Lexington, Michigan

R.G. hails from the great state of Michigan, and this year her yearly trip to the land of the hand took her, her brother, her mother, and two problematic dogs to Great Lake Huron. In consideration to this motley company, the lodging search had certain rigid parameters: they needed a lake cabin that welcomes canines, rents daily and cheaply, and of course has R.G.-approved aesthetics.

All these needs were more or less met at the family-owned Lusky's Lakefront Cottages. R.G. forgot to ask, but the cabins, real cuties, look like they were built in the '30s or '40s. Each has a screened-in porch, a picnic table, and a grill. Truth be told, the inside of R.G. & family's was perhaps overly precious. Too much heart stenciling, for example.

Also, the place absolutely crawls with children and dogs. R.G.'s camera caught only this one jolly Michigander (who fortunately is in sunglasses since R.G. has received no one's clearance), but she is not representative of the general Lusky population, which tends towards the tiny and the multiple. The only dogs that annoyed R.G. were the ones she arrived with, and the kiddos were all happy and well-behaved, but R.G. imagines that that might not always be the case.

Despite the romping creatures big and small, Lusky's is civilized. There are paddle boats for rent rather than jet skis, thank heavens, the outdoor ping pong is free, and there's a fire pit by the beach. One night, R.G.'s brother and she came back from yet another dog walk and found a sign on their door announcing "Fireworks Tonight" in a child's scrawl. They poured themselves cocktails and sauntered the couple yards to the beach, where they were treated to a surprisingly dazzling, legal, amateur, Michigan fireworks show.

Lusky's private beach is very nice, although all Lake Huron beaches on the Michigan side are stony. R.G. and family spent hours scouring the beaches for rocks, and R.G. left with an incredible haul of fossils. (She's not sure what to do with them now, since her Brooklyn apartment has this '30s-satin-bedspreads-and-ceramic-swans thing going that doesn't really work with fossils. Fossils require a 19th-century, Victorian, mad classification decor, an aesthetic R.G. appreciates but unfortunately doesn't inhabit.)

Anyway, once you gingerly step over the rocks and fossils, Lake Huron is clean, sandy-bottomed and, compared to the Atlantic, warm. R.G. swam happily every day. It was the only way to fully escape the dogs.

Lusky's Lakefront Cottages, 8949 Lakeshore Rd, Lexington, MI,(810)327-6887, www.luskys.com. $67/weeknight for one bedroom that sleeps a cozy four.

Lexington on Dwellable