Michigan Cabins
I can recall when I was a child, we used to lodge in Michigan cabins up north every year. We would travel to Traverse City or Charlevoix, and find a lovely cabin for rent in Michigan, right outside that region. I can recall one of my favorite cabins that I stayed in as a kid. It was right on the edge of lake Michigan, and had a stream flowing down nearby, emptying into the great lake. I used to like to try to block that stream as a youngster. I was fairly resourceful, and liked to construct projects, and would spend many hours just sitting in that warm water, playing with rocks and pieces of timber, constructing meticulous dams to stop the stream of water so that I could make a good, calm, warm pool to spend some time in.
There were other Michigan cabins that we stayed in too. One of the cabins was nowhere near as good as that one. It was in fact a bit towards the western side of the northern point of the state, and I don't know if it was the setting or what, but the weather conditions was awful the entire time we stayed in it. Not like the other cabins my folks normally rented, this one provided practically no defense from the weather. The wind would make a whistling sound through the cracks between the logs, and would chill us to the bone as we sat there, trying to remain warm. As the weather worsened, it even began to trickle through the ceiling, and we needed to put a endless succession of bowls beneath the wet spot to prevent it from drenching the floor. Most of the cabins are up to date affairs, but that one seemed to be made of not anything but logs and awful planning.
Of course, there were the odd occasions that we rented massive log cabins with our aunts, uncles, and cousins. I recall going to one when I was ten, looking up, and seeing a castle. This, I thought, was by far the most remarkable of all the Michigan cabins. It even had a widow's walk in the roof, from which you could see for miles about. I recollect that summer, how much time I spent up there just observing the ships go in and out, sailing and racing about the bay, while cargo ships gradually slipped by in the open waters a few miles away.