If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Paris, Rome, London, Prague. Usually the answer to this question varies with all sorts of exotic places around the world. But what makes a place really worth traveling to? I'm a traveller myself, and can't wait to go on the next adventure that will take me to a unique and different place somewhere in the world. But when it comes to it, if I could go anywhere in the world, without a doubt I would choose Dowagiac, Michigan every time.
Dowagiac is home to our family lake house of many years. Dowagiac perfectly fits the definition of a small, forgotten town. The town has basic needs: a gas station, a grocery store, a boat shop of course, and an arrangement of family-owned small businesses or simply food stands. But small towns aren't to be underestimated. Some of the best food and finds reside in small towns just like Dowagiac. Every spring the anticipation for the first trip to the lake builds up so high, sometimes my mouth waters just thinking about the authentic Mexican grocery store I go to every weekend for lunch. For almost 10 years it's been the best Mexican food I have ever tasted, and I don't anticipate that changing. Even though my favorite spots in town are some of my favorite spots anywhere, you don't even need the town with shelter on the lake. First of all, Indian Lake reigns over any other lake nearby because of it's shape, size, and the land we own on it. Indian Lake houses just enough other people to never be overcrowded, and to create a warm community feel. Our cottage faces the sunset, one of my most favorite things to watch on the end of the dock each night.
I would even go so far as to say as long as you have a lake you don't even need shelter. Our cottage has been in the family for so long, there are holes in the floor. A neighborhood squirrel has claimed our cottage as his home over the winter, and usually at the beginning of the summer he doesn't even move out as we reside in it for those 3 months. The floor is sinking in in the kitchen, and there's heat but no air conditioning. You can look around the lake and see some houses that definitely don't deserve to solely be used for the summer months, but there isn't one thing I would change about our cottage. Unless the floors actually fall through, of course. The history our cottage holds on the lake is too fascinating and too important to care about any sort of renovations. I dread the day our little cottage collapses to the ground (trust me, that day is in its future), but I will be comforted knowing how well it was preserved and used all of these years.
Even though traveling to my lake house isn't a new and exotic experience, like picking a spot on the map to go in Europe, or immersing myself in a completely different culture, I still feel like I experience something new up there every time I go. I could never get tired of waking up late in the morning, lazily walking to the end of the dock, surrounded by the peace and calm that comes with the lake, and really not having a worry in the world. Traveling up to Dowagiac every summer has taught me an important lesson about vacationing in general, too: If you aren't relaxed, if you're worrying, you're not on vacation. It's too easy for me to choose Michigan as my go-to travel destination.
