After two hours of nonstop conversation during the drive up the mountainside, we finally pull up to the cabin. Elated, I jump out of the car, the rock driveway crunching beneath my flip-flops as I take a few steps away from the car. Breathing in the clean mountain air, my head spins delightfully from the intoxication of the pine mingled with my own excitement.
Home. Though I do not live here, the family cabin on the shore of the lake is the home of my heart, and bringing him here was like giving a piece of myself away. When I see Grayson smile as he breaths in the fresh air as I had only moments before, and I know that he can understand the magic of this place.
"Wow."
I smile at his simple, yet so very expressive statement. "You haven't seen anything yet." I turn away, and start walking towards the walkway at the side of the house, "Come on!"
Grayson follows, the length in his legs eating up the distance until he is walking beside me. Our arms brush against each other as we make our way around to the front of the house. I bypass the side door that stands opposite a long, well used picnic table shaded by a tall white canopy. The paved walkway steps down, and opens to a short expanse of lawn bisected by a concrete pathway I know leads to the water, but a huge pine tree several feet thick blocks the view.
Staring up into the height of the ancient tree, Grayson's gaze sweeps in the direction the tree is leaning ever so dangerously. I hear him suck in a sharp breath as the panorama that lies beyond the edge of the grass. Water glimmers like a million stars in the bright summer light, held ever so gracefully in the cup of a pine filled valley. From our vantage point, four docks spear out from the land, bobbing softly in the quiet water. I know more line the lake shore, like little fingers pointing to the opposite shore set aside for day campers and beach goers.
The property of the cabin ends abruptly with a three foot drop to what is usually our small stretch of personal beach that is accessible by an old concrete ramp. This summer, because of the torrent of rain the Sierra's received during the spring, the water had already risen almost up to the grass edge though the season was yet early.
Delighted, I walk towards the water, tossing over my shoulder, "So, did you bring your bathing suit?"