Red Bay
It is too much. I would like to describe to you the place that in my family is known as "Canada," even though it is a very small part of that country. A little beach on Lake Huron called Little Red Bay. And I only know it in one season. The earliest I've ever been up there is in June and the latest has been August (unless maybe I've strayed into early September). But it is the one place that has stayed consistently in my life throughout my life, having moved from Illinois to Ohio to Florida to Massachusetts. This little cottage by a creek that runs by an old dilapidated ice house on a shallow, sandy bay on the Lake Huron side of the Bruce Peninsula. I know well the view of the lake from that spot, from the Marina and Evergreens to Main Station Is. to Burke Is., overlapped by Sunset Is., to the fishing islands that extend northward up the coast, to Harbor Lights. I love to take the little catamaran -- first bought in the late 1960s by my grandparents and almost entirely rebuilt from parts over the years -- and sail around the bay, cruising by the rocky islands and across the deep channel to the body of the lake.
Canada is an amalgamation of so many things: the marine radio in the morning, a computerized voice reciting the day's forecast in French and English; pitching in with cooking and cleaning around the house; lying in the hammock; playing cards on the breezeway; walking along the shore; watching dogs play in the water; swimming every day; washing your hair in the lake in lieu of a shower; eating wonderful -- and often locally grown or prepared -- food together; sailing; fishing (although not much recently); sitting on the porch and reading; the wildflowers in the fen and among the reeds on the lakeshore; hearing a loon fly overhead; paddling in a canoe; visiting with neighbors...
We were just there for a week, and it is so much like home. It helps that this is where I often reconnect with my family. redbaydreamerpkhentz and panoramicgreen were there. We lived together, made coffee for each other, went swimming together, went to the library in town to get onto the internet together. It was fun and revitalizing. And it was very beautiful. The place is so beautiful, especially in the early morning and in the golden hour before sunset (which happens at almost 9 o'clock). The days are so long, with so many activities calling to you.