American Lake @ JBLM - 6/29

It was a nice late June Saturday morning...what else was I to do but go outdoors and enjoy the clear sky! Feeling adventurous,  and thanks to my handy dandy JBLM map, I found a small little park that overlooks American Lake. American Lake is huge and there is a portion of it that is accessible to those who don't have access to base. But I have a question: can those who enter the lake from the civilian part access the lake that touches base? Hmmm.....
I have to flash my civilian ID and guest pass every time I enter a gate to get on base, even if I enter multiple times a day. Is there a "fence" in the middle of the lake? I will never know.

View of the lake:

My fellow wildlife friends, enjoying their human company:

See how close they are!?!?

After exploring the grounds, I picked a spot where I would relax for the next few hours. 

Stand up view.

View to my left (and to the left of the structure in the above picture)

View to my right, as the swarm of animals begin approaching me.

 Back to the lake. It was beautiful. I was in awe. Mind you, my acquaintance with American Lake occurred early on during my Washington stay, when I couldn't believe the amount of nature around me. I had beauty around me and I had extremely calm animals/birds around me!! I walked toward them ans instead of flying away out of fear, they come towards ME!  It was I who had to run once they started "invading" the territory I had set up for myself.  One bird was an arm's reach away from me, and 30 more were heading my way. They were harmless but I got up and moved once they started opening their mouths and sticking their tongues out at me, while making loud noises. It looked like they were getting ready to spit on me and that wasn't part of my agenda.

An arm's reach from me.

There were kayaks and speedboats, families and party animals, fishers and people watchers, like me. This was the true relaxed state one could be in.

On my way out,  I saw a sign "Beware of swimmer's itch."  I laughed. Sometimes you can get itchy from swimming, or the water temp. Been there done that. Or you can get real swimmer's itch...from a parasite in the water. After that, I just wanted to go shower, and I hadn't even touched the water.