The Logan’s reading this post will know exactly what I am talking about. For everyone else, I’ll try and keep it short and sweet.

When I was little, my family would spend a week (or more) every summer at a place in upstate New York called “Merriewold”. It was a family place owned by my dad’s side of the family, and we would take the long drive, and spend the best week of the summer at the lake.

There was par 3 golf, ping-pong, a lopsided pool table, fishing, swimming, swim-races, tournaments, a rope-swing, salamanders, blueberries, cousins, brothers, Grammy, and a million other fun things.

I couldn’t easily find many pics just now to share. By middle school, we weren’t able to go as often, so most pics I have are from years and years ago, but the memories are locked in as simple, fun summer memories- the best I could have asked for.

This past weekend, our neighbors and friends, the Swaringens, invited us up to their mountain house just west of Boone. Their house was beautiful, we ate like kings. And the community was just perfect. Here is why.

There are tons of “communities” out there for vacations. I spend some of Saturday afternoon just browsing through them on my phone.

Both Communities shared a ton of things in common: a lake, swimming, fishing, trails, mountains and trees, community events, golf, and charm.

But the reason why Merriewold and the Land Harbor Community are different than most other vacation communities is not because of what they have, but because of what they DONT have: million dollar listings.

Looking back at Merriewold, one of the big reasons why it was so special was because there was a great community, and the community all felt like it was on equal footing. All of the houses were old. None of the houses were mansions that seemed out-of-place with the rest of us. And this made everyone more approachable.

The clubhouse at Merriewold (Just like the game-room at Land Harbor) was simple. It wasn’t a place of luxury with brand new, high quality entertainment. It was simple- meant for kids to enjoy.

The weekend was a blast. We had fun connecting with Clint and Margaret, and their kiddos as well. Here is a quick clip of Mercy and their son, Owen:.

This post is woefully incomplete, but like every Monday morning post, the kids are waking up, so I must cut this short.