The family cottage sets in motion vacations to remember. At the family cottage you relax, unwind and nurture yourself. It is a wonderment and an oasis of peace on the water’s edge. It doesn’t matter how you spend your day off from work or household chores. Enjoy nature whether you bike, boat, hike, or simply take a swim. My teens and my husband Dan enjoy swinging a club or two at the golf course. Even if you enjoy watching the world go by, it is just fine.

The best memories at the family cottage are the incredible family stories, whether you believe them or not. We vacationed at the “big lake” as my kids used to call Lake Michigan. My husband and I had a wonderful bonfire with our boys and family friends who stayed with us at the cottage on Good Harbor Bay. We all went to bed after saying our goodnight’s, but Dan decided to stay at the water’s edge with our yellow labs Bailey and Callie.

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Our summertime friends helped us celebrate Casey.

Conor and The Rose Lizard Club sign

Casey named this club the “Rose Lizards.” We made special friends at the family cottage. These friends are people you don’t see on a daily basis and sometimes they may be just summertime friends. I love these friendships, because you pick up where you left off and never skip a beat in conversation or in sharing a story or two.

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Summer began as usual at the family cottage. The dogs, our chocolate labs Jake and Ginger, and our two cats Max and Joey and the three teen boys plus a friend were all settled in for a glorious summer at the cottage.

A few days later we discovered that our pets were not the only critters at the summer cottage. We had a family of skunks living under the shed in the back of the family cottage. There were 5 skunks to be exact. A mother skunk who was not happy we had invaded her space and her 4 babies. I did not want her spraying the dogs. We had that happen before to our very first dog Baily, a yellow lab. It was awful -the smell smarts your eyes. I believe we used tomato juice and hydrogen peroxide to get rid of the smell. I absolutely did not want her spraying the boys.

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When looking at your family cottage, look who it goes to, the various family members and places you visit.

If a child is given love, he becomes loving . . . If he is helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home . . . he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
1974

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To watch a Labrador Retriever swim in the lake is like watching a sea otter. Their heads are above water and they meander with such ease in the water. Our chocolate labs have grown up swimming at our family cottage in Suttons Bay, Michigan. This year, a family friend took them for a weekend vacation to their lakeside family cottage near Elkhart, Indiana. Now if you have never owned a lab, they love the water. These beautiful creatures believe this is paradise at its best. Labs have webbed feet. If you spread their paws, there is a built-in paddle – each webbed paw is in the in-between parts like a duck. They can spend more time swimming after a stick or a ball, until you have to declare the game is over.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.
– Milan Kundera

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Drinking a cup of joe, on a beautiful 4th of July weekend, I experienced solace as I watched swans swimming and boats heading out of the marina in Suttons Bay, Michigan. The sun was beautiful on the water. The boats were heading out for adventure at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. What a different world from our other home in Farmington, Michigan. The air is crystal clear. Ahh – the joys of summer – relaxation and peace.

My teens are happier. We always have a friend in tow. Our eldest, now 18, has college in the fall, but with a summer job and other activities, his summer has changed. The twins, now fifteen, are not working yet and can enjoy the summers of yesterday romping on the beach, biking, and staying up way past midnight. Adventure is always looming for our family at the cottage. New friendships, new experiences filled with laughter, and the stress of the daily grind seems to disappear. These experiences make owning a family cottage absolutely the best moments in life.

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I looked at him like wow, this is true kindness (and you are crazy.)

The best moments in life are teachable. I never used to believe this, until I witnessed my husband teach my boys what is and makes a good Samaritan. You know the saying, “what goes around comes around.” It is the lesson in life you train your kids to be good to people, because you never know who you are being good to, or that phrase as a parent you say repeatedly, “be good to others because you don’t know who’s watching you.”

We were summering at a cottage on Good Harbor Bay near Lake Leelanau. We ventured out to the lake on a beautiful summer’s day. We boated on Lake Leelanau with our boys at “Fudgey Beach.” We loved this-the boys swimming, floating on rafts, and tubing – great relaxation medicine! The boat floating next to us had a family with the most beautiful golden retrievers on board. We chatted with the family and commented on how well behaved the dogs were. We decided, as my husband said, “pull up shop” to head back to the cottage for dinner and a beautiful summer sunset.

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Their fond memories exuberate, like a family cottage, charm and comfort.

Leave a legacy of integrity and good will. Defining the family cottage means: joy, relaxation, summer skies that go on forever, walks along the beach, skipping stones, bonfires, children laughing, our chocolate and yellow labs running through the water, fireflies, good friends, serenity and peace.

Experiencing the cottage life brings you closer to the wonder of God’s beauty. You wish it would go on forever. We spent summers, it seems for a lifetime, in northern Michigan. Our twins, now 15, were two and our 18-year-old at the time was four. Since teens are very enduring and unique, I decided to ask them to define the word “cottage.” One of the twins responded with, “a house by a lake where you hang out on the beach.” The cottage, he stated, would be by a town with good places to go, and good people to see. The other twin described a cottage as nice, quiet and beautiful. He remembered swimming, tubing behind the boat, and our dogs running on the beach. Our 18-year-old described a cottage as something on the water.

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Launching a boat in Michigan waters during the month of April is not very common. Boat insurance policies, however, generally begin to provide coverage on April 15. If you’ve not given much thought to your boat insurance policy, this spring might be a good time to review your policy and determine if you need more protection as you navigate the Great Lakes or Michigan’s inland lakes while at the family cottage.

Although many homeowner and automobile companies offer boat insurance, the coverage your existing policy provides may not be adequate. Many policies provide a list of “named perils” outlining situations the policy covers, such as fire, vandalism and malicious mischief. If you need more coverage, look for an “all risks” policy that covers more predicaments in which you might find yourself.

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Do you entertain in your family cottage or have your children’s friends over to the family cottage for play dates while on vacation? Perhaps you enjoy having family and friends over for summer cookouts in the summer and holiday parties in December on occasion when you are visiting your family cottage. Have you ever thought about what would happen if your brother-in-law severely burnt his hand on the hot grill while trying to help you cook the hamburgers and you knew your grill was not working properly? What about your aunt Helen, who at eighty-six years old insists on wearing four inch heels to your Christmas party and always has the bottomless glass of eggnog in her hand while spinning in circles under the mistletoe waiting for someone to kiss her?

Injuries and legal action are typically not at the forefront of our minds when inviting friends and family over to the family cottage for a few hours of fun and conversation. But when aunt Helen breaks an ankle, or worse a hip, under the mistletoe and she blames it on your freshly polished wood floor, you will wish you had used some forethought before inviting the family and friends over to the family cottage for a party. Even if we lived reclusively, there is the possibility that someone could stumble on an uneven sidewalk paver or slip on a patch of loose gravel in the driveway while trying to deliver a package. Unavoidable accidents happen, but you should know your liability if someone is physically injured while on your cottage property and take precautions to guard against them. Although having adequate liability insurance and additional host liability insurance is a smart thing to have, it does not prevent a lawsuit.

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