The Beach

Growing up my family went to Michigan City, Indiana almost every summer to visit grandparents and cousins.  My mom grew up there, and we had a load of relatives still in the area.  The tradition petered off as we got older - I think the last official family trip was the summer I turned 16.  I remember having my driving permit and Granny Therese complaining that I didn't drive fast enough.  

I've been back once since 16 - work actually sent me out to South Bend (45 mins away from Michigan City) and I was able to see my Aunt Dianne & Uncle Bob.  But it was the fall, and I was there for a night.  We drove by the beach, but didn't get into the water to play.  As I drove around in my rented SUV, I had to look for street signs through misty eyes - it was no wonder I got turned around so much.  So many memories of the family the way we were when I was small.  But I had grown, and the town had shrunk, and most of the people that made the most special memories for me weren't there anymore (literally and figuratively).  It seemed like a piece of my life that didn't exist in the now.  

But things changed when my cousin, Amy, got engaged. At first, she thought she'd get married in California where she currently lives.  But sentimentality got the best of her, and the festivities were planned for Indiana for Labor Day weekend.  

When I was little, we'd stay with my grandparents - my brother, sister and I sleeping in the "bunk room" with the mural of the plane crop dusting the corn fields that my uncle painted when that was his room.  The house had one bathroom and well water that tasted nasty.  But it also had grandparents that would build us mud pits, and only get mildly upset when we headed back out to the mud pit after evening baths.  That house has been torn down and Granny Therese moved to Arizona a long time ago.

So this trip was different.  We stayed at a vacation house on the beach with GT and Aunt Mary.  And there are new people in the family. Will - who was convinced that we couldn't be going to a beach if it wasn't on the ocean (but who later recanted and even praised the virtues of a fresh water beach).  And Todd's wife, Judy.  And their daughter, Ellary, the first in the next generation of our family.  And of course, we were there to welcome Brad (or B-Rad as we lovingly refer to him) to the family through the ceremony and lot of alcohol afterwards.

But it was also the same.  My cousin, Tom, flipped through waves with us.  And we walked down to the lighthouse. And ate chili cheese dogs at Carlson's until we thought we were going to barf - and then we did it again the next day. We laughed, we bickered, we had a great time.  And I think we'll all do it again!