Make Summer 2009 Reservations NOW
Greetings from our Off Season Office. As the holidays approach and you're anticipating family gatherings, don't forget to plan ahead for your summer family vacation. I can't tell you how many calls I've received each spring during the months of March and April from potential resort guests looking for a summer rental, who believe they're calling EARLY. They're always surprised when they can't find an opening.
Sandy Point and well-established, well-maintained resorts like Sandy Point, start booking a year in advance. If you click to our availability page you'll see how many cabins during June, July and August have already been reserved. The good news is that we still have several openings and NOW is the time to call our toll free number and talk to us about next year's summer vacation.
A week at the lake is STILL an affordable option for your family and believe me, you'll help create memories for your kids (and your grandkids) that they'll carry with them throughout their lives. Featured below are Jerry and Marge Hoffman of Menasha, WI, who've been Sandy Point guests with their grown children and grandchildren for the past fifteen years.
Going to Sconsin'
The St. Alban's Youth Group of Tucson, Arizona is planning a return trip to Sandy Point in the Spring of 2009. A couple of our talented youth group rappers, Joe Beck and Casey Borden, both alumni of the first trip, put together this video. Worth the watch!
You Can Put Lipstick on a Pig
But it's still a Webkinz.
The Dingo Got My Baby!
I'm recovering from a tremendous scare. We had just returned home from a volleyball game and dropping the girls at piano. I went into my office to check email and heard our little chihuahua, Cinco, bark. In another second there were high-pitched, panicked SCREAMS. I popped out of my chair and wrestled with the door leading from my office to our yard. (The deadbolt was released but the handle lock was slippery and I was acting too quickly.) I got the door open, went outside and saw a coyote IN OUR BACKYARD with Cinco in its mouth!Talk about animal instincts. Mine kicked in immediately. I screamed and ran toward them waving my arms and yelling “No! No! Get out of here! Get out!” The coyote tried to scale the wall with Cinco in its mouth, and as I continued screaming and got closer to them, this #@$*&! dropped her, bolted across the playground and climbed the wall, returning to the undeveloped desert surrounding our home. Cinco scurried to the opposite end of the yard.
She was not injured as far as we could tell. No cuts. No blood. But OMG the SMELL!!!! The saliva all over her was one of the foulest things I've ever smelt.
She had an immediate bath. I had a glass of wine. Actually, I think she recovered more quickly than I.
Shortly after it happened I contacted my girlfriend, Jeanine, a former college roommate and a ‘would-be’ wildlife biologist in another life, and related the above. She said coyotes not only carry away small dogs or critters, they will lead away larger dogs by using just one from the pack . . . and then the pack descends. Not a pretty Circle of Life. She also said, “wildlife will succeed despite our moving into their places.”
Yes, I’m quite sure the coyotes roamed this desert territory long before we came with our little domesticated dogs.
Jeanine lives in rural Colorado. She said a couple of years ago in Elbert, a guy went outside and saw a mountain lion near his dog pen, which contained a lab and a puppy. He went in to get his gun and when he came back the puppy was gone. She related another story that happened recently near Denver. A couple was sleeping and their Lab was in their bedroom. The dog was taken by a lion and killed. She said the Division of Wildlife confirmed it was a lion that killed the dog and, in fact, used the dog's body to lure the lion back so it could be killed. (It was).
“You may need to install a large wire kennel or other dog walk with a top so Cinco can safely be in the yard without you,” said Jeanine. “Poor girl,” she added, “she probably needed a glass of wine too.”
It Just Ain't The Same
And so another summer season at Sandy Point comes to an end. Mike was on property to host the Northwoods Open over Labor Day weekend and stayed through the next weekend to help tend to a full house. Now he's back in Tucson with the kids and me, leaving behind the cabin-cleaning and pro shop-tending, and shifting focus to the carpool-driving and sports-spectating. Our girls, by the way, will bring home interim grading tomorrow. The first quarter of sixth and eighth grades is FLYING by.
We all leave behind Sandy Point with memories of the birch and pine and the beautiful reflections of Squaw Lake. What we have instead here in Tucson is a Caribbean blue swimming pool along with palm trees and cacti. It has its own beauty, of course, but it just ain't the same.
The good news is my feet look better here in the Valley of the Dolls than they do in the wilds of the Northwoods.