I grew up swimming in Lake Michigan. Swimming in a Lake is carefree. You might run into some minnows, or step on a big brick – YES, there are bricks at the bottom of the Lake, but you would never run into a shark.

So, when I get to an ocean, my first instinct is to dive right in UNTIL a warning sound goes off in my brain that says, “WAIT, are there any sharks?”  That’s what happened on my trip to Wilmington, North Carlolina. I soon overcame any fears as my friend jumped in without hesitation and started bobbing up and down in the waves looking like a fish. I followed.

As I was diving into the water, I was reminded of a time I was diving into the Lake with my brother. We had found a red brick at the bottom of the Lake in the sand bar area. My brother had picked it up and brought it to the service, PROUD of what he had found. We decided to play a game. We would throw the brick in the water and BOTH of us would dive in the water after the brick. Whoever got to the brick FIRST would be the one to throw it in again.

Well, this game was working out well until my brother, being extremely fast, dove in just in time for the brick to come crashing on his head. Luckily, this was not a bolder, but still, he came up out of the water with blood on his forehead. We immediately went out of the water. My mother was horrified and off to the emergency room we went for him to get stitches. So ended our fun brick game.

We also did a lot of boating on Lake Michigan, but I was not prepared for the boating they do in Wilmington. Wow – we went out on Saturday and there were boats everywhere. It’s “the” thing to do on the weekend. I felt like we were on a busy water freeway. The boats were very orderly, just like on a normal road, staying in their lane. Of course, there are always the “hot rods” even on the water.

There were the party looking boats with a lot of young people. They were doing water skiing and water tubing. There was a little island with a palm tree. As the day went on and the water started rising it covered the little island. We drove by a red Tow Boat, and later in the day hurried to dock the boat as we could see a storm coming in.

There have been a lot of thunder storms this summer. That day we could see the dark clouds coming in over the Atlantic Ocean. The lightning looked like fireworks in the sky, similar to this photo. Every few minutes behind the clouds we would see a flash of pink and silver. The thunder was incredible, so loud too. When I lived in California we had rain storms, but no thunder or lightening.

If you haven’t been boating or swimming in a while, it’s great fun, GO DO IT!  Be careful of those BIG waves though, they can knock you out… seriously, they can.