A week on the beach
Of late, we come to Michigan about this time of the summer. We rent a cottage by Lake Michigan near my hometown of Holland and have a family reunion.
Our cottage this year overlooks Lake Macatawa, but is within easy walking distance of the Big Lake, as it is known. I can sit on the expansive front porch of this old Victorian cottage and watch boats of all descriptions sailing out of Lake Macatawa into Lake Michigan. Everything from Jet Skis to motor boats, to, improbably, a Chinese junk go cruising by.
The reunion was a couple of days ago at my uncle's cottage, which does front on Lake Michigan. The advantage here was a nice backyard and only about 25 steps down to the beach. We have rented cottages in the past with 50 or more steps. It isn't so much going down them as coming back up at the end of a blissful day.
Lake Michigan was very warm this year, probably about 72 degrees. Even my wife, notoriously finicky about coldish water, found it enjoyable. From our own cottage, we walk about a quarter mile along a relatively flat sidewalk that leads to our Lake Michigan beach. At one point the sidewalk splits into a high road and low road. The high road leads past magnificent Victorian cottages that cling to the side of the dune.
If I wanted to get political, I would call the high road the Obama path, and the low road the McCain path. But politics seem far away this week.