Another year at Lake Sunapee!

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It’s 5:45 AM. You’re probably wondering what the hell I’m doing up - more on that later. It’s Monday morning. We arrived what feels like yesterday but was actually Saturday afternoon. This is probably because all of Sunday felt like a blur to me - again, more on that later.

Upon arriving, I got up out of the car and did what anyone would do after a 5 hour car ride - I stretched and yawned for a good minute or two before taking a look around. I’m 20 years old now and this is the 20th summer that I’ve been here but it seems like I cherish it more every year rather than grow weary of it. Being from Long Island and very close to New York City, New England is very refreshing to me. Things are slower paced here and the people seem a little less stressed out by life which leads to happier personas.

It’s hard to explain the beauty of this place with mere words and that’s why I’ll have to let some of my pictures do the talking. Where we stay is called Davis Cabins. When my dad was a child, his dad, my grandpa, drove into New England looking for a place to stay for a few days and got lost (this is what I’ve been told at least). In their confusion they found Davis Cabins. The best way to explain Davis Cabins is that it’s one step above camping. We all stay in cabins (obviously) and have basic amenities such as showers, and sinks, and beds, and so on. But, internet is scarce as well as most technology. There’s lots of trees everywhere and the place has a very nature-esque feel to it. The main attraction is the lake which is literally about 20 feet from my cabin. It’s well-known for being one of the cleanest lakes in the area. If this were a few hundred years ago and I were a Native American, this would be the lake that I would want to bathe in. But really, this lake is awesome. It’s so peaceful and relaxing. All these components put together and you have a place that has a special kind of magical allure to it. This is evident in the people who keep coming back here. The same families come back every year so we all know each other very well and most of my friends here have seen each other grow up through the years.

Anyway, now that you have a pretty thorough idea of what Davis Cabins is like, I will go on with the events over the past couple of days. After helping my dad unpack, me and my brother quickly got changed and went into the lake to find that it was pretty warm. This was good news because there’s some years where the lake will be freezing which kind of takes some of the fun out of week. Dinner time came and went and I decided to grab a few casual beers. There’s no real fun in getting trashed here; I like to think that’s more for clubs and the like. Most nights in New Hampshire I actually like to soak it all in completely sober. After just one game of beer pong I remember how ravenous the bugs are here. It’s like an insect-alarm goes off exactly at 6:00 PM and they all come charging. In just about 10 minutes I already have about 15 super-itchy bug bites. How can you fix this? Let’s get real, citronella candles don’t work - at least for me. It’s like my blood is too sweet and they decide to fight the citronella to get a taste. The next option? I definitely need heavier artillery but I haven’t used bug spray in years - literally. I think it’s smelly and gross and in the past I’ve preferred just to wear lots of clothes as protection. But, it’s hot this summer and I don’t have the option to wear a bunch of clothes. What to do? I break down. I’m getting bit too much and can’t bare it so I ran to my dad’s cabin and doused myself with the junk. After I got a nice coat on myself, I returned to the great outdoors where everyone is playing beer pong to find that this stuff really works!!! For years I’ve been avoiding it at all costs and it’s not until now that I realize how effective it is. Well worth the greasy feel and smelly scent if you ask me. I’m a changed man for sure. I could have swore that there was even a few times when a mosquito came flying into my arm at top speed only to come in contact with my greasy repellant, and ricochet off in a scene that looked somewhat like that of when Luke Skywalker shot at the Deathstar while its shields were still up.

Later in the night, when it got dark, a bunch of us decided to smoke. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life and only smoke weed about once a week (which is far less than your average college student) but this is the ideal place to do it. Right after, I headed out to the dock on the lake to peer at the stars. You see, I love stars and looking at them is one of my favorite things in life. Looking at them while high is just even more awesome, haha. I won’t get into my thoughts on astronomy but stars and space hold so much mystery and wonder to me that I can literally look at them for hours. In New York we have tons of light pollution and it makes me laugh when some of my ignorant friends back home say things like “wow, there’s a lot of stars out tonight”. Meanwhile, I will be able to count maybe 6 - tops. In New Hampshire (and I’m sure in a lot of places with less light pollution) I can’t even keep count of how many stars I can see. You can clearly see the entire outline of the milky way with no problem and if you keep your eyes fixed on the sky you can see about one shooting star every 5 or 10 minutes. It’s a pretty magical sight.

Later that night, after everyone went to bed, I kept waking up with the worst stomach-ache ever. Something I ate obviously did not agree with me very much and I ended up throwing up everything I ate - and I mean everything. I felt slightly better after that and fell back asleep but the damage was already done. I didn’t get much sleep that night because of the stomach-ache and I didn’t get much sleep the night before either. The accumulation of these things led me to have a fever all of Sunday. I felt pretty miserable and slept most of day. At one point I tried going into the lake and have its magic revive me but it was no use. After dinner I had two aspirin and fell asleep. My fever went down and about 5 hours later my trusty dad came into my cabin with two more aspirin so that I wouldn’t have any problems through the night. All that sleeping led me to be wide awake at 3:30 AM. I needed the sleep though and when I woke up I found that I felt pretty rejuvenated. Let’s hope that whatever I had was just a 24-hour virus that my immune system beat the crap out of. I rested in bed, unable to fall back asleep, for another hour or so when I decided I might as well get up and take some pictures of the sunrise. After all, this is my 20th summer here and I have yet to see a Lake Sunapee sunrise. I headed down to the dock and the sight did not disappoint. I got some awesome shots with my new SLR camera. I must have had perfect timing because right after I felt like my shots were getting too repetitive, the clouds came sweeping in and ruined what was left of the beautiful sunrise. I guess there was some good in getting sick and waking up at 3:30 AM.

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Photos

Lake Sunapee
In the morning, before everyone wakes up, the lake looks like glass and reflects the sky like a mirror

Me & Kensley
Me and my brother (really, he's adopted and we grew up together since I was 1) posing for the camera

The Gang
This is pretty much what everyone does for the week - and it's great..a week of relaxation goes a long way.

Me
My friend Kim told me to model you have to be able to pull off poses with different props so she gave me her sunglasses; I think I pulled it off pretty well.

John
Our friend and boat driver!

Lake Sunapee Sunrise
A shot of the sunrise