Lake Life in 24 Hours

When your friend says, “Wanna go to the lake on Thursday?” a random, last minute invite turns out to be a great 24 hours of lake life.  So many times we miss out on fun and interesting experiences because we feel the need to calendar everything a month in advance or we feel “caught off guard” by a last minute invite.  When our friend, Kathy, invited Patti and me to her lake house with a 2 day notice, we took a glance at our calendars and immediately accepted.  The three of us had worked together as teachers for years.  Grabbing a last minute getaway to Michigan in the early fall sounded extremely tempting.  It was only going to be 24 hours (midday Thursday to midday Friday) but you can pack a lot into 24 hours and this is how we did it:

Early Thursday morning (but not too early) we packed Kathy’s car with lake apparel, wine, enough food for 24 hours and drove 2 hours to her lake house in Michigan.  Not far from our destination, we stopped at a roadside market and picked up fresh calico corn that we would add to dinner and homemade pineapple salsa for a snack.  We knew we had 24 hours to cram in as much lake life as we could so we hit the ground running.  1st on the agenda was a journey around the lake on the pontoon.  Enjoying wine, boiled shrimp and the warm sunshine aboard the pontoon set the tone for our 24 hour lake getaway.  Since it was a Thursday in September, the lake was pretty vacant except for the 3 of us on the pontoon and some beautiful swans.  The water was as still as glass.  We could see an occasional turtle peak his head up for a few minutes.  It was fun looking at the different lake houses and waving to a few of the year-round residents.  

Have a lake house?  Gotta have the toys.  My friend had plenty of toys to play with - ski boat, jet ski, paddle boat, paddle board, kayak, etc.   We spent the next couple of hours getting in some physical activity on the kayak and paddle board.  If you like to kayak and have decent balance, you would probably enjoy paddle boarding.  On a calm lake, it’s pretty easy and great for your core.  After playing on the toys, Kathy took us on a land tour of the lake homes on the golf cart.  We had at least another hour before starting dinner, so we took the speed boat out to the island, anchored it, and jumped in with our floats near the island in the middle of the lake.  Ahhh…just us and the swans.  

Dinner was yummy - grilled chicken marinated in The Shed all natural marinade, grilled asparagus, calico corn from the local farm stand, and a fresh peach and garden salad.  Add some girl talk and a game of our favorite cards and it was the ending to a great day at the lake.  

The next morning, we enjoyed pumpkin and ginger tea while sitting on the deck admiring the bright orange sun reflecting on the water like a mirror.  It was so peaceful.  The swans came up near the shore to say hello and the turtles climbed up onto “turtle island” to sunbathe.  After a 3 mile hike around the lake, we had breakfast and went shopping at Bullseye Marketplace and Farm House Bakery in town.  It’s an adorable market/gift shop with a quaint café that’s perfect for breakfast or lunch.  

With a few hours left, we took another ride around the lake to take advantage of some early season leaf peeping, got in another workout on the paddle board and kayak, and relaxed with a book on the lake floater.    Pretty soon, it was time to shower off, pack and head back to Chicago.

Sometimes, the best getaways aren’t planned and cost next to nothing.  It pays to keep your calendar and mind open a bit for those last minute “hey, let’s go…”  And always, always, try something new.