Everyone must have a personal dream of a perfect summer day. For some that means a beach, but my dreams of summer conjure up a cabin beside a lake. And the sweet perfume of pine trees on a warm afternoon.

Add the sound of a breeze whispering through the pines (that’s not just a poetic fancy – a breeze does indeed whisper as it blows through pine needles) and the distant laughter of children splashing in the water.

This idyllic summer camp atmosphere is exactly what we found at Migis Lodge on Maine’s Sebago Lake. It even looks like a summer camp, with a sprawling main lodge built of logs, its long porch overlooking the lake. But instead of the long screened bunkrooms of summer camp, each of the cabins that scatter through the pines is a family-sized mini-home.

Ours had two bedrooms, a big living room with a fieldstone fireplace and big cushy leather sofa and chairs, plus a smaller sitting room and a porch of its own with a view through the pines to the lake. The interior tread the careful line between rustic and luxury – everything was lusciously comfortable, but the look was pure Maine Woods – without ever being cutesy. Little touches included finding the fire expertly laid each evening, ready for us to touch a match to it before we settled into our summer reading or a game of Bananagrams.

There was no need for a kitchen in our cottage. All our meals were included, and after the first dinner the night we arrived, we knew that however much fun we had between times, we would be looking forward to the next one. We were there with 13-year-old Mary, who has pretty advanced tastes in cuisine, so she never glanced at the children’s menu. But each day’s menus were designed for every taste, with plenty of choices to please the most finicky little appetite, while delighting adventurous palates with fresh seafood, wild game and vegetarian options.

Breakfast included a buffet with an omelet station or a full served menu. I chose fresh berries and granola from the buffet, followed by delicious Eggs Benedict made with cod cakes.

Lunch was a beach barbecue in a shady grove beside the lake, where the chefs grilled juicy sausages, steaks, burgers, chicken and ocean-fresh tuna steaks to order. Of course I chose the tuna, and accompanied it with fresh green salad and creamy potato salad from a choice of a dozen others.

While all these clearly got the chef’s full attention, he really went full-out at dinner. Mine began with a creamy soup of wild mushrooms and the Migis tossed salad of baby lettuces, cherry tomatoes, fresh strawberries, toasted pecans and goat cheese. For my main course I ordered Gulf of Maine scallops pan seared with fennel and orange, and on the second night I chose roasted venison, served with an apple brandy demi-glace. Mary loved the ravioli stuffed with roasted vegetables, served with basil tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. All three of us managed to finish off turtle sundaes.

Between meals we explored the paths through the forest and along the lake, and paddled around the lake in the resort’s kayaks. Sebago Lake is large enough to make a respectable excursion of following its entire shoreline, but we paddled in and out of coves on our own side of the lake and out to the islands before returning to join a cruise of the rest of the lake on the resort’s vintage wooden Chris-Craft, Tykona II.

Mary quickly made friends with other guests her age, and one evening we joined another family for dinner, and for s’mores around the evening campfire. There was plenty to fill our days, with choices of canoes, kayaks, rowing dories, sail boats and paddleboards waiting at the docks. We could also have played tennis on clay courts, or we could just sit on the dock and watch the kids learn to waterski and wakeboard.

There were several organized activities for kids of different ages, but Mary is a water bug, and spent her days at or in the lake, adding a few new watersport skills to her repertoire and socializing with other teens on her own.

We noticed from talking with fellow guests that most of the others there had been coming back to Migis Lodge each summer for years, some for generations. It was easy to see why this 125 acres of pine woods and lake shore drew them back – we hadn’t driven past the last log cabin on our way out when Mary was asking when we’d be return.