It's 63° here this morning in Arizona. I'm loving it. But my thoughts have already turned to Wisconsin. My family has owned property in Wisconsin for as long as I remember. I can't remember a time when we didn't spend summer weekends at "the lake". I remember camping at "the lake" on a small rise of land overlooking the building site of the cabin that my father had designed. My father was an architect....actually...he still is an architect. He's retired now but.... he's still an architect. I remember the blocks piled to the side that were to be used for the foundation. My sister and brother and I would hit the blocks with branches and watch as bats would fly out. My mother didn't approve of this activity. I think she had visions of bats stuck in our hair and rabies shots. That first cabin didn't have a bathroom. We had an outhouse. Actually, I think the outhouse was put in long before the cabin was started. We used to call the outhouse "The Library". My father actually printed up a sign for the door of the outhouse. The Library. I don't remember how many summers went by before we finally added a bathroom onto the cabin. I do remember the dreaded trips out to the Library in the middle of the night armed only with a flashlight. I remember the shadows of spiders, real or imagined, the Daddy Longlegs, and the whine of mosquitoes. I remember the damp toilet paper and the smell.

Yes, I remember summers at "the lake". We did finally get an indoor bathroom. We always had running water. Cold running water which we heated on the stove for washing. I have fond memories of those summers at the lake. Fishing off the dock. Wearing a life vest because my mother was afraid that we'd fall off the dock and drown. She still doesn't swim which explains her fear. Running through the woods to visit with my grandparents who had the cabin (also designed by my father) farther down the shore, just a five minute run from our cabin. The forget-me-nots that my grandmother planted are still growing and blossoming by that cabin today. I remember running everywhere during those summers. Did I ever walk? My sister and brother and I used to play Tarzan in the woods. We dressed up in fern fronds and wove crowns for the fern king and queen. And then there were the nightly hunts for woodticks. Not everything is ideal. Let's get real. And we didn't have Lyme's disease....at least if it existed it wasn't named yet.

I'm looking forward to my summer again at "the lake". Things have changed over the years. My brother and his family now have that first cabin that I remember from my youth. The Library is still in existance though with indoor plumbing sees very little use. My sister and her family have the cabin where I spent time visiting and eating with our grandparents. My father designed and built a new cabin for my mother and himself at the top of the "hairpin turn" of the original 3/4 mile long driveway that was part of an old logging road that still wends its way through the property. And my husband and I have added another 1/2 mile driveway across the lake (still on the property) where we've built our own cabin though my mother calls it our "lake house". My cousin added a new cabin halfway between my brother's place and my sister's place last summer. So things have changed but..."the lake" remains. I'm really looking forward to spending the summer at "the lake" again this summer. I don't run much anymore but I do like to hike. Just a nice hike along the old logging road connects me back to that original driveway and visits with the past and the present.