After work last Friday night, we drove north a couple hours to Mecosta where my father-in-law owns a family cottage on Pretty Lake. This is the first time Garrin & I had adventured to the cottage for a solo weekend and we were excited for the trip. Gucci and Tucker were also happy to be coming with us for the weekend.
We decided to bring our camper to check out options for parking it for future visits with the family and camping here. We arrived later than planned so it was already getting dark. We decided it was best to park the camper in the driveway for the night and look at other options in the morning. It was a rather humid evening so we also determined it would be better to sleep inside the cottage since we could not run the camper air conditioner due to the lack of having 30 amp electrical plug in.
In the morning, Garrin made breakfast via our grill and we enjoyed the beauty of the morning by the lake. Pretty Lake is 120 acres in size and approximately 22 feet deep at its deepest point. It is one those lakes you could probably swim across, however I bet you would be pretty tired and want to stop 3/4 way through the route. It is a very nice lake overall, however it does have a mucky bottom and weeds which is not my preference.
It was a beautiful warm summer’s day so we decided to take the Pontoon boat out and enjoy catching some rays on the water. After a few trips around the lake, we returned to the cottage and our dogs.
We decided to explore the area and went to a local tavern called the Blue Lake Tavern for a late lunch. This is a historic log cabin bar and restaurant in Mecosta that overlooks Blue Lake. The cabin is rustic and full of charm that instantly welcomes you.
It was such a gorgeous day that we decided to dine on the outdoor patio. The view here was fantastic with the lake as the backdrop.
Our waitress was friendly and helpful offering recommendations off the menu. Garrin decided to order the Perch Po Boy and I tried the Blue Lake Tavern BLT. We both selected to upgrade to fries for our side. We enjoyed our refreshments, the scenery and chatting while we waited for our food to be prepared.
Garrin loved his sandwich and was very happy he selected it. My BLT was quite tasty although different. The bacon was sweetened and the sandwich featured melted Gouda cheese on the marbled rye. It was the first time I had a BLT with cheese and the first time I tried marbled rye. I am not a huge fan of sweetened bacon but the combination with the smokiness of the cheese and the bread really worked well. It truly was delicious!
Blue Lake Tavern has Pineapple Upside Down Cake on their dessert menu which happens to be Garrin’s favorite dessert. It is also hard to find. We had to try it and unfortunately starting devouring it before we thought to take a picture. It was very very good! This was a fun restaurant to visit and I will definitely dine here again.
Back at the cottage, we waded in the shallow area with the dogs for a while and then decided to take them out on the pontoon.
This was only the furkids second time on a pontoon boat however luckily we had purchased life jackets for such opportunities.
Gucci and Tucker always surprise me at their adventurous spirit despite their small size.
They really seemed to enjoy cruising the lake and were quite relaxed on board.
That evening, we made our second campfire of the trip for enjoying s’mores. We decided to expand our s’more repertoire and try variations this time.
Garrin enjoyed a Recess Peanut Butter Cup s’more though he did state it was rather rich. We both tried a York Peppermint Patty s’more which was quite good. It reminded me of peppermint hot chocolate with marshmallows. The only drawback to these variations is having the chocolate as melted as the original. Speaking of original, I did not miss out on enjoying plain Hersey’s Milk Chocolate as well this trip.
Due to the heat, we decided to also spend the second night in the cottage, however we did determine a perfect spot to park the camper by the cottage deck. We hope to use it for future visits after removal of a tree stump in the yard. We also hope to have the electrical service installed so we can use the air conditioner. We had a really nice weekend at the cottage and are grateful our family let us spend the time there. Looking forward to a full camping experience on the lake soon.
