Swimming in September
September 10th, 2017
The lake looked so inviting when dad and I rolled up to Schneider Park, in Leelanau County, Michigan. The sun was shining brightly, and the water was glistening so brilliantly. Nobody was around at the park either (except for the jet skier who came later), so we had what looked like the perfect day and the perfect conditions for filming and swimming.
Oh... the deception.
Mermaid Swimming at Schneider Park (Video Below)
The water certainly did look nice, but it was FREEZING cold! You may not be able to tell by the clips shown in the video above, but I was shivering and shaking about 10 minutes after hopping in. The area we were at was gorgeous, however, so we decided to continue filming the mermaiding video regardless. This was possibly my last swim of the year too, so I knew I had to "just keep swimming" as long as I could. Oh... it was so chilly, yet so pleasurable.
I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday's swim, although I'll admit that I was a bit distressed before we arrived at our filming location.
Originally, we were going to shoot the mermaid video out in the middle of Lake Michigan, off of our boat. However, the conditions were not at all ideal for swimming in the big lake, so we had to scour the peninsula for a good place to swim. It took us a while to find a location that wasn't too wavy, wasn't too murky, wasn't too difficult to get to and that didn't have too many people around. Eventually, we came across Schneider Park, which luckily met all of our needs.
Sadly, the frustrations did not end after locating our perfect beach... I had a raging headache that made me feel pretty dizzy as I was getting ready to swim, and, while getting into my silicone mermaid tail, I discovered that it has a small (but deep) tear in it. Poor Sparda. 😢
My hand also ended up getting cut up by a sharp rock in the water, and bled for a looooong time.
Reading this, you probably think that the day was a mess... and you'd be right, it was! Nevertheless, being in the water is one of the most blissful and freeing feeling that I know. Mermaiding is my medicine. A lot went wrong that day, no doubt! That's no reason to not appreciate what went right though. A lot of things did end up working out, despite it all.
We couldn't swim in Lake Michigan because it was too wavy, and so we found Schneider Park. I had a terrible headache, but it melted with the icy chill of the water. There was a tear in my tail, but there was nothing I could do at the moment, so I let the sadness fade into gratitude... (after all, the mark was only there because my tail has been on so many adventures!) And as for the wound? It burned, but it distracted me from the bitter cold that was gnawing at me.
The lake has a certain magic about it...
It really is amazing how doing what you truly love can make you feel so invincible and so free. I love being in the water. I love being a mermaid. I love sharing my adventures with you. Even when things don't go as planned, the lake leaves me no choice but to go with the flow... and when I do, time stops and nothing exists but the moment at hand. It's like slipping into another world.
Ugh. Why do these blogs always seem to get so weird so fast? 😅
Speaking of weird... did you happen to notice something funny about my ears? YES! They are the latex "Sea Elf Ears" that I talked about in the previous video (you can watch it here). I got them a while ago from Aradani Costumes and wanted to see how they held up in the water. Obviously, from watching this week's video, you can see that they are perfectly suitable for use in freshwater!
Oh. My. Goodness. I think they took my mermaid costume to the next level. I kind of want to wear them more often, but what do you think? Yay, or nay on the elf ears?
"Sea Elf" Ears by Aradani Costumes
I'll admit that I was fearful my ears would fall off in the water. I thought that since they were not perfectly sealed against my real ears that they would act like mini "parachutes" and would eventually be pulled off by the drag of the water. I can't express how happy I was to find out that that wasn't the case. They stayed on so well! ♥ I might have to start wearing these more often... even without the silicone mermaid tail!
Don't they look neat?
Sunday, September 10th of 2017 was a weird, chaotic day with lots of twists and turns. While I could have done without some of the madness, I have nothing but fond memories of our time at Schneider Park. I'm not sure if I will be going into the water again until next summer, since the weather has been up and down so much. Regardless, there will be plenty more Mermaid Swimming Videos released well into Spring, since I've been stockpiling them all season! Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading ♥
XOXO- Mermaid Phantom
(P.S.) I feel like this post was super scatter-brained. I hope it made at least a little sense to you! I've been writing it in bits and pieces in between sleep and work. 🙃