As if you really need a reason to come to Lake Geneva this weekend. You can see the primary reason out of your office window or living room french door, right at this very moment. Streets melting, normally normal people walking on the sidewalks in front of you, sweat dripping- no, gushing- from their faces and backs and thighs. It’s hot outside, and the city doesn’t do hot well. Neither do the suburbs for that matter, with suburban backyard pools an oasis of little refreshment, their own once cooling waters turned squalid with the heat of a thousand suns. The heat is unbearable. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the only place the heat is not intimidating and oppressive is at Lake Geneva. Here, we welcome the heat. No temperature, no matter how high, can turn our 5200 acre crystal clear swimming pool into a 5200 acre tepid bathtub. The scenery refreshes the mind as the delightful 77 degree water works in concert to refresh your ailing, overheated, citified body.
If ever there was a weekend to come to the lake, surely this is it. Instead of Fontana dominating the event schedule, as they did on the Fourth of July, Williams Bay and Lake Geneva both have their turn at impressing the visiting masses. Williams Bay, cemented with steely resolve to maintain a weed barrier between you and its liquid shore, throws a bit of a party this weekend, Bay style. The festivities begin tomorrow, with the opening afternoon of the Williams Bay Farmer’s Market. From 1-5 pm tomorrow, and every Friday for the next month Edgeweed, I mean, Edgewater Park will be hosting the farmers market, where you should have pretty good odds of finding some quality local produce and more than likely honey and other such accoutrements. Someone will probably be there selling some wooden bird houses. Not because I know this to be true, but find me a farmers market where someone isn’t selling homemade birdhouses and you’ll have found a town without a soul.
Friday night begins the annual Corn and Brat Fest, also held in Edgewater Park along the shrouded lakefront. If you love a good brat, and all joking aside- who doesn’t- and you similarly love Pearce’s corn soaked in buckets upon buckets of melted butter, this is an even for you. The Corn and Brat Fest runs Friday night through Sunday afternoon, but Saturday is probably the day you’ll want to show up. Just after dark on Saturday the 14th, the bay will launch a dazzling display of fireworks, which should be visible from anywhere along the Williams Bay lakefront, as well as from the south shore between Black Point and the Harvard Club. Williams Bay should have a complete display of shock and awe, which will more than likely include some M80’s and roman candles. Sorry Willliams Bay, I’ll let up once you cut down the weeds and formulate a cohesive plan to tie your entire lakefront together. Until then, it’s a roast. Oh, and Peter Frampton is playing Music By The Lake this Saturday night, so even if you don’t have tickets you can make like Ravinia on water and park your boat close to the George Williams shore for a little waft of classic Frampton.
Lake Geneva showcases its more reserved side this weekend, with the 30th annual Art in the Park art show held on their own manicured lakefront. The event overlaps with the 54th annual Lake Geneva Antique Show, which takes place on Friday and Saturday at the Horticultural Hall just two blocks north of the lakefront on Broad Street. Strangely enough, I love antiques, but I’ve never gone to this antique show. But I also love banana’s and hate when my mom finds a way to put slices of them into strawberry jello.
Another big event takes place this weekend, but it really takes place over the next two weekends. The 2010 ILYA Championships for classes E, MC, AOD, and C are being hosted by the Lake Geneva Yacht Club from 8/11 through 8/21. The event is a big deal for sailors, but since I enjoy watching white hulls cut through clear blue waters, it’s a big deal for me to. The lake will be filled with fluttering sails starting this morning and commencing next Saturday the 21st. To want to miss this event, and the entire weekend at Lake Geneva, you’d have to be the sort of person who prefers Saturday trips to Home Depot and maybe Bed Bath and Beyond, you know, if you have the time. Or, you’d just have to be crazy. See you at the lake.