A Place I Miss…But Not For Long.
A place I miss? Well, that would be the beautiful Lake Michigan, but I never miss it for long because each summer I get one more opportunity to enjoy everything it has to offer. For the last 15 years of my life, my extended family and I have traveled the eight hours it takes to get to Northport Michigan, a miniscule town without a Wal-mart, Taco Bell, or CVS for miles. Yet, it does have a Tom’s Market, Barb’s Bakery, and Dog Years bookstore. I love that the small town businesses are still functioning and that the mega-stores are non-existent.
We’ve been staying in the same beach house for about 7 years…and it’s just right for the ten of us. It has everything we need and it’s about 20 foot steps from the water’s edge. We also bring two kayaks that we use religiously, and at sunset each evening two fortunate people call dibs for the kayaks. Every single meal is eaten outside on the porch, and every meal is cooked by the entire family. The television in the beach house is put away in a closet, and for a really long time us kids actually thought that the house was without a TV.—(yeah right, what house is without a TV?)
We usually end up lounging around by the water reading books…then trading those books and reading more books. Sometimes when the wind blows and the temperature goes down…we go into the sand dunes and find a nice, large, round dune that will protect us from the wind and allow warmth from the sun to seep in. However, in the last few years mountain lions have been running rampant in our area, and the adults forbade us from going into the dunes alone. So, dune hikes and dune jumping are out of the question.
A few years back after dinner we had planned on taking a beach walk as a family. My cousin Johnny who is a year older than me decided that he would start off early for the walk. So, while the rest of us washed the dishes from the meal, he took off down the beach at least 25 minutes before the rest of us. When we finally began our walk we couldn’t find him anywhere! Well, long story short…we looked for him for about 4 hours and assumed that he had been abducted by one of those “random beach walkers”. We did find him…eventually, and when we did we were overwhelmed with joy and relief, but he (a teenage boy) was so pissed that we had made such a fuss over him.
Every year something new and different happens, but one thing never changes—family. I feel that summer time is really important for an individual. It’s a time of change and growth, and finding yourself. So many opportunities can happen, and there are always chances for transformation. And, I’m glad that when I’m doing all this “changing and growing” I have my family there with me to support. So, while I miss Lake Michigan now, I know that in a few short months I’ll be enjoying my favorite place with my favorite people.
