Deep Creek Lake

To start off, this destination is not exactly the normal for my blog.  It is way more personal and while not everyone may see the attraction to it, it is still my favorite place in the world!

Deep Creek Lake, Oakland, Maryland

My dad went to Bucknell University in PA and made some good friends, including a woman named Christy, or as I will reference her “Turbo”.  Turbo’s parents owned a lakefront cottage at Deep Creek, so they all decided to go down for a week just for a vacation.  Eventually, this became a yearly trip.  Each person started bringing their significant other, but only for weekends because they were adults with actual jobs.  My family and another family would stay for a week to make it an actual vacation.  Now, I am proud to say that my family had the first kid to bring on this amazing vacation, my brother.  It got to the point where it would be a family vacation for every Bucknellion alumni in that friend group.  Yet as time went on, less alumni would come down because family life, work, and other activities would take precedent over vacation.  It eventually got down to a core group of 4-5 families that kept this tradition.

However, in 2011, Turbo’s dad passed away.  Her mom was not willing to put up the very expensive costs to keep the property maintained with less income to spend.  They ended up selling the cottage, as well as the pontoon boat (don’t worry they kept the speed boat).  This was sad for all of us, as we missed Turbo’s dad and the lake vacation for the next 2 years.  Then in 2014,  the core families all  chipped in to rent a huge house for a week!  All of the kids could not have been more excited! And to make things even better, we found out Turbo’s family was going to be buying a lakefront property soon!  So in the past 2 years, 3/4 families have all chipped in to rent a house near Turbo’s (because her house couldn’t fit us all), but we were all just overjoyed to be back on the lake again.  

This is an image of the lake from Google Maps.

Now if you’re not sure what to do on the lake with a speed boat, man have you been away from vacation for a long time.  Not only can you just take a joy ride or drop the anchor to sit and relax somewhere, but if you have supplies (such as tubes and other water sport boards), you’re good to go!  Most of the kids that go in our group have our boater’s license, so we can either go places or tow each other without needing the parents.

As you can see from this picture, we are not babies and when you going tubing with us…you go tubing.  I mean, you are holding on for dear life as we fling you around and speed up over wakes to make you go flying through the air.  If you do not come in that day (we go tubing 2-3 times a day for hours at a time) with some part of your body hurting, you did not have a successful day.

If we aren’t tubing, eating dinner, or relaxing, you can probably find us at the Lakeside Creamery.  The first picture is the view from the top of the stairs you climb up to the Creamery after docking…how cool is it that you can dock your boat for ice cream!  And of course, I had to add a picture with the classic bear!

Another one of my favorite aspects of the lake is the sunsets and sunrises.  These two pictures are taken on different nights when the sun was setting.  It is the perfect view when the sun reflects of the water and creates that “picture perfect” moment.  The sunrise can be seen the in view from the Creamery at 6:30a.m.  We were up so early because my dad promised my two cousins and me that he would pay for donuts and coffee for us and people in the house if we were back before 7 a.m.

Deep Creek Lake will always be my favorite place in the whole entire world because of all the memories and the fun we have.  While the lake has become more upscale, with higher income families only coming for the weekends (which makes it super crowded), we still make the best out of the lake no matter the time.  I can’t recommend this as a place to visit, as to have this type of vacation you would need a boat, boater’s license, and possibly water sport equipment, but I do recommend finding a place that you love as much as I love Deep Creek.

 

For more of a descriptive account, I have copied a paper I had to write for AP Lang in junior year of high school.  It was a descriptive essay and if you want to read it, it will be below:

The Gravel Road

After the long five hours crunched in a car filled with coolers of food, clothing bags, life-jackets, my brother Tom, my mom, and my dad, it is understandable that I want to get out and stretch my legs.  In 2011, all I had was an IPod and a crappy sliding phone, so I could only listen to music because there is no Wi-Fi on the road.  And then I see it.  The gravel road surrounded by towering trees.  Our Pathfinder turns on the road and thus starts the short, bumpy trip to the steep, gravel, driveway.  Suddenly, I am overwhelmed with excitement as I know what is at the end of the driveway!  The scenes are all too familiar as I see the part of the driveway that splits off into a half circle and connects back.  There it is! I move from my seat to look through the windshield and see the lake I have known since birth as it seems to stretch for miles.

As we stop at the end of the driveway, there is not enough time for me to be able to unbuckle and jump out of the car.  My family gets out of the car and stretch while smiling.  We are the first family there and enjoy the view for a minute before heading to the unchanged cottage to our right.  The beat up, wooden porch stretches around the right and left of the house.  I smile even larger when I look towards the lake and see the red cover over the slick speed boat and the white cover on the pontoon boat.  Both are tied up to the dock.  I look back and see my dad taking the key from inside a plant hanging on the porch.  I can’t wait as I look through the glass door to see the island in the kitchen and the round, wooden table to the right with six chairs placed around it.  

When my dad opens the door, we walk in on the hardwood floor and set our bags down and I walk down the three carpeted stairs on the left that lead to the sunken living room.  Right away, I see the green recliner that my dad uses to take naps in the corner behind my left shoulder next to the fireplace.  I see the tan cloth couch that the we, the kids, use when we first wake up and read in the morning on the right against the low wall that connects to a play area.  Next to the couch, is the long coffee table that is part of a large tree trunk which is stained and polished to keep the amazing quality.  I look straight ahead through the wall made of windows to overlook the grassy backyard that leads to the dock with a magnificent view of the lake.  I walk back outside using the other glass door on left wall in the living room and take off my shoes.  The porch runs along the length of the windows with a built-in bench on the farthest most part against the railing.  There are a few beach chairs lined up near the window.  I walk briskly to the steps leading down to the grass.  Ecstatic, I run down the wooden steps, across the grass, and stop just before the water.  The sun is bright and feels warm on my skin and I smell the familiar lake-weed scent.  The grainy, sandy mud under my feet remind me of all the years that I spent here ever since I was born.  I take two steps into the water, careful not to step on one of the slippery rocks wrong and fall.  The water is a little chilly compared to the air, but it feels great.  My face hurts as I don’t think I can stop smiling!  I go back up to the driveway and walk barefoot slowly across the small, pointy rocks to help unload the car.  As I walk to the house, arms full with bags, I hear a car driving slowly down the gravel driveway.  I put down the bags next to the island and run back out to the porch, excited to see which family is here.

Every summer in August, many families come down to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland for a Bucknell reunion.  My dad went to Bucknell University and made a ton of lifelong friends.  One of his friend’s mom owned the cottage at the lake.  So every so often, all of the friends would head down to the lake and have a good time.  As time went on, people got married and started to make a family.  Yet, the tradition continued.  Tom was the first kid to be at the lake.  

Even though not everyone could stay for a week due to work or other issues, most families tried to be there for the whole weekend.  Usually my family and the Corrigans, the closest nonrelative family from the Bucknell Alumni, would stay for the whole week to spend time at the lake.  Most of the best memories I have from childhood, are from Deep Creek and the friends who have become family.  The vacations that children take can make a major impact on who they become.  Deep Creek created the love of water vacations for me.  I love taking trips to beaches and lakes because of the exposure to water from childhood.  It has made a huge impact on my personality and that will continue throughout my life.

Sadly though, that was the last year we spent in that cottage.  Christy’s father passed away and her mother could not keep up with the care necessary to maintain the property.  The summer of 2015 was the most recent time back where families had to put in a considerate amount of money to rent a house for the week.  Even though we could not stay at the same place, the memories made that year are added to all of the other wonderful ones.