We had a nice day at Lake Louisa.
The early morning routine with the girls on Spring Break is definitely quiet. I am still waking up at 6, and since we keep the AC fan on, they all sleep in so I have a few hours of time to do work, catch up, etc. I was able to do a bit of writing and start catching up as I had a few days I didn’t finish.
I went for a run around the campground as well. It was a nice run, all paved and the perimeter of the campground was 3 miles, it’s pretty big. I didn’t have to stop at stop signs, and didn’t have to worry about dogs, they were all on leashes. This is a nice campground, it has a big pool, tennis courts, a lake, and lots of activities.
After I got back, Carol left to go to a Brazilian grocery store with Juliana. The girls woke up and immediately went to Bellodi’s camper and hung out together all day, at least Lulu did. I had a work call at 11 as well. After Carol came back from the store, we worked on lunch. Flavia came by with the kids for lunch as we had planned on going to Lake Louisa, which is just 7 miles from us here. Carol finished making lunch, we all ate, Flavia and the kids, Leo and his kids, and us here. Ju was out doing something. We then cleaned up and were ready to go. We took Lulu with us for the day.
Lake Louisa is very close, so it was a short drive, which is nice because we know we can go back any time. Once you get to the park, you drive for another couple of miles before getting to the beach entrance. We parked right by the entrance, and got all our stuff on the red cart, it was a lot of stuff. Bags with towels, bags with clothes, body boards and the new addition to the toys…. An inflatable Stand Up Paddleboard, that also works as a Kayak. We were excited to try it for the first time. The beach was empty, so we were able to pick any spot we wanted, and we picked to stay right in the middle of the little sandy beach front. The sand is white, a little on the coarse side, and the water is dark. I don’t think it’s dirty, but it is dark from something, I read maybe it is tannin. As soon as we settled on the spot, we started putting sun screen on everyone, and I setup the umbrella and got the kids their stuff to play. Then, as everyone was situated, I worked on getting the paddle board inflated. It is pretty easy actually as it came with a nice pump. The pump has a hose with a specific fitting in the end that goes into the paddle board, which allows it to push a spring down and let air flow, once you remove the connector, air stops flowing. The pump also works to inflate or deflate. I got all the parts out and pumped for maybe 10-15 minutes and got the paddle board to 15psi, and it felt pretty solid. The range is 14-18psi. Carol went first, so we got the fin connected and locked, the ankle strap, the paddle setup for paddle boarding, and she was off. The paddle comes with an adaptor to use as kayak, and there is a seat you can attach to the anchors as well to turn it into a kayak. Carol went, got used to the balancing pretty quick, and was out for a while and far. She paddled for around 45 minutes.
Bella was not too happy with being there, and was a bit afraid that Carol was so far out because she saw a sign that said Alligators may be present in the water. I guess, while not common, they have spotted Alligators before, and so they have the sign. But Bella was almost crying that Carol was too far and what not. She didn’t even want to go in the water at all for the first hour or so. The other kids started playing in the water little by little. They went in just a bit, then went a little further, then got the body boards and played more, and eventually were all in. They didn’t want to go too far from shore or too close to the grassy area but they were playing and they had a lot of fun. Henrique and Charlie had a ton of fun going on the board, then jumping onto the other side. Charlie was fearless and just belly flopped on the water even where it was a bit deeper, he’d go under water, come back up just floating his head above water and would make this funny sound, like as if he was saying “get me, I’m floating and I can’t stand up” hahahahah… and he did it over and over again. After Carol got back, I took the girls for a spin on the board, then more girls, then they were doing it on their own and loving it. Bia, Lulu and Vi loved the board. And in no time, everyone was in the water playing. The water temp was actually great.
I went for a spin on the board by myself and was out there for 30 minutes, it’s very nice to ride and I can’t wait to do more of it. We decided to leave around 5:30, so we started packing. I deflated the board using the pump and that was nice as it makes the board completely flat again, so pretty much all the air was out. I left the board out so I could rinse it all when we got back to the trailer.
When we arrived at the campground, I took everything out of the truck and rinsed it all. I left it all to dry in the sun, while I got the grill going. Then I put the board away in the bag and it all fit! This stuff never fits in the bag after you use it once, but this did. Love it!
Dinner was grilled sausages and picanha from the Brazilian market, and Carol also had bought some Brazilian cheese for grilling, and some mushrooms. Bellodi’s joined us for dinner too. Everything was very delicious. The picanha had some extra fat, so I grilled the fat side down first, and left it there for quite a while before turning to the meat side and just leaving a minute or two grilling, so by time I served the meat, the fat was mostly melted and the meat was super tasty. After dinner we put things away, and Leo and I hung out by his trailer. We had started a campfire there so we hung out and chatted for a while there. I was tired, so we called it a night around 10:30. I looked up some info for the park we are going to tomorrow, then headed to bed.
We had a great day at Louisa Lake Park today, then grilling with friends.