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Making Memories at a Lake Home
Making Memories at a Lake Home
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The front porch looks out to the
lake, only 100 feet away.
(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JULY/AUGUST 2006)
CHILDREN TROMP in with wet feet. Adults sit and rock on the porch. Neighbors stroll by and stop for watermelon (no invitation required). The Cape Cod-style vacation home in Lake Gage, Indiana, rarely is quiet.
That's the way Barbara Baekgaard, cofounder of Vera Bradley, likes it at her summer getaway, 50 miles north of Fort Wayne. Barbara started Vera Bradley, named after her mother, with partner Patricia Miller in the 1980s to design feminine luggage. The bright, quilted bags have the same casual comfort she uses in her home decor. "The house has a very open atmosphere," Barbara says. "It's reminiscent of summer camp and that unstructured life."
With three generations of Barbara's family visiting from April to September, it feels like summer camp, too. Barbara and husband Peer's combined eight children, 13 grandchildren, cousins and friends help fill the house to its 21-person capacity most summer weekends.
The Baekgaards built the house two years ago after Barbara's son Tom Byrne bought the local marina. But Barbara's connection to Lake Gage goes back to the 1970s, when she and her first husband owned a 14-foot-wide cottage. One visit back convinced her to start the lake-house tradition again. This time, she would enforce a few rules guaranteed to make a memorable summer.
