I was surprised last week to find that Gadling, a popular travel blog, recommended the Lake of the Ozarks as a popular Labor Day destination. Since I have lived in a fairly close proximity to the lake all of my life it is easy for me to forget the wide scope of tourists that actually visit the lake each year. In all honesty I spent a good majority of my life trying to avoid the lake, because driving through the main strip it appears to be somewhat of a tourist trap. However, when I went to college I met a very dear friend from the Chicago area, and her family owns a condo at the lake. I have been fortunate over the past couple of years to become a surrogate addition to this family and thus have gotten to know the lake a little bit better.

I was at the lake this past Labor Day weekend and I started to think about what brings people to this particular lake. On a map, the lake doesn’t look like much. More like a group of meandering rivers than the actual mass of 55,000 acres that it is. But out on the water the main channels are wide expanses leading you in and out of numerous coves that are a large part of this water system’s charm. To give you a rough idea of the magnitude, the Lake of the Ozarks has the same amount of coast line as the state of California. On some summer weekends this hardly seems like enough space for the 3 million annual visitors and the water can be a bit choppy on the main channels. But I don’t go down to the lake to cruise the main channels and I think a majority of lake regulars feel the same. The trick is to find a quiet cove to park your boat and/or boats and commence to hanging out. I think people really love this lake because of the people they share it with. This idea hit me last weekend while sitting on the dock and talking about the importance of family recipes with my friend’s mom. Sipping a gin and ginger ale the August afternoon tugging at me to get in the water, I was instead sweating and enjoying a fantastic conversation. These were my friends, not just my friend’s parents. The generous people that have shaped my many memories of being on this lake and people I couldn’t now imagine being without on the water.

In the boat that evening driving back to the condo my friends and I were quiet; sprawled out in the seats staring up at the houses on the cliffs or in the coves. Every now and then someone would comment about a particular house. A nice yard, a sweet water trampoline, a giant boat. I knew what we all were thinking; someday it will be our turn to share.