Free Play Saturday after Retreat's Closure

The fun free play day ~ ~ a delight to anticipate and now we get to do it!! Up early with a more relaxed yoga down at the lake glistening edge. Beautiful reflections and quiet fishermen surround us.

After breakfast, we muddle around, just deciding where and what each one of us wants to do. Before anyone takes off we have to unroll our Izzy's attempt at using my steam curlers - - she was SO thrilled to have elegant curls in her usual straight hair. It was sheer a "girl's pleasure" moment!

Out into the perfect day, we each attend to what most perfectly pleases "me"! I gravitate towards the northwest end of the lake where there are numerous Miwok Indian holes (round holes ground into the granite where the natives ground their grains etc.) I cruise around the gigantic rocks, in search of the visual scene that speaks to me. I settle in next to the water, just across from the tiny island off shore. Here's my delectable vision! On my way back to the afternoon cabin, I caught this joyous site of the Lodge Restaurant red, green and yellow umbrellas glowing in the sun. Smiles!!!

Now Jean meandered more west on the lakes edge, where the ducks seem to collect. She so catches the simple elegance of the rugged trees, rocks and dance of the water in the sun.We collect at the cabin for the late afternoon. With Izzy gone and the remainder of us starting to gather our individual things to start packing, the reality of our divergent destinations is becoming all to real. Just before sunset we all take a final sunset stroll down at the pier. As the golden sun is blanketed by the pale blues of evening, we witness the temperatures change. Lovely monochromatic scenes begin to appear and Jean later does a spin-off in her journal from influenced by that scenario.

Dinner is a buffet of "what-kind-of-delicious-leftover-do-you-want" selection and we linger around the table. Chatter around the various new ideas we've discovered and paging thru visuals, hopefully to nest them firmly in our brain for later use, fills our evening hours. The ending of our final evening at the Lake Alpine Resort us upon us and full of melancholy memories we fall asleep . . . contentedly.