The Last Night

Loading up the cars on another final night at the lake house...

Every year, we always dread one particular night. As this night approaches, we would prefer that time stands still so this night could never come to be. This dreaded night is our last night at the lake house until the following year. 

Putting aside all the work that must be accomplished in packing, cleaning up and securing boats, loading up cars, and cleaning the house, it is always a bit depressing knowing that it is our last night at the lake and we will be headed back to civilization and the real world in the morning.

This is now the time of year when we start planning for the upcoming summer at the lake house. As I begin thinking about all that must be accomplished in getting ready for this year at the lake, I can't help but remember our last night at the lake. 

Two things always stand out in my mind about this dreaded night... The first image which seems to be etched into my mind is one of the cars being loaded up next to the house. It sparks visions and emotions of this same bothersome night at Brant Lake each year when I was a child dreading that trip back to reality in the morning. The other image which always stands out in my mind just like the sun burned into a negative is, appropriately, the vivid image of that last sunset... The sunset on this last night always seems to be one of the most beautiful and spectacular of the summer. 

With the boats and most of our belongings packed away on this last night, it is a rather quiet and almost somber evening. I walk around, camera in hand, surveying every little nook and cranny and hoping to find just one more beautiful image to capture before it is time to say goodbye. Hoping to capture another photographic image to grace our walls through the long winter.

That last sunset always seems to be a beautiful sight... it is almost blinding... the warmth of the sun on our faces... the calls of the loons echoing down the lake... we stare, silently, at this colorful sunset in awe and perhaps in a little bit of grief as well... I slowly and carefully bring my viewfinder up to my eye... the shutter gives one last dull click capturing that one last sunset until next year...

A panoramic view from the lake house at sunset... a beautiful view...

The nightly 'fire in the sky' to close out the day and say hello to a sky full of millions of stars, constellations and wishes...

Although the ground is still covered under eight foot piles of snow in the yard, it is time to start planning for our upcoming time at the lake house...