Magic

Today dawned cool and breezy, with a soft ceiling of thin clouds turning the lake the color of gray slate. Overnight the winds had shifted from the south to the north north-west. The people who predict weather for a living tell us that the next three days will be like this. We are thrilled. An appearance by the sun is not a requirement for happiness up here. A few cloudy days offer some variety and bring the chance to see the lake in a fresh new way. The most welcome benefit is the cooler temperatures, the warmest of which promises to be in the low 70’s.

Yesterday was stifling and quite miserable, so to make things exciting I decided to take Pam up to look at a property that had just come up for sale on a lake 40 minutes away. The pictures and some of the numbers looked very promising. Plus the trip up and back would be in air conditioned comfort. As soon as we drove up to the place we both knew it wasn’t the one. This is the most frustrating part of our four year search for a lake house, the mystical absence the aha moment. Pam and I know exactly what we want in a place. We can see it in our mind’s eye. We have never been at cross purposes in this regard. Only once in our search have we both felt it when seeing a place for the first time. It was three years ago when we walked onto a place on Beech Hill up near Ellsworth, Maine. The property was for sale by owner and included the furniture, a jet ski, a powerboat, two all terrain vehicles and an old Dodge Ram pick up truck. Nearly everything about the place was perfect except for the fact that it was an hour and half away from Camden. That and the fact that the owner—along with the key to the house—were in Florida and he could not be reached. We spent nearly an hour walking the beautiful grounds and salivating over the dock and the enormous rocks that littered the back yard leading down to the water, and peering through the sliding glass doors of the deck. Ultimately, the owner pulled the property off the market and that was that. He was offering the house and all the toys for an insanely ridiculous $465,000. Three years later when I think about it I practically weep!

Anyway, so we pull up into this sketchy, trashy row of houses and our hearts drop. Inside, the place actually looked better than the pictures, but it just didn’t matter. No matter how nice it might have been the prospect of being surrounded on all sides by other lake houses featuring an architectural vibe that can best be described as shabby-shack just wasn’t ever going to happen. After twenty minutes, we got back in the car and drove back home in silence.

Reading over this its almost impossible not to pick up on a hint of snobbery. Its true. We have become lake house snobs. The fault lies with On The Water In Maine, who have introduced us to some of the most lovely lake house properties in all of Mid-Coast Maine, and the specific property of Loon Landing, which have both managed to essentially ruin us forever. we will constantly be comparing every place we look at to this place. Obviously, nothing will quite do…

We are not demoralized, just slightly depressed. We hold on to the hope that one day something will come up for sale and we will both get out of the car, eyes filled with dazzling light as the clouds part and the voices of angels can be heard singing the Hallelujah Chorus. We were turn to each other and whisper, “magic.”