Skinny Dipping

It's hot.

I am hot.

I step outside and am engulfed in air heavy and thick with water.

I want to go skinny dipping!

I recently read a book in which the characters would go out, first thing in the morning, nude, and just "jump" into the lake. It sounded like fun.

I have never tried that and now, well, I think I want to do it.

While in Sweden I came as close as I have ever come to skinny dipping.

I was visiting friends for New Years somewhere in northern Sweden. It was cold, but I don't know how cold. I do know that there was snow on the ground and that the lake was iced over requiring the men to cut a hole in its surface to provide a place for jumping in after the heat of the sauna.

That's right, the sauna.

The closest I have ever come to skinny dipping was a traditional, wooden shed, everyone in the buff, Swedish sauna.

I would like to say that I "took a sauna" (which is how they say it) with some very attractive Swedish guys - bare chested, muscles ripped, droplets of water glistening..."sigh"

But I can't. I "took a sauna" with a few strangers and a few friends.

We set forth in the dark of night (it was probably eight or something but given it was winter, the sun set quite early) and drove into a secluded area. Somewhere in the woods, beside a frozen lake, we stopped and piled out of the car. A path, lined with candles, led to a little two room hut on the lake shore. The first room of the hut was dimly lit. We quickly disrobed and entered the second of the two rooms.

A few older men were already in the sauna. We each found places on the benches and, well, attempted to relax. I don't remember how long we sat there. There wasn't a lot of conversation. Every once in a while one of the others would get up and follow the candles to the hole in the surface of the frozen lake.

Splash!

And that, my friends, is the closest I have been to skinny dipping - beyond my visit to the nude beach - which we didn't realize was a nude beach until we were there. But, that is a different story.