The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

Perhaps it’s snobbery that makes me feel as though I need to explain ‘The Cottage’ when I say that it is on Sauble Beach. Maybe it is because I automatically think of the riffraff and the guys in pick up trucks with flags inviting me to ‘Git ‘R Done’ on the carny style main street I wandered as an intoxicated teenager. Although Sauble Beach has cleaned up since I was a kid, even this long weekend I saw drunk teenagers on ATVs and in monster pick ups peacocking for one another on the main beach. It is this Sauble Beach that I abhor but also, do not connect with.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

My Sauble Beach is an entirely different experience. Down the beach and away from the souped up trucks and lowered Honda Civics, my Sauble Beach is the happiest place in the whole world. It is a tiny piece of paradise with a sunset that rivals Costa Rica or Jamaica. And it’s not just the beautiful fine Caribbean-style sand or the many shades of sparkling blue reaching to the horizon. It is not even the sound of the water breathing with the beach or the way the sun shines perfectly onto the deck at exactly three o’clock…or that sunset…Have I mentioned the sunset?

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

My Sauble Beach is the people. It is my husband. It is the family I joined when my husband and I started our life together and who love me as their own. On my Sauble Beach, we eat, we drink, we laugh- We celebrate birthdays, play card games and talk about religion, politics and the moral decline of our country. I have never laughed harder than around the cottage dinner table.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

I can’t wait to have children and bring them here, watch them grow up on the beach, in the water, surrounded by friends and family who love, support and protect them. I want to walk with my son to The Trading Post to get ice cream, attempt to paddle board with my daughter and chase them both with 60 SPF sunscreen- ‘You need to reapply!‘ I want them to inherit my happy place.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

Amazingly, this warmth does not disappear when everyone heads back to their respective real lives. Regardless of whether or not the family is here, the feeling of inclusiveness, enjoyment and satisfaction lingers, creating a bubble for everyone to escape to.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

Of course the cottage has rules and the rules are very simple: 1- Have fun and 2- Don’t be a jerk. These have been the rules for 25 years and they are what help the cottage maintain it’s magical aura of happiness.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

Yes- Our cottage is on Sauble Beach but no, it isn’t. It is in a place far better than that: It is with friends and family built with years of laughter, tears and love- My sanctuary.

The Cottage is not on Sauble Beach

Oh…and have I mentioned the sunsets?