Real Whipped Cream and Deep Hot Chocolate

Often when I lay in bed unable to fall asleep I will try to recall a memory or visualize a place from my past and try to recreate it. Often it works and I fall asleep in the midst of memories.

Most frequently I visit a beautiful field we used to live by.

Tonight as I rock my girl back to sleep for the 4th time...a memory pops up.  One I haven't thought of in forever.

The island restaurant on Big Lake.

I remember visiting it twice.  Once in the summer and once in the winter.  I remember the smells and the way the place felt.  Like being at summer camp and on vacation at the same time.

I remember Dad took me by ferry.  A green and white cushioned interior boat.  We went out there and I think Dad did some work for them.  I remember drinking a glass of orange juice and sitting at a counter looking out on the lake.

But the memory that sticks the clearest was the winter visit.   You have to wait for the ice to set, deep and strong and cold.  Then they make ice roads.  And thanks to our trusty studded tires, away you go across the frozen lake to the island restaurant.  The dinning area is lined with windows along the exterior wall.  Every one has a view.  But I remember the place being pretty empty both visits.  Maybe cause dad was doing work for them on off hours.  All I know is it felt like we had the place to ourselves.  This time we sat at a table, looking out over the frozen landscape.  I couldn't have been older than 7 I'd say and I could already appreciate the beauty.  Dad let me get a hot chocolate.  It had a pile of whipped cream.  None of that fake stuff. This was the thick, rich, creamy stuff.  OOO man! I can taste it even now.

I felt like I was on top of the world.  I felt special because I got my own hot chocolate, in a restaurant all to ourselves, on an island, in a winter magic landscape.

Thanks Dad.  What a cool memory :)

I want to recapture that feeling.  Find the ability to sit down and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate to it's fullest.

Shouldn't that be our lives?  Shouldn't we be striving to find ways to really FEEL life?  To really TASTE it?  To leave the whirlwind lives we lead, to find a place to be QUIET.  To stop and SHARE the simple things with each other and find JOY in just being TOGETHER?