Idyllic Lake Life

Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash

It’s a snowy morning after Easter, and I’m at my parent’s house, where I am visiting until Thursday. Mom and Dad live at Cedar Community, a beautiful retirement community here in West Bend. It is an expansive campus in the woods and on Big Cedar Lake. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that my maternal grandparents had a house on Big Cedar Lake, which I just referred to as “Lake House.” Cedar Community is the same lake but on a different side. Cedar Lake is where I fell in love with lakes. I feel a real affinity for them. Oh, how I would love to live on a lake someday. Mom and Dad have their own separate house (bigger than the tiny ranch I grew up in). They have been here for seventeen years. Look out the window to see a slew of woodland wildlife, deer, foxes, turkeys, squirrels and chippies, cranes, and masses of other midwestern birds; hawks and turkey vultures, huge ravens, orioles, chickadees, robins, redwing blackbirds, house finches, goldfinches, cardinals, owls and woodpeckers of every size. They thrive here, and my parents do, too. There are houses, apartments, condos, assisted living, and memory care. Restaurants, cafes, salons, pool, exercise equipped rooms, and multiple libraries. This community is a United Church of Christ run facility (which is also my ‘brand’). I would love to live here when we retire. We’ll see. I guess I also think of a time if ever I am without Nathan (I told him I’m going first, no argument), but this would be the kind of place that I could live even without driving. trips to the grocery store and shows in Milwaukee are regular. It’s two hours northeast of Madison. My parents are so blessed to be here. I love visiting.