Picnic at Burger's Lake
By Andy on 28 August 2005 the wee hoursCategory: Family
We've lived in Fort Worth for five years, and we just heard about it this summer and experienced it for the first time over the weekend. I'm talking about Burger's Lake, a spring-fed, chlorinated lake with a sandy beach, a 20 foot slide, a 25 foot trapeze, diving boards, picnic tables, and big shade trees.
On our arrival, we found a perfect little picnic spot under a big tree. I dumped an entire bag of charcoal on the grill. "Why not?" I thought. We bought the smallest bag we could find, and we have a gas grill at home, so there was no need to use the bag sparingly.
Fast forward lunchtime: I took Caleb over to the men's room. On our way back, I noticed flames leaping up from the little grill. Tiffany had doused the charcoal with lighter fluid. I'm sure people were staring, shielding their children from the searing heat and placing calls to the fire department. Tiffany had one of those big look-at-my-glorious-fire smiles wrapped across her pretty little head.
After waiting until the fire somewhat subsided, I quickly tossed the hot dogs onto the grill and ran. I was so relieved to know that I had survived, until I thought about how I needed to flip over the weenies so they'd cook evenly. All we had was a little plastic fork, so we found a stick and tied the fork onto the end of it with a twisty tie. Tiffany and I marveled at our own genius bit of handiwork. I only got a couple of the dogs turned before I realized that the prongs on the fork were melting.
Thankfully the flames had shrunk enough that I could stab them with a butter knife. All in all, the picnic at Burger's Lake was a roaring success.
Another little tidbit of Tiffany's superior organization skills is that she put the ketchup, mayo, and mustard in little baggies. When it came time to use them we gently sliced the corner with a knife and squeezed it out onto our buns. No mess. No fuss. No kidding.
I learned that Burger's Lake is a great place for a hot summer day. I learned that Caleb loved the diving boards, and blackened hot dogs. I learned that if I called Tiffany a chicken enough she would go down the big slide and off the high dive. And I also learned that fire stories are quite funnier when they're embellished a bit...only a little bit though.
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