Our family has a tradition. This tradition borders on being more important than our Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving get-togethers and it is called Lake Chelan.
For as long as I can remember we have made our yearly familial pilgrimage to Pickens Landing in Chelan during late July. It used to be, back in the day, when things were more carefree (aka I wasn't an 'adult' and didn't have 'adult responsibilities') that we would stay for two weeks. This has now dwindled down to one week, and in some cases only a few days should it not be possible to procure enough vacation days to stay for the week's entirety.
We like to say that Picken's is like Groundhog Day (the movie, not the actual event in Punxatawny), that one year seemingly blends into the next and every year we follow the same routine.
When we arrive in Chelan we always stop at the Safeway in town to gather the staple food items, ie red vines, num u nums (or for those of you that can pronounce your "M"'s M&Ms), beer for the daily "beer 30", and whatever else we like to eat on vacation. Once the Safeway run has been handled it's on to Pickens.
Since basically all roads outside of Chelan lead to Pickens, you can choose whatever path you want to get there. My dad, bless his heart, used to always pick the longest route and would drive increasingly slower as we approached the final destination. Usually at this point Rae and I are begging for him to hurry up and get there. We were especially whiny if we happened to over pack, which with 3 females in the family my dad must have been a genius to transport all of us for 1-2 weeks complete with clothes, water toys and art supplies for a two week stay into a honda accord. We had to ride from Safeway to Pickens with half of the groceries on our laps.
Pulling down the driveway into Picken's our eyes would be peeled to spot the latest new thing that John (the owner) had built. Things in the past included, a water slide, 18 hole mini golf course, playground, merry go round, ping pong table etc. Once we arrived and the car was unloaded we were off and running down to the water.
However, for the first ceremonious dip into the water two things had to be present, 1) a lifeguard, basically any adult who could swim, and 2) My God brother. Once my God family arrived we all take a running jump into the water off of the dock that John built us.
When we first started coming to Picken's we swam in the shallow docked area of the beachfront. However as we got older and became stronger, more adventurous swimmers we were yearning for deeper water to swim and jump in. The next year, our wish was granted. John had built a dock further down the beachfront that was deep enough to dive off of. We were in heaven!
We came to think of this dock as our very own, and the other families who stayed at Picken's knew that it was our turf. In fact the 3 main docks were their own little cliques. There was the champagne dock for the boat owners. They would sip champagne all day long and drive their boats, our dock and the jetski dock.
As the years progressed some families either changed their week, or quit coming to Picken's all together. Some of the newbies did not know that our dock was off limits to them, and we often would have to get up early and lay claim to the dock and the grass surrounding it by spreading out Big Yellow (a blanket my God mom got at a garage sale specifically for Chelan) and our lawn chairs in the grass surrounding the dock.
The last couple of years a certain family who obviously is not aware of Picken's hierarchy has taken to putting the picnic table on the dock itself and all of their beach towels. Hello! The dock is for jumping off of and when you do this, it leaves no room to jump into the water! Quite frustrating to those of us who have been coming to Picken's for 24 years to have to step cautiously around their towels in order to cool off in the water.
This year however may be a different story for the dock hoggers. For the first time in five years all of us (with the exception of my sister, her hubby and my niece) will be there during the week. Me, my mom and dad, my entire God family and the entire Crosby family will be able to go this year. We also have the addition of Cody who will be going to Lake Chelan for his first time! And, as we well know - when you have a baby they come with lots of extra gear! Sunshade, baby pool and the like. I have a feeling we will have enough people and stuff to finally take our dock back! These people aren't gonna know what hit em!
In two days I will be boarding a plane (solo) to meet up with some friends in San Francisco. I am, as Ron Burgundy would say, "In a glass case of emotions". On one hand I am super excited to get to go somewhere and explore another city and be all touristy, but on the other hand I know I will miss my boys. 
