RE-LIVING MY GLORIOUS LAKE MICHIGAN GRANDPA BUTTERBALL COTTAGE SUMMERS
...as mentioned, my family grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about a 30 minute drive from Lake Michigan and the little town of Holland where my grandpa Butterball (Leo Peters) had a cottage.
I remember with great zeal those summer weeks we spent at the cottage with mom & my two brothers & sister as well as my Aunt Diana and her two kids, Matt & Caitlyn (they were from Minneapolis at the time). There was something SPECIAL
about the smells, sounds, & colors of Lake Michigan in the summer... the waves, the cool water..and the many walks down to Tunnel Park (about a mile south of grandpa's cottage) and occassionally further to Holland park (several miles) and the iconic Big Red lighthouse.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewgOO7pxqfI,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J48dZLxaDUI remember for so many years the wreck of a part of a cottage that had fallen over the bluff remained in the water, buried in the sand. I was surprised to find that it was finally gone when I passed by grandpa's cottage in 2009. We always had to WALK OUT knee deep into the lake to get past the wreckage, always wondering if we might step on a nail or something sharp (that's another story about when I did step on something sharp right in front of grandpa's cottage and my foot was bleeding severely and they carried me up the stairs to Dr. Westrate who lived in the cottage next door...
my foot turned out to be okay after a few days in bandages). So 2009 was a special summer as I drove across the USA and spent several days around West Michigan and made the walk from Tunnel Park to grandpa's cottage and saw the 2nd Peters family on the beach in front of the cottage on a Sunday afternoon (not shown here), as well as Kim Westrate (she's so nice, God bless her) See the vids.
