Plein Air: On a Boat

Lake Hartwell View

It has now been over a dozen years since our family moved to North Georgia. We have lived in four different counties in the region, but in each it seems like one of everyone’s favorite recreational activities is going to the lake. I grew up in the mountains, and though I drove past Lake Watauga a couple of times a year, I never visited it. Of course in Cancun we went to the beach, and went out on boats to fish,or have a dinner cruise, or get to an island, but my lake boating experience has been pretty minimal. In the past twelve years I think I have been on a boat 2, maybe 3 times, and it was just for short rides that were like little bonuses to picnics held at lake houses. They were pleasant enough I am sure but did not make a big impression. I did not feel like I was missing out on anything by not going to the lake on the weekends. But right now I am really trying to be open to opportunities that come my way, so when the invitation came for a day on the lake as part of Employee Appreciation Day at Celtic Crow I had to say yes.

Dale as King of the Mountain

Not everyone who works at the shop was able to go. It turned out to just be seven of us. We drove up to Lake Hartwell and put the boat in at Jenkins Ferry. The first stop was a rock outcropping over water deep enough to jump into. Stephen, Dale and Sammy all took a turn. I have no allusions about my upper body strength so there was no temptation to try. However, the next activity was riding a blow up chair thing behind the boat. Watching Stephen and Sammy get swung around and thrown off actually looked like a lot of fun.


I had never done such a thing, but figured it was time to try, so Dale and I went next. It was pretty amazing. They took it easy on us at first, but then apparently got bored. They only threw us off twice but I think I may be sore for the rest of my life.

We had a cookout lunch on a little island, swam a bit and I got to do a little drawing. Then the best part was Jamie just driving us around the lake listening to trippy music he and his friends had recorded, feeling the wind and watching the world go by. I might could be a lake person…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.