Canon PowerShot A70 E18 Error

While at Anna Maria Island this summer, my Canon Powershot A70's screen went blank and showed a little white E18 code in the lower left corner. The lens was stuck partially open. Shutting the camera on and off in review (vs shoot) mode let it recover enough to take more shots.

I've sinced used it to take other pictures including white water rafting with Kelly. Kelly then used it to take a lot of pictures on the Life Teen retreat this weekend. She saw the error, too. She asked me if I had tried Google to find out what is wrong. Just did that. The first link was to a sponsored website called www.e18error.com. Amazing. It includes information about how to try to fix it the problem yourself. Basically I'm guessing a piece of Anna Maria sand has gotten in my camera, and it will be a matter of blowing it out.