I call it building memories; they call it a vacation. We spent a week doing both. When we realized that going to our family cottage was not an option this year; we regrouped and chose to rent a beach house a little closer than the fourteen hour drive to Michigan. A five-and-a-half hour drive to a beach was certainly appealing! The house had a pool which we used daily. It had space for everybody and a modern kitchen. Our cottage has space, but no pool and the kitchen leaves a bit to be desired. The inevitable comparisons were made. The Michigan cottage won out, but only in the memory category.
Going up north every summer for most of his life, my husband grumbled about the heat and the sand of the beach location. The cool Michigan summers are much more to his liking. Don't misunderstand, we do have a sand beach in Michigan, but it is like dust and the water is so cool that actually swimming in the lake is a heart-shocking trip. The youngsters don't seem to notice the chill. Nevertheless, he had as good a time as he could. What he liked was having all of "chickens" ( minus one daughter-in-law) under one roof. Memories were made.
The grand-darlings were in residence. Were they ever! I had stocked the fridge and pantry with the things they like best. Translate; junk food. All of us picked up popsicle wrappers, capri sun sleeves, doughnut crumbs, likewise cupcake ones, and various morsels all week. Our eldest son volunteered to to be the "Grillmaster" to cook the side of meat the hubster had ordered ( He loves to do his shopping on line while in pajamas!). We ate fresh-caught shrimp, burgers, hot dogs and steak until we were ready to pop! We even took everyone out for dinner a couple of nights. We celebrated a daughter-in-law's birthday at a funky crab shack. She feasted on crab and was as happy as pig in mud. The youngest grand-darlings were enchanted by feeding the alligators in the restaurant's swamp! Memories were made.
We had picked a place that was a true beach experience. That means that there was no "shark mini golf', no go-kart track, no arcade and no water park! Our only water park was the ocean. No one seemed to mind. We played (laboriously) a couple of board games and told outrageous stories on each other which kept us laughing. Huge amounts of adult beverages were consumed. I'm sure that the recycle truck had a merry old time emptying the bin. Never let it be said that this clan is a bunch of teetotalers. Memories were made.
Did we miss Michigan? Yes we did. Would we do it again? Yes we would and hopefully will. The truth of the matter is this; We were all together. Okay, so it wasn't the same, but it was still good. Well, mostly good. There were a few hitches in our get-along but we won't talk about those now. What we will talk about and remember is that we were together in a special place. We had a piece of time to just kick back and enjoy each other and relish the sheer wonder of being a family.
What I can take away from the week is this: It is not so much the place but the people. We will continue to make memories whether that happens on a sandy beach in the south or on a cooler one up north. Memories will be made.
