Summertime

     When Joel and I were newlyweds, we spent many glorious weekends in South Haven, Michigan.  We enjoyed lazy afternoons at the beach, picked more blueberries than we could eat, and planned our meals around Sherman's ice cream.  Then we had our son Robby, and we imagined the memories we could make if we had a  cottage of our very own. The property seemed cheap, we were adventurous, and it was my husband's dream.  Sold.
     We loved our little house on Saddle Lake, just east of South Haven.  It was a very easy two and a half hour drive from our home on the north side of Chicago.  We drove up every Friday afternoon from May through October while our sweet son napped blissfully in his car seat.
     The first couple summers were idyllic.  We bought an old power boat from the previous homeowners and puttered around our lake.  We invited our friends and family to join us most weekends.  We read good books in the hammock, ate raspberries from our back yard and spent long afternoons making sandcastles with our happy boy.
     We were not the perfect summer cottage owners.  My husband was shockingly un-handy (sorry, Honey.) We had to pay for every small repair on our charming (old) house, which seemed to occur almost weekly.   Our baby's "equipment" needs were constantly changing and we were always shlepping things from house to house.  A favorite snugly was often left behind.  There were tears (usually mine.)
     Then we moved from the city to Wilmette, a northern suburb along Lake Michigan.   Our drive to the cottage increased by half an hour.  And then Jesse was born, and rather than napping in the car he  preferred loud shrieking. The shopping/cooking/cleaning when we entertained friends at the cottage started to make us crabby.  My husband and I were both working, we had two little kids, two houses, and no time.
     One Friday afternoon as I was frantically packing up the family for our "relaxing" weekend, I told five-year-old Robby to pick a toy to bring to the beach.  He innocently asked, "Are we going to the beach that's a few minutes away or a few hours away?"
     The next week we put the cottage up for sale.