Aram and Tiffany Minnetian didn’t know how to pronounce O-cone-ee when they first visited the lake in 2017. Now they and their three teenage kids can’t get Lake Oconee out of their damp hair.
“We pretty much live in our swimsuits when we’re here,” Tiffany says.
The Minnetians spend most of the year in New Jersey. Their home on Lake Oconee is a blessed refuge during summers or whenever the family needs an escape, badly. In the spring of 2020, as the pandemic began to morph into cabin fever in the northeast, Aram told his tribe to pack their bags. “We’re going down to Reynolds for a couple of weeks.”
Two weeks turned into five months. That’s 150 days of the freshest air, wettest swimsuits, widest social distancing as anyone could want.
“There’s a freedom on the water that’s hard to put into words,” Aram says. The family’s actions during that long Spring spell it out pretty clearly. Aram Sr. would take a kayak or the Sea-Doo Fish Pro into empty coves. Danielle, 20, and Samantha, 16, would disappear on their paddleboards. The Minnetians continued to rent boats until they finally decided it was a good time to buy a Super Air Nautique. The Nautique became like a third home, the center of the family’s daily recreation.
“I think Aram Jr. has kissed the boat every day since we bought it,” Tiffany says of their 18-year-old son.
