Sharing the Beach

This is little Nemo... one of our resident fish.

A couple of weekends ago, we brought the grandkids to Dick's Sporting Goods to try on and purchase some new life vests for them to wear at the lake. They've outgrown their old life vests so it was time for a larger size. 

While we were trying on life vests, a nearby display caught Lukey's eye... it was an end cap display of large inflatables for the water. Some extremely large inflatable called a "Floating Island" caught his eye and our eyes...

This "Floating Island" is a huge inflatable with two areas for hanging out... a covered area for four or six people to sit facing each other with their feet in the water... and a sunning area for two or three people to stretch out comfortably. There is about a two foot by three foot hole in the middle of the covered seating area where you let your feet dangle in the water while talking with each other and drinking a few cold refreshments.  

Gee and I showed immediate interest but the kids were a bit hesitant...

Finally, Lukey verbalized his concern as Gee and I were rotating the big, heavy box looking for a price, "No, no, NO... we can't get THAT! The SHARKS will eat us!"

Nemo and his friends hanging out at the
big rock next to our beach.

Gee and I looked at each other, rolled our eyes, light-heartedly laughed aloud, while wondering to ourselves what kind of idiot would fill their curious minds with this absurd nonsense and needless drama. 

I tried to quell their horror, fright and concern by calmly explaining that the lake has no sharks... the lake has no fish that will bite them... and then we reminded them that the only fish we have at our little beach area is a tiny fish we aptly named "Nemo" and his family and friends of equally small fish. 

Gee then continued with explaining that they themselves are the ones who are frightening the poor little fish as they play in the water at our little beach. They clearly were not believing any of this. Clearly, they are afraid that little Nemo is going to chomp off one of their legs in one big, swift bite!

It will be interesting to see how well they share our beach this summer with our friendly resident sunfish and perch we've so appropriately named Nemo, Marlin and Dory.  

A Loon enjoying the sunset.

Two Loons searching for a mid-morning snack... which could be Nemo and his friends!