My Happy Place

I had a more unique childhood than other kids. Growing up, I was always doing something in the summer. We rarely spent any time at home, we were always on the go. My family spent a lot of time in Northern Michigan. We did a lot of camping and boating, and I grew to love the cities that we explored.

About ten years ago, my parents bought a little house in Northern Michigan and sold our camper. We had camped for years, ever since I was little really. I was devastated because I loved camping. Riding bikes to get to the beach, meeting new kids from all over the state or country, campfires every night, it truly was the best time. The great thing about camping is that there are so many state parks in Michigan and they’re all different. One may have a pool while another has a convince store and a donut shop. That’s what I liked most about camping, the fact that I could create new memories at each different place we went to. I remember being so mad at my parents for wanting to change everything.

Pulling up to the house for the first time, I remember thinking that there was nothing special about this place. It was nowhere near as much fun as a campground. There was no pool or playground and there were no kids around either. When it was time to get out and look at the inside of the house, we started to walk up the steps. My brother was in front of me and as soon as he took a step onto the old wooden planks, he started screaming. There was a bee’s nest under the porch, and he had angered them. After he was stung repeatedly, we both decided that we wanted to just stay in the car until my parents were done looking at the house. I remember them coming back out to the car and being so excited. They had called the next day and made an offer on the house. A month later, we moved all of our things in, sold our camper, and started our new norm in the summer home. 

 Fast forward to today, I couldn’t imagine spending my summers anywhere else. When I get out of the car, I am immediately swarmed by mosquitos. It’s gross and annoying in the moment but looking back, it is something that I miss. If you’re lucky and have good hearing, you can hear the foghorn that is out in the middle of the lake. It sounds like someone is blowing air into a plastic bottle repeatedly. When I walk into the house, I am immediately overcome by the smell of cedar wood. It’s very hard to describe the smell; it smells like wood, just sweeter. As I walk to the back door and go out onto the deck, I am surrounded by woods and forest. There are no cars or other houses in sight. The best is when the sun beats down and I am sitting in a chair; it is pure bliss. There is nothing but peace and quiet. It is the closest thing I have ever felt to perfection. 

Lake Huron is a short five-minute walk from the house. Once you’re down at the beach, you never want to leave. The views are amazing because you can see everything. When you look across the lake, you can see the upper peninsula, two different islands, Canada, countless lighthouses, and the Mackinac bridge. The best is when there is a big ore freighter coming across the lake. They are the biggest boats you’ve ever seen; sometimes they can be over one hundred feet long. Also, my family always walks down to the beach when there is a thunderstorm coming through. It is amazing to see the storm come across the lake. The sky gets pitch black and you can see the lightning stretch across the sky. It’s amazing when there are multiple storms going on at the same time. You never know where to look to see the lightning strike. 

One of my favorite things to do at my second home is to have family game night. My mom brings out decks of cards and lots of board games and we play until the wee hours of the morning. There is music or a baseball game playing on the radio in the background, but it is quiet enough where we can still have conversation. When it gets dark, we put Christmas lights on, and we light the tiki torches. It is the absolute best when my mom, dad, brother, and me join in on the fun. Family game night also consists of playing badminton. One important thing to know about my family is that we are all pretty competitive and we don’t like to lose. That being said, by the time were done playing, someone is mad because they lost. Somehow the game was unfair, and they lost because the other person was cheating. The best part about the game though, is that we can all play together. There is always a lot of laughter to be had, even if it becomes more competitive than what we bargained for. Then we go around the house to the back yard and play bean bag toss and polish horseshoes (ladder ball). Again, someone always walks away angry because they felt that they shouldn’t have lost. “The wind took my bean bag!” or “I’m on the slanted side of the playing field so it’s harder for me to make in it the hole” or “the sun was in my eyes” are all statements that will be made during family game night. 

I think my absolute favorite memory of the cottage, though, is a tradition that my family made our first year at the house. My dad made an announcement that was something along the lines of, “whoever the first person in the lake will get to have their name on a wooden plaque.” As a family, we established some guidelines and rules. The first was that everyone had to be at the house in order for the swim to count. This meant that if someone wasn’t up north that weekend, and one person jumped in the lake, that would not count as being the first person in the lake because not everyone would have the same chance to go. The second rule stated that the person jumping in the lake needed to have a witness, someone to testify on their behalf that they did jump in the lake. Keep in mind, the first time we all went up as a family, it was April and the lake could still have ice (it happened one year). This tradition has gone on for ten years now and the rules have had to change a little. One year, my brother used his phone as a witness and recorded himself jumping the freezing cold water. The rule became more specific that you had to be accompanied by a real person. Another year, my mom was driving up separately and my dad called her to see where she was. She said she was in the county that the house was in and he took that as “we’re all up here” and he jumped in the lake. The rule had to become more specific in that everyone had to be at the cottage, no exceptions. I have been the first into the lake one time, and I am content with having my name on the plaque once. My mom claims that she will never be on the plaque. 

 One of my other favorite memories of my time in northern Michigan is on the fourth of July. Normally we would go somewhere to watch fireworks, but we decided not to fight with the crowds this time. Instead, we walked down to the lake and watched fireworks from the beach. It was a clear night, not a cloud in the sky. We were hoping to be able to see the fireworks from downtown Cheboygan and it turned out better than we had expected it to. While we could see Cheboygan’s show, we could also see Mackinaw City’s show, Mackinac Island’s show, Bois Blanc island’s show, lots of show in the upper peninsula and in Canada. As I looked across the lake, flashes of red, blue, and yellow/white light were erupting from land. It was so amazing to see; words can’t even describe it.