Memories of Leisure Lake

''We didn't realize that we were making memories;
we just knew that we were having fun!''

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Pile the kids in the car. Make sure that each of them has their Game Boy devices and enough batteries to last twelve hours. Time our departure so that we will miss the worst part of a Chicago ''rush hour''... And be prepared to respond to ''are we there yet?'' a million and one times. Believe it or not, we enjoyed the journey to our ''happy place''!

For a week each summer, we visited Doug's parents and made memories at their small lake home on Leisure Lake.

This past June we once again made this journey. Yet, from the start, we know this would be different than past trips. Our normal twelve hour trip took a week as we stopped in Elkhart, Indiana to visit Doug's sister and family. She is preparing for a graduation party and a house move later this summer, so I was in my glory helping her downsize, organize, and spruce up her kitchen.

Doug is pretending to smile because he really
doesn't think it is much ''fun'' to prep a house to sell!

Penny, their cute shih poo, provided
us with some much needed supervision! 

We caught our first glimpse of Lake Michigan when we stopped in St Joseph, Michigan for lunch with my sister. She happened to be there visiting her mother-in-law, and it was great to reconnect with her as well as explore this cute lakeside town. We enjoyed our first ''eat-in'' restaurant meal since the beginning of the pandemic three months ago. Beautiful views of Lake Michigan from the rooftop patio and the wonderful gift of catching up with family helped us to ignore the stiff cool breeze that was coming off the lake.

Heading north and east towards the center of Michigan, we arrived at our favorite ''are we there yet?'' destination ... Leisure Lake in Durand, Michigan. But as we came into the trailer, we knew that this trip would be different than those of the past.

Instead of Grandpa sitting on the porch,

... and Grandma ready to listen to her
grandchildren's stories,

... the cabin and the deck
were quiet.

Because of the difficulty of traveling during these Covid times, Mom and Dad had decided to end their summer migration from Florida up to Leisure Lake. Unfortunately for Doug, this is not going to be the usual ''sit on the porch'' Leisure Lake vacation. Our mission was to get the trailer cleaned out and ready to sell.

This mission, once again, fit right in with our set of job skills ... but still, it is never easy to clean out the years of ''fun''.

Piles of old clothes, beach toys, and picnic gear were sorted through and given away. We placed the items on the lakeside deck and put up a giant ''FREE'' sign ... and they quickly disappeared. Cleaning out Dad's tool shed proved to be a bit more of a challenge ... but ''Life was Good'' when it was done!

Being able to live in our van during this week made this task much more do-able. I had the trailer's larger kitchen to cook meals, but at night, we were able to settle back into the comfort of our own cozy ''home''. Over the next few days we emptied the trailer, but thankfully, we can't empty the memories of family time at Leisure Lake. 

Memories of serene lake views,

fierce horseshoe competitions,

contemplative family walks,

happy halloween parades,

cool beach snacks,

peaceful pontoon rides,

fabulous fourth of July celebrations,

active bike rides,

and passive games of
Candy Crush.

Memories of family time ...

... that we will cherish for a life time.

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