An Icy “First” For Me…

One of my favorite summer places is a lake in the town of Williams, Arizona.  Every year, our entire family (grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins) make the 3 hour trip up to the mountains and stay for a week.

Favorite Summer Places

What many of us really like to do while we are up there is fish.  Actually, it is the only time that I fish each year.

We usually fish from the dam itself and it is such a wonderful, stress-free way to spend a day.

Last weekend, my husband and I left the kids behind (aren’t we terrible parents ;-).  We traveled up to Northern Arizona and visited some of our favorite places – Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott.

Since we were so close to Williams, I asked my husband if we could stop by and see what it looked like in winter.

So, we headed that way and drove by our favorite lake.  There was still areas with snow, which I expected.

What I didn’t expect to see was our favorite lake frozen over….

As I stood by the water’s edge, I realized that this was the first time that I had ever been to a frozen lake.

Of course, I have been in the snow many times, but none of those visits had brought me to a frozen lake.

I realize that it maybe hard to believe that in all of my 46 years, that I had never seen a frozen lake, but it’s true.  I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles and then moved to the Phoenix area when I got married.  So you see, my exposure to icy lakes has been somewhat limited.

This lake fascinated me.  I was pretty sure that I could throw a rock and it would sink through the ice….

I was shocked to see that the rock did not sink, but just bounced over the ice.

At this point, I felt like a little kid who has just experienced a new thing for the first time.

It is nice to experience that feeling again.

Before I know it, we will all be up there again and I will be hoping to catch some fresh fish…

What about you?

Have you experienced any “firsts” as an adult?

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I hope your week is off to a good start.  I am working on my latest batch of gardening articles and designing a butterfly/hummingbird garden.

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."