The prophecy: Joe Wong recalls a promise that his friend Mark Luz made when Joe was the best man at Mark’s wedding in Southampton, Ont., in 2000. “He told me, ‘One day we’re all going to own cottages here,’” says Joe, a 47-year-old University of Toronto professor. Over the next decade, Joe made the drive from Toronto to several Southampton cottage rentals with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Oliver. Eventually, Mark bought a cottage in the area, and they’d often be joined by another old friend, Bryce McCandless, his wife, Liz, and their three kids.
They would spend summers biking, playing tennis, and enjoying the sandy beaches of Lake Huron. Over beers at the 2011 Honda Indy Toronto, Joe and Bryce decided to make Mark’s prophecy a reality. “Instead of…