We have been vacationing in Lake County for nearly 50 years beginning when we were children. We store our boat there, and our times there has become a family tradition, with three generations coming together for what has always been a 10 day vacation.

This year we didn't even put the boat in the water, told our daughter and grandkids not to come up and went home after five days. We have friends who have joined us for many years and they went home after just two days.

So let's see, just counting our family and them, it cost the Skylark more than $2,000, not to mention the restaurants, bait shops, golf courses, wineries and other places we frequent that all lost money due to the condition of the lake.

If you multiply that by a couple of 100 more people, you're talking about A LOT of money.

Downtown we saw stores boarded up, and except for some bass boats, we saw virtually no boats on the lake.

We saw very few of the old familiar family type boats like ours, pulling skiers, tubes, wake boards, etc. The ones we did see were constantly stopping to clear their props from entangled weeds. We know people who live there who don't put their boats in the water anymore.

We went to TNT's to eat on the deck and had to go inside to eat, due to the stench of algae and bloated, dead carp on the shoreline.

What has happened to our beautiful lake? I know the drought hasn't helped, but the weed problem has been there for the last seven or eight years.

We used to avoid a lot of it by coming up in early June, but I guess now the weeds start showing in May. Families can't really come up anymore to enjoy the lake after school lets out.

How could the people of Lake County vote down a measure to clean up the lake? Don't they realize that without the lake, Lakeport and Lake County are more like Madera and Fresno County? I'm not sure those are exactly places families and tourists flock to for vacations.

I feel very sad and had to share my frustrations with you.  

Lake County has so much to offer, but let's face it, Clear Lake itself is the most valuable commodity. The old lake deserves better treatment and care.

Marty Redman lives in San Jose, Calif.