside this tunnel they found a cave and a lake filled with blind fish.

Geologists claim there is a huge cavern at the peak of the mountain with vent holes that go down into the center.  Some scientists believe the largest cavern in Mt. Konocti is the largest in the world.

Mt. Konocti means “Mountain Woman”.  From certain vantage points it actually looks like a woman’s body.  Although it has been thousands of years since the last eruption, Mt. Konocti is not considered dormant.

Mt. Konocti is considered sacred to the Pomo Indians.

OUR CABIN

Most of the homes on our shoreline are vacation homes.  Very few people live up there full time.  But within days of arriving, the beach filled up with all our neighbors.  The nice thing about our neighbors is, like us, their houses have been passed down from generations.  So the neighbors are people that I basically grew up with.  My parents purchased the “cabin” in 1968 when I was 12.  The Lewis’ next door had grandchildren the same age as me and my two sisters and they now own the home.  We have been friends for more than 50 years.

On the other side was the Martinez’s who passed their home down to her boys Rick and Joe and now Rick and his wife Chris own it.

We all get along great, have cocktail hour often, and watch out for each other’s houses. This works out really good for us since we are all the way out in Michigan.

SOLO DOCK

Within days of getting there, our Solo Dock arrived. It is a “temporary dock” which sits on the lake bottom and can be removed at any time.  We chose this dock for this reason:

When my parents purchased the cabin, there was a really great dock.  It was a 3-story with a dock that was attached to the pier, stairs going up to a much higher platform that was great for jumping into the water and for sunbathing when I was younger.  And then there was a floating dock that sat on top of the water and moved up and down with the water level.  Back in the 1980’s there was a storm that completely destroyed this dock and a new one was rebuilt.

The new dock was pretty but not nearly as fun as the old one.  But it lasted for 35+ years until another storm came along and destroyed that one as well.  That happened when my parents were older and weren’t able to get up there anymore.  Also, the insurance company refused to cover this damage so the dock sat busted up for a few years.

By the time the cabin was passed onto us, Kevin and I designed a whole new dock that we began building last year.  The pilings were still in place but the decking all needed to be replaced.  The county came out and issued a “STOP ORDER” telling us that we needed a permit to rebuild the dock and that we cannot rebuild our dock where it stands now because it is on the property line.  The ordinance states that nothing can be built within 10’ from the property line.  So our repair of $5 – $10k was now going to cost $100 – $150k since we were going to have to rebuild with all new pilings which cost $5k each.

Some of you are thinking “what about a grandfather clause?” right?  Well we tried that too and they said there is no such thing in this case.  You are either in compliance or you are not.

There is an appeals process which allows us to submit a permit, have it denied and then appeal it by stating our case.  Our neighbors were willing to submit documentation stating that they were ok with our dock being on their property line and we may have had a winnable (not sure that’s a word) case but it would have involved lots of time and money and probably taken years to accomplish.  So we decided to put up this “temporary” dock for now and explore our options for the future.

And we kind of like it!

DEBBIE

My friend Debbie and I grew up in the Bay Area and have been friends since high school.  I actually grew up around the corner from her husband David, we went to grammer school together but didn’t know each other well until he married Debbie.

Debbie and I have birthdays a month apart and this year we decided to celebrate together by having a spa day.  And we finally got together for lunch and a massage in Napa.  

Such a fun day!

KEVIN

Unfortunately, in our second week of being there, Kevin got sick and had to go to the hospital.  The temperatures were very hot and he was not able to tolerate it at all.  It got harder for him to breathe and he felt pressure and pain in his chest.

We kind of recognized these symptoms as being the same symptoms from a few years ago when we were travelling across country in extremely hot weather and we had to stop off at a hospital in Colorado.  He was diagnosed with pericarditis which is inflammation in the lining around his heart.  They gave him medication and it seemed like he recovered fairly quickly.

So we hoped it was going to be a matter of just going back to the hospital, getting diagnosed again and getting the necessary medication.  Well, that did all happen but this time we learned that it is one thing to get pericarditis once but if you get it again, there is a bigger problem.  So he got an appointment with a cardiologist a couple of weeks later and they wanted to explore the possibility of an auto-immune disease.  But since we were leaving soon to come back home to Michigan we decided to wait to run all those tests at home.

As it turns out, the auto-immune tests were negative but he did test positive for anemia.  So where he stands now is he is still on his anti-inflammatory medication and an iron supplement and he has appointments for additional follow up.

So, each time he started to feel better, he would go out and attempt a project out in the heat and he would relapse.  For those that know Kevin, it is hard for him to relax and not be productive in some way.

The good news is he is feeling much better now.

IMPROVEMENTS

But it didn’t stop me.  I started painting and couldn’t stop.  I begain with painting the remaining pier, then moved onto painting our outdoor patio furniture, then the back of the house (exterior), then the front of the house along with the rod iron on the bannister, the rod iron on our break wall, some of the poles holding up the house and the inside porch.  

Painting walls is easy but the rod iron was a big job.  We tried spraying it but turns out it’s not as easy as it seems.  So I painted each spindle by hand with a brush.  I love painting, I find it soothing and kind of therapeutic but the challenge was the hot weather.  Some days were over 105 degrees.  On those days I got up at 6 AM and painted until it was too hot and then called it a day.

Last time we were up here back in February, we put static paper up in our windows on the back porch. We had no idea the enjoyment we would get from it. This is what happens when the sun shines through.

BOAT RIDE

Between the heat and Kevin’s health, we didn’t get out in the water much.  A little swimming but no kayaking.

Also, we had to pour a new cement pad for our boat winch so we couldn’t take out the boat 🙁

Fortunately, our neighbors Vince and Karan offered to take us for a boat ride in their boat.  I think boat rides around Clearlake are my favorite thing to do up there.  It never gets old.  There are so many beautiful houses on the shoreline and new houses going up.

We all thoroughly enjoyed it!

So it came time to leave our happy place and one of our favorite lakes. But we now are camping at Brimley State Park on Lake Superior (Kevin’s favorite lake). We are here for Kevin’s 50 year high school reunion.

Should be fun!! 🙂