Borthers Assembled, Pt. I

Welcome back, Cyberspace.

So today kicks off the Houghs' annual extended stay up at Eight Point Lake. It's not unusual for us to come up for a couple overnight trips here or there over the summer, but at least once a year we pull a four-day/three-night stay that's a call-back to our longer stays back when we frequented the old Eight Point Cottage (2002-2019.)

Usually, these recent extended stays of ours have been over the Fourth of July weekend, as the weather's about as good as you're going to get for summer, there's crap going on (fireworks, flares, golf kart parades, my birthday, etc.), and we have no other plans because most of our social circles are out of town with family as well. This year, however, the weather was so bad that Eight Point wasn't an option, and seeing how most of our friends were stuck in the same boat, we just circled the wagons and hung out at the Bos' in Midland instead. Definitely a bummer, buuuuuut what are you gonna do.

Fortunately for all parties involved, my stepbrother Bryan and his newly-acquired wife, Chelsey, were flying in from Tennessee the following week for a six-day visit, and staying up at Eight Point Lake for the entirety of it. This served as a rallying cry for the extended family, who used this as an opportunity to reclaim our lengthier visit that was taken from us the week before. I ended up picking Bryan and Chelsey up from the Tri-City Airport late Wednesday morning, and, after stopping off at Witbeck's and the Lake General Store so the the pair of them could stock up on supplies for the week, we rolled in to the lakehouse around 1pm.

Kris had to work until Thursday afternoon, and Alayna - who recently got a job at a local Taco Bell - also had to work Wednesday, so Yours Truly established headquarters all by myself this year. I'll leave you now with a series of blog posts - each featuring a crap-load of pictures and videos - that chronicle the day-by-day goings-on of our annual, extended visit to Eight Point.

Behold. . .

Day I

"Establishing Headquarters (sans Family)"

We'd have a ton of family on hand this week, so Dad and Cindy rented out this condo across the street from the lakehouse from its owners. Bryan and Chelsey - along with Bryan's friend, Brent, and his wife and daughter - would be staying in the apartment above the garage for the duration of their visit.

The interior decor of this place was reminiscent of that found in the lakehouse, which made sense after we learned that the previous owner of the lakehouse had also built and owned the condo, just sold them off separately (to my parents and to some other people.) Dad and Cindy actually intend on buying this condo, though, and the owners have told them that they'll have first crack at it when the time comes - God knows it'll help out a ton as all the kids get older and start having families of their own.

The Master Bedroom.

There's only one bathroom in this condo, which can be accessed from the master bedroom and the living room.

The second bedroom (which will most likely be converted into a room with a few bunk beds (either during Dad and Cindy's tenure or our generation.)

Much more spacious than it appears to be from the outside.

Settling in and putting crap away in the kitchen.

This staircase leads down into the garage on the first level.

From the top of the stairs, looking back into the kitchen.

The garage, which was full of crap but could potentially hold multiple vehicles.

Bryan and Chelsey work on prepping food crap for the day.

The Whites rolled in in the early afternoon, and we brought them back over to the condo so that they could check it out.

They had a ping-pong table over there, too. . . which didn't really get as much use we anticipated this week.

In the afternoon, after we had all been there for a couple hours, we started getting bored sitting around at the waterfront (it was a little cold to be actually in the water), so Dad let us take the pontoon out.

Booze cruise around the lake - my all-time favorite thing to do up here.

No rain, but overcast and low/mid-70s today - decent, but not necessarily swimming weather.

Pointing out various cottages around the lake - a pontoon staple.

Chelsey and Jill.

Brians and Tequila.

Bryan had to sell me on this, I wasn't having it at first (I'm not a huge fan of tequila outside of a margarita), so he acted as if he was proposing with it. In the background you can see our old cottage sitting there.

Comparing toes on the boat. Again, more weird shit this family does in its spare time.

Back on shore, our boat ride complete, Bryan got the grill going for some steaks he wanted to fire up.

Women folk prep food in the kitchen while Brian and Dad certainly don't.

#PureMichigan

Bryan shows off some of his culinary school knifery skills.

Brian White, patiently awaiting dinner.

Steak fajitas. F***ing incredible.

Jill, probably asking her husband to come up the stairs and get her something (even though she's probably far closer to it than he is. . .) 

The weather had improved in the evening, with the sun starting to peak out here and there, so Bryan felt it was high time to get his ass into the lake (along with his nephew.)

Some time later, hanging out with the adults under the deck.

First Sunset of the visit - the weather rapidly improving as the evening drew on.

Bryan and I got a fire going at dusk, having picked up some bundles of wood locally (parents didn't have any up at the cottage when we rolled in.)

A last-minute, end-of-the-night cruise around the lake in the pontoon (too late in the evening to call it a sunset cruise, it got dark fast.)

If Bryan Rowley was an action figure, this bottle of tequila would be the accessory he would be packaged with. Hands down.

Due to the low lighting, this was about the only pic I got on this cruise - everything else came out blurry and with too much light noise.

A while later, pulling into the boat hoist, Jill was horrified by the amount of spiders that clung to the inside of the hoist's canopy.

We stayed up decently late this first night, sitting and having some drinks around the fire while listening to these guys' shitty-ass, bro-country bullshit music. 

- to be continued. . .