(Not-at-all) Clear Lake

This last weekend I got to do a little camping in Clear Lake. The weekend has initially been planned as a big getaway for our TNT group of friends. Unfortunately other things came up for the majority of the group and it ended up being just me, Lael, his friend Kelvin and girlfriend Amie who could make it. Although I had been excited about hanging out with the big group, I knew that the 4 of us would still have a good time. Never having been to Clear Lake though, I didn't really know what to expect.

Lael and I decided that to maximize our camping time, we'd head up to Clear Lake (about 3 hours north of Walnut Creek) on Thursday after work. That way we'd have two fulls days there, and half of Sunday. We ended up leaving a little later than intended and after too long on some windy little roads, we finally got up to Clear Lake State Park at about 10:00pm. We checked out our campsite, said hello to the skunk that was hanging out in the bushes at the edge of our site (EEEKKK!!!), gazed up for a bit at the super bright stars and set up our tent. Our campsite was really nice... we were under a bunch of trees, which ended up provided us with plenty of much needed shade during the day, and our campsite was well blocked off from the sites next to us. After getting the tent put up, all of our things put away, and playing a few rounds of cards we finally went to sleep around 1:00am (WAY past my usual bedtime!). Even with the crickets causing a racket, it was really easy to fall asleep!

Friday morning we woke up at a decent time-- the campground wasn't too crowded, so we weren't woken up really early by the usual campground noise. We made a yummy breakfast and decided on what we would do that day before Kelvin and Amie got there. We walked along the boardwalk path out to the swimming area (gross-- all this algae floating in the water) and then around to some of the other areas. And that pretty much exhausted all of our activity plans. We spent the rest of the day playing cards, tossing around the football and frisbee, napping, reading, trying to stay cool (it was in the 90's), and trying not to die from boredom. Around noon all of the weekday campers starting clearing out and the campground felt really deserted. It was kind of creepy actually. Later in the afternoon the weekend campers started showing up and it got much more crowded.

The boardwalk trail and slough behind our campsite

The slough in the morning... it actually looks pretty!

Ugg, not so pretty here... the later in the day it got, the more icky looking it got

The backside of our campsite from the trail

Lael and I checking out the lake

Clear Lake at sunset

Water activities like boating, swimming and fishing are the main attractions at Clear Lake. Since the water really isn't nice enough to swim in (and I don't really swim in large bodies of water anyway-- I hate fishies), we didn't have a boat, and weren't interested in fishing, that didn't leave us with a whole lot of entertainment options. Our late evening activities consisted of a shower (me) and a run (Lael). Finally around 8:30 when Lael got back from his run we decided to start getting dinner ready. We had some yummy chicken, salad, and guacamole. Kelvin and Amie arrived right when we were eating so after we finished, and they had put up their tent, we chowed down on some s'mores and stayed up till 1:00am laughing and talking. As loud as we were, the rangers only came by once around 11:00 to let us know that it was quiet hours.

After we got up on Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast of French Toast, sausage and OJ. The morning was spent just hanging out and relaxing... throwing the football around and playing board games. On Friday morning after talking to Kelvin and Amie, Lael reserved a boat for us for Saturday afternoon-- the pricing was very reasonable and it would be something fun to do, another than just hanging around in the campground. We packed up some lunch and some drinks and then drove over the Lakeport where the boat rental place was. Before heading out in the boat with a wakeboard, and innertube, we got a little boating lesson. I find it a little surprising that after spending just 10 minutes with you they give you the keys and send you on your way. Yeah, it's not as difficult as driving a car, but you're still handling this very expensive item that goes pretty darn fast.

Kelvin and Amie on the boat

Amie getting ready to wakeboard!

Kelvin, Lael and Amie all tried out the wakeboarding while I took video from the boat. None of them had much experience wakeboarding, and NO experience driving while wakeboarding, so there were quite a few spills. After they each tried it a few times, it was almost time to return the boat so we headed back towards shore and then spent the remaining time dragging the three of them around on the giant tube thing.

Lael getting up on the wakeboard:

Kelvin and Amie's wild tube ride:

After we got back from the boat, everyone was exhausted! I went to take shower and when I got back, everyone was sleeping exactly where I had left them! Later that evening we cooked up a yummy dinner of burgers and hot dogs, followed of course by some s'mores. We were definitely quieter that night and even though I could hardly keep my eyes open, we didn't go to sleep until around midnight! The next morning after we all got up we ate a little food and then started the long process of packing everything up :( We left the campground a little before noon and on our way to the bay area we stopped for a late lunch at the Red Hen Cantina in Napa. Although it was a really fun weekend, I think we were all ready to go home, shower and nap. And that's exactly what I did as soon as I got home!!