Interesting observation, though - I've run into several people up here that do this type of family vacation. I had never encountered it before, but they all chip in and buy a week at a house somewhere "vacationey" and they the entire extended family descends on it and has their vacation together.
A totally alien concept to me, but kinda neat. Assuming you like your extended family! 
hah I grew up spending most of my summer's down the cape at my Grandparent's house (I'd go down and spend weeks at a time with them some years). Now my aunt lives in the house and my cousin and her family live there, so my family go down to spend weekends, etc.. We had also gone to lake houses of friends of the family when I was younger (we didn't have one ourselves) in New Hampshire or Maine and we'd go out on their boat and just swim for hours and end the day with a BBQ and s'mores over a fire pit. While you can certainly get houses fairly remote out in nature, you just don't get those same vibes and it's definitely something that I wish I could pick up and transplant over here.
Look who's back! Glad to hear from you again.
Cheers Jimbo
I just bought and built a new gaming PC so trying to make time to actually sit and use the computer. Life has been crazy between all the hobbies so haven't been able to check in for some time. Thought I'd pop back on
Hope you've all been keeping well!
Huge hugs!! It's local fair time and soon will be the Big E, so that makes me hugely nostalgic and grumpy/sad when I see the pictures of everyone!
I'd love a fried dough and a frozen lemonade!
Oh man!!! I do miss fried dough, even though I don't think I could tell anybody here as they would just think the concept of it as a whole was very mad and very American haha As a kid, my mom would make me a breakfast of my choosing for many of my birthdays and most of the time it would be fried dough! My parents are coming for a month in November and will be here for my birthday....I might have to give my husband heart failure and ask my mom to make me friend dough. UGH i hate that this isn't really a thing here (it's easy enough to make, but the judgement is almost not worth the mess LOL).
Re: Lake life - Makes me giggle because 'wild swimming' is all the rage right now. And I'm like, that's the only kind of swimming I ever did! Took swim lessons in lakes at home and summer camp and then we'd cycle to a local lake that was a couple of miles away and swim for hours and hours and hours (and my parents were happy to let us go since it was lifeguarded). I wasn't lucky enough to actually live on a lake though.
I remember the first time I heard the term "wild swimming" (about a year or so ago) and I was like ...... is all swimming not wild swimming...? hahaha It's the only type of swimming (outside of pools - obviously) that I know! Calling it "wild swimming" sounds super silly to me! Although when I talk about how I would prefer a pond or a lake to the Ocean (as I hate salt water) any day, people over here are absolutely flabbergasted as they think ponds and lakes are super dirty. Maybe I have a warped memory, but I never remember the ponds or lakes I went into as any better or worse than the Ocean, and the added benefit was that it wasn't salty so I had no issue with going underwater and really living my best mermaid life. I remember people would have to force me out of the water.
Yeap! My dad grew up in Florida too and he was horrified initially to learn that in New England you swim in the ponds and lakes! 
Did he only swim in the Ocean?
Pretty soon we'll be approaching that time of year when it's apple picking season in New England... And then I forget about that "lake life" and start thinking about all the apple cider donuts, apple orchard activities, and pumpkin spiced beer/everything I am missing out on. Oh well, this too shall pass. Plenty more important things to let bother me in the world!
