The Connecticutian

Here is “The Cottage,” where the accommodations may leave something to be desired, but the view and the company more than make up for it.

This is a long overdue post.  I finally brought Sujal to “The Cottage.”  My family has been going up to this cottage on Lake Erie in Canada in a small town called Wainfleet for the last sixty years or so.  It’s at a place called Long Beach (I cannot believe there is a wikipedia entry for Long Beach!). It’s a place I grew up with — for two weeks every August. It has been a very special place to me, a different place for me at different times in my life. Many of you may know I lost a friend when I was 21, someone I met at Long Beach. Sometimes it has meant being reminded of my own mortality. When I was 15 or 16, I wrote a bad poem about watching the sunset and realizing my own mortality, the finality of each individual sunset, never to be repeated again. I was pretty into Emily Dickinson at the time.

One aspect has remained fairly consistent through the years. The cottage has meant unrestrained indulgence of one form or another. As a child, the cottage meant unrestrained playing in the sand and lake all day, unrestrained access to candy, pop tarts, and sugar cereals. As a teen, it mean unrestrained indulgence in emotions, drama, romance, mischief. The cottage was a great place to be a teen, as it boasted a pretty typical beach seen of teens galore combing the beach for other teens to hang out with. It meant falling in love, getting my heart broken, trying on new personalities, pushing limits. As an adult it means unrestrained access to good food, good drink, good company. I wanted Sujal to come, because my extended family has two weeks together to simply lie around the beach and gab. We get to reconnect, which is a real joy. Below are some pictures from this past trip.

We celebrated several birthdays. One was my mom’s:

Notice my extended family marvel and my uncle’s fashion choice for my mother. Truly stunning! Sujal also got his favorite gift from my mom

When Sujal and I went to DC, we got a kite at the Air and Space museum, so we took it a-flying. Here is Sujal and my first cousin once removed 🙂 , Hannah

Then Sujal and I flying the kite:

Finally, the obligatory sunset photos:

I call these photos obligatory because we have albums full of sunsets at Long Beach. But frankly, this sunset never gets old to me. It is one of the most beautiful places on this earth.