For the past 27 years, our family has been visiting my sister’s lake house on Lake Anna in the tiny hamlet of Mineral, VA. They originally purchased the property as a second home while they lived some thirty minutes away, over the mountains, in nearby Harrisonburg.
Flash forward almost three decades, and this has become their permanent residence. Gone is the impossibly thick, green carpet, older furnishings, and creaky plumbing, and now has been transformed into a beautifully remodeled modern Lakehouse with that familiar million-dollar view!
I think our whole extended family -kids, sisters, spouses, cousins, and friends -have all considered their lake home as a place to reconnect each year, our own ‘Kennedy-compound’, if you will. It has been a host to countless summer parties, a wedding, family reunions, and now is a special place for them to create new memories with their adorable five-year old granddaughter, Leanna. My sister and her husband are the consummate hosts, and I for one, love to come back here each year.
It’s always a good idea to have at least one relative with a boat, or a lake house, or both, that you can visit. Gary and I even got to call this place home for a few months six years ago at the end of our first RV adventure while we took a short break for the winter.
As a traveler, the idea of “home” takes on new meanings to me as opposed to someone who has lived in theirs for decades. What does “home” mean to you?
There is a sign I hung in the RV this year that reads, “Home is wherever I am with you”, and I believe that to be true. For us, home tends to change every six or ten years and that has become our routine.
When our sons, Cameron and Carter, left home for school and for their careers, the idea of our home changed forever. They, my sweet boys, were no longer there physically, and so the place felt different to us. It wasn’t their home any longer, so why stay? We inevitably left for someplace new – the open road, and eventually, as many people our age do, we settled in Florida.
Why do we humans feel drawn to a certain place, whether that be a location like a mountain top or a lake or the ocean or even someone else’s home? Why do we feel the need to revisit a place when there is always someplace new to go?
So many questions with no real concrete answers; just some musings from this newly retired lady.
As Gary and I come to the end of this two-month adventure, I find myself missing our home back in Naples. I miss the routines, the comfort, the space. I look forward to not feeling the floor of my home wobble like the RV does. I am looking forward to figuring out what my retired life will entail. But this adventure has been long overdue and much deserved.
Yes, family time is always important to make time and space for in our busy lives. As I have said before, family is everything. Solitude is nice sprinkled in between, but without family, solitude just turns into loneliness.
And no one wants to live there.