We spent last week at my parents' cottage near East Tawas, Michigan. Their cottage is a warm and cozy home along Bass Lake, which is nestled among a cluster of lakes about a 15 minute drive inland from Tawas and Lake Huron. The drive between Chicago and Bass Lake, after stopping to allow the baby to stretch her legs, took a lengthy 10 hours (and on the way back that kid would not nap and then threw a temper tantrum in the back seat of our car that literally lasted about 3 hours!). We had a great time being away from the city and our busy lives, and every hour on the road took us further and further from it all. We soaked up our time with the baby and consciously noted the hours when we normally would have been driving to work in busy, noisy Chicago. Ellie learned what a blast it is to shove fistfuls of sand into her mouth the second her parents look away and we learned that, even during vacations, keeping a baby on a schedule is a very worthwhile endeavor. My dad lit a bonfire during two of our evenings, and we roasted marshmallows for smores and stared at a gazillion stars that are so easily forgotten beyond city lights.
Despite the fact that week-long getaways always pass by quickly, we still managed to get in a lot of visiting with my parents, sisters, mother-in-law, and my wonderful friend Liz, her husband, and her two babies. Jim and I made it out to a movie at the fantastic East Tawas movie theater, which really deserves its own blog post because of its awesomeness.
Here are some pictures from the week. They are mostly of the baby, because, well, that's the way it goes now!
The pier on the "Big Lake" in East Tawas
And finally, I love the set of photos that this one came from. To have grown up with such a kindred spirit of a friend and then suddenly to see your daughters playing side-by-side is really something else :-)
As you can see, we had a great week. It is nice to be home, but it was wonderful to have our lovely getaway. I forget sometimes how lucky we are to have that cottage and Bass Lake in our lives!
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