Lakerage 2012

Another year, another Lakerage. I'm not sure what year this was, but I'm going with 6 (with one year being skipped). It was another grand time with pretty much the exact same cast as last year, with Primus Dan and his girlfriend and friend from home joining this year. I had thought about hiking on my way up like I did last year, but common sense worked its way into me and I decided against it- but still didn't show up till like 8pm.

Night 1 was pretty quiet. Some odd political sessions, some super fancy beer, and general merriment and fun.

My friends were very impressed with my hair and chopstache.

This picture is terrible but it's like 1 of 3 that I took that night.

2 miserable looking people

After sketchy conversation made people start dropping like flies and it was only Pog and I talking for a good half hour about youtube, I finally laid down and went to sleep at about 4. Knowing that I'd be waking up at 7 the next day, this didn't make me too happy. Waking up 1 hour later and having to pee made me even more unhappy... until I saw what it looked like outside.

No iphone effects, not even an HDR. I forget how glorious mornings can be. People were already up fishing, and the stillness of everything was amazing. There's a serenity in being on a lake at 5 in the morning that's hard to describe, but if you've been up then, you know. It was pretty amazing, and I tried to enjoy it as much as possible while not fully waking up. 

2 hours later, Pog was already up and walking around, with Kevin joining him shortly. I tried to fight it off, but I couldn't- the room was too bright, the heat too hot, and the quiet rumblings of Pog and Kevin made it impossible to even pretend I could sleep. Guess it would be a normal Lakerage, and I'd be doing everything that day on 3 hours of sleep. 

While last year meant swimming across the lake first thing, this year meant me sitting around a lot longer and trying to not feel crappy. It turns out that 3 hours of sleep after drinking is a lot different than 3 hours of sleep sober. Once Pog started swimming (with a GoPro chestmount), I knew I couldn't fight the day anymore, and jumped in myself shortly after him.

(some of these pictures were stolen from Gina- her camera rules)

As with all previous Lakerages, it was beautiful out, and there were loons everywhere.

Kevin looked his best,

and I certainly did too.

The day consisted pretty much of this:

this:

nice shorts dan

this:

and a little of this:

We pretty much just switched between sitting on the deck, swimming around casually, floating on floats, and going out in the boat to swim or sit on the boat. Previous years had been a bit more intense, with more people going out in boats, jetskis, tubing, super in depth explorations down the coastline, endless kayaking, etc. Kevin and I used to have a joke competition to see who could do more activities (I'm the champ). This year though, was much more calm. This year was a glimpse of what summer is to a lot of adults who don't drink a lot: hanging out by the water and drinking all day. Sure, that's what lakerage has been to many since its inception, but this year was the first year I was drinking, and I was drunk at 2 in the afternoon, floating around in the lake and drinking Bud Light Lime-a-ritas. 

Part of me was a little bummed out that we didn't do more, but the other part of me realized that the last few years consisted of me wishing we did more while other people were drunk and perfectly happy where they were, just chilling. So, I'm actually pretty happy that I drank, as suddenly I wasn't the antsy one, wanting people to do more. And being drunk at 2 in the afternoon was pretty interesting and hilarious. It happened right after we got a random visit from Naro's parents and we all tried to get them to stay and party with us. Then we went out in the boat and swam on floats in the middle of the lake, having some very inappropriate conversations probably waaaay too loudly. It was a good time. 

After a few bouts of that and a few separate groups of people going out in boats, Dan got waaaay too drunk out of nowhere and had to take a nap. Mysterio and Masha finally showed up and I finally got in the kayak and owned it on the lake. I really love being in a kayak, and this was no different, except for when Pog and Kevin tried to get me to tow them. That SUCKED.

The continued and I switched to water and soda to prolong my day. Even though it's super rocky and instantly 100 feet deep there, and the boat was right in the spot where I wanted to jump off the dock, it's always fun just swimming around with your friends, laughing it up in summer sun.

As night started to close in, food started to be prepared. We had way too much, and I instead wanted to get pizza. I had seen a sign on the way in that I apparently missed last year- that there was a brick oven pizza place on this lake. The lake is nothing but people's summer homes, and apparently some dude just felt like buying a brick oven to make pizzas. He decided to go for it and start selling them to people, but I guess there was a huge problem with this, since it's all houses and this was a business. I guess he just sold them anyway during the whole stupid argument, but now he's legal, and I decided I had to get some. How often do you get the chance to buy pizza in this situation? They're only open from 5pm-8pm on Friday and Saturday, and it literally is a business run out of a small shack built next to this guy's house. And it was AWESOME. 

It was the smokiest pizza I've ever tasted- it really was very unique, and I loved it, especially the veggie one we got. I decided that next year, if people want to get pizza again, we should take the boat out and eat fresh pizza on a boat in the middle of the lake. If people weren't interested, I'll go via kayak. Even though it's a looong way, the idea of eating fresh brick oven pizza on a kayak in the middle of a beautiful lake is literally too awesome for me to even calculate. It would be the epitome of a life more awesome. Can't wait for next year. 

Dan came back from drunk death just in time to nab a piece of pizza and attempt to rally back. But the damage was done, and he was struggling to stay awake. Like all Lakerages, the night was a lot tamer than the day- people were exhausted from partying and swimming from 7-8 in the morning. Unlike previous Lakerages, Nick didn't set off any fireworks- mostly because he set them off from their neighbors' dock last year and they had to re-stain the whole thing this year. I was real sad about that as I really felt that the fireworks were a huge part of Lakerage, but I get that they had to die. I'm still holding out hope that we can have them next year if we set them off from a barge in the lake or something. We also forgot to take a picture- someone mentioned it early in the day, but we were too stupid to just do it then, because the night brought people dropping like flies again.

(she rallied back though)

Pog and I still partied deep into the night though, and even went for a late night swim, playing catch with a flashlight that he claimed was for water. As it slowly broke, we realized that it was just "waterproof" and not supposed to be submerged for 5 minutes at a time. Oops.

It was a clear, moonlit night, perfect like so many years have been.

Eventually people started to look like this,

and it was time to call it a night. I still didn't go to sleep until about 3 though. By the way, that picture may be my favorite picture ever of Kevin.

I woke up at like 8:30, just in time to see Mysterio and Masha leave (she had to work). Pog and Simone had already left at like 6:30 or 7. Some people just don't know how to take vacations.

Dan and his crew left a little later too, since Dan's friend Mike had like 8 hours of driving ahead of him. Naro, Sara, Nick, Kevin, Gina, 3 dogs and I decided to stay and make the day count though. Last year we all left by like 9 in the morning to avoid a hurricane (which I ended up driving through anyway), so this year we would be having a big breakfast (with beer- a fitting breakfast drink on this, the 1 year anniversary of me breaking edge) and taking the boat out one more time. 

Naro is a breakfast machine

It instantly got really windy and kind of cold when we got out on the boat, but it was nice being out there again. Hey Lakeragers, stop leaving so damn early. Day 2 can be nice too.

when she wasn't freaking the fuck out, she took nice pictures

Nick's dog is pretty cool looking.

Here's a lovely picture of Kevin and Gina with lots of cloudporn behind them.

And here's a super HDRed picture of the view from the dock. I really love this place.

I finally found out what that mountain is, and I will be hiking in next year. With 2 goals already in the books, I am already excited for next year's Lakerage. Hopefully more people will come, but even if they don't, I know I'm gonna have an awesome time again. I love me some Lakerage. 

So this post wasn't too grand- there wasn't a lot to take pictures of and this is the summer of me doing stuff instead of taking pictures or partying too hard and not thinking about it. BUT, I did play with my GoPro for like the second time this year. I wasn't able to make a nice heartwarming movie like I did last year, and struggled with footage of pretty much what I saw underwater and people being drunk. SO, I made a very odd little movie that is either extremely deep or just random garbage. Either way, I enjoyed making it, even though I was rudely reminded how much of a pain it is to edit video. Here you go:

"Lakerage: 2012" from Mike Alexander on Vimeo

currently listening to: Childish Gambino- "Culdesac"