Pictures of Windy Bay--where Michael and Leesie begin and end

Yes! I'm finally back with those Windy Bay pictures I promised. The only pictures we have of our lake front property there were taken when we were pretty young. Oh, my. Get ready. You'll have to add your imagination to modernize these shots and put Michael and Leesie in them. I'll point out ME when I'm in the picture. I hope my brothers and sisters forgive me for posting these darling pictures of them when they were much, much younger. We're all parents and grandparents now.

This is my last post devoted to CAYMAN SUMMER, but not the end of the CAYMAN SUMMER blog. I'm going to continue blogging here, sharing my comings and goings and giving you tastes of what I'm working on. I'm working hard revising SLIPPED and will introduce you to that before the week is out. I'm writing lots of all new chapters, so even if you've read the chapters from it on my website, you'll want to tune in and read the new first chapter. My heroine, Meg, needed a personality-lift. My heroines always do. Poor Leesie. She was a wreck until I let her write all her scenes in free verse poems.

Okay, more of Meg's issues tomorrow. Today, here's the site of Michael and Leesie's first date and another important first, my own family's lakefront property on Windy Bay, Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Growing up, the lake was paradise to us. We never built a cabin there, but we had a regular house trailer on the lot. Most of these pictures were taken the very first summer after my mom, who had five kids, married my dad, who had six.

This is my step-brother, Dan, teaching his new sisters how to drive the little fishing boat we buzzed around the lake in. I'm the one on the right with my hands over my mouth. This is a rare shot of me with long hair. 

The little guy with the oar is David--who took so many cool pictures for me and scanned all these pictures in. He took the photo for his wife's, Jennifer Shaw Wolf's, new book, BREAKING BEAUTIFUL. 

Aren't my sisters pretty? I can't believe we're all in two piece swimsuits. None of us would ever let our daughters wear them. This gives you a sense of what the lot was like. We had a strip of grass and lots of wild woods that I loved to hike through.

Here's our famous sandy beach that washed away every winter. My dad really did dump a fresh load of sand on it every spring. The kids in the background are sitting on our cement dock. We always wanted a floating wood one, but the cement helped keep the sand from all disappearing. That dock is the spot where Leesie touches Michael's chest to show him how deep the water is. 

Ah, there you go. That was our view and gives you a taste of why we loved going there.  Water, woods, and blow-up rowboats. The canoe was my oldest step-brothers. I loved paddling in the blow-up boats almost as much as I loved swimming. Every summer I'd swim across the lake at least once. It looks really far in the pictures. Wow, I was amazing. 

This is the actual bank Michael and Leesie climb down to get to the beach.

One more shot of water, pines, and another pretty sister. I loved lying in one of the boats, staring at the sky, breathing pine trees, and listening to the water lap against the boat. Ah, inspiring. When I wrote TAKEN BY STORM, I was so homesick for the special places I loved growing up. This was the most special place of all. That's why Michael and Leesie end up there. And why they go back at the end of CAYMAN SUMMER.