In 1983, my grandparents bought a shack on 40 acres of wooded land near Pickerel Lake in Alanson, Michigan. My grandpa and his numerous contractor buddies palled around on weekends to build the cabin that stands there today. Much of my childhood was spent in the area, enjoying the water in summer, four wheeling through the painted forests in the fall, snowmobiling with my Papaw in the winter, and helping Grandma work in the flower beds in the spring. Dusty and I were engaged at Petoskey's Sunset Park on the shores of Lake Michigan, but in the last twenty years, we've only returned to the cabin three or four times. On our RV journey northward, we spent seven days at Camp Pet-o-se-ga Campground, just six miles away from my mom, grandma, sister, and her family, who stayed at the cabin. My mom and sister's family bought the cabin off my Grandma a few years ago and have steadily been fixing it up and modernizing it, but it still held a lot of the old charm I remember. Our first full day there, we spent at the cabin taking the kids on the four wheeler through the woods, and enjoying the perfect 75 degree weather and the backdrop of the bright blue skies against the trees. Driving the four wheeler through the trails my grandpa cut decades ago was almost overwhelming. Watching Dusty let Brickhead drive the quad was overwhelming in a different way. A family of chipmunks have built a fairly elaborate series of tunnels through the yard and have become quite friendly with the human kind. Banana had them eating out of her hand the first night we were there, and each of the kids (including the two and four year old who have a bit harder time holding still) were hand feeding them by day two. We made the most of the time we had, combining sightseeing and activities with a fair share of chilling at the cabin or our campsite. One day we went into Petoskey for putt-putt golf at Pirate's Cove (the absolute best of putt-putt in my humble opinion), then had pizza and watched the kids play at the playground at Sunset Park. It was cute watching my sister's two year old try to imitate his 12 year old ninja cousin. My mom recently bought an electric-assist bike, so one day we all met at the Oden Fish Hatchery in Alanson and took off for a 13 mile ride on the Petoskey-to-Mackinaw Trail to Kilwin's ice cream in Petoskey. On the way back, we stopped to play on a small pebbled beach...until we discovered there were tiny leeches attached to three of us. We skedaddled pretty quickly out of the water after that! Saturday we visited my great aunt and uncle and cousin in Cheboygan and went for a boat ride through the river behind their house to Black Lake. Our cousin, who had planned to take us out, ended up staying back with my uncle and recruited Dusty to captain the ship (a.k.a. pontoon). It was a little touch and go there for a bit, but we made it across the lake to a shallow area where the kids played in the water and explored the beach for a bit. Other days we went into Indian River and Charlevoix, filling up on sugar from ice cream parlors and The Taffy Barrel candy shop, where Mimi spent way too much money on bags and bags of candy for all her grandkids. The kids loved playing in the lakes and playgrounds at any opportunity that one was available.
My take away: so much changes, yet the foundation remains the same. One thing I will carry with me is the smells. When Banana came out of the shower, I hugged her and was flooded with childhood memories. The water and the earth in the cabin woods are so distinctive and just packed full memories of all the times my sister and I spend up north as kids. Trees we played on as children are grown or dying, neighbors have moved or passed on. Relationships have changed. The towns have grown and become crowded. But there is still this little cabin in the woods, thankfully still there to provide the foundation for another generation of childhood memories.
1 Comment
Mabel brunton
8/4/2022 06:07:05 pm
Memories flood in when we revisit old familiar places, Sights,smells and family make it happen. Enjoy your travels. Write logs to come back to. LOve to all
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