The group post this time is a travel experience, check out Kyle's blog for a whole list of the other participants. My post is not about come great abroad experience that I have had. I have never gone anywhere out of the country in my life until I came to Chile and since this blog is about my experiences in Chile, I am going to take a walk down memory lane, back to the days when summer vacation was the most important time in life. When I was 6 or 7, I can't really remember when we first went, but it was great and we have been going every single year since then. I of course haven't been able to go for quite a few years due to the fact that I was either in Montana, or I was helplessly in love with a Chilean and I was working as much as possible and taking off as few as possible days from work. So anyways I will tell you about the best place on Earth, you have to remember that these are all memories from when I was a lot younger and the things in life that matter to me now aren't anywhere close to being the same that matter to me back then.
Every summer the third weekend of August there was a trip that my family took. We went camping. We packed up our old Suburban and put our bikes in the boat and headed out. To where?? Where does anyone go when they live in Minnesota and it's a vacation?!?! Up North of course! No, not to Canada! We went to Lake Winnibigoshish in Cass County Minnesota. (I had to look up how to spell that online...we just called it Lake Whinni.) We stayed in the North Deer campground. There was a group of people that went up there with us every year, my dad's cousin and his family, the Gottwalts, their friends, the Clausens, and my dad's younger sister's family, the Plumski's. Of all the family there was 12 kids. There was always the drama that kids have, a few of the highlights were sand fights and when someone would bring a friend and one of the boys would try to go out with her. We had our fun times too. We went fishing and the best times were when we got to go with some of the other kids in a different boat. We went biking, I remember one time we went down a trail that was for hiking only, there was a sign that even showed pictures of what was and wasn't allowed on that trail. Well it had a big hill and I rode down that hill on my 20" Huffy too fast, hit a tree and hit my crotch right on the handle bars. I don't have balls, but damn!!! I remember that hurt like hell. I never biked down that hill ever again, when I go there in August I will sure as hell not even think about biking down that hill. We were free, we didn't really have a bedtime, we woke up and went on with our adventures for the day. There was always one great day to spend down on the beach. The adults set up a volleyball net in the water so there we games going on all day. The swim area was too shallow for us, so we would wander out until we felt weeds and swim around. Sometimes we played kickball with neighboring site's kids. When it rained, it never ruined anything. We would still go swimming, the adults would set up tarps all over the main site and continue on cooking delicious meals for us. S'mores were always my favorite part. My mom could make the most perfectly roasted marshmallows ever! Nice and brown all over and melted all the way through! Yum!!! We always went tubing behind one or two of the boats. My dad's cousin Steve and my dad had this special ride called the triple S. I survived that! Nobody else could though. I also went water skiing. I was one of the only kids that could do it for awhile, so I was always helping and teaching everyone else how to do it. Then there was the campfires! When we were older we got our own fire at night and the adults would be in the next site over with their campfire. My cousins snuck some of the beer from the adults cooler, I can't believe they never noticed, and we would have a little fun. I can't wait to go back there.
I have my ideas of how it is going to be now after 4 years of not going. It's probably not going to be as wonderful as it was when I was younger, but it will be fun now that we will be over 21! I also can't wait to show my husband one of the things that I waited for year after year!
4 comments:
Ahh, nostalgia, that sounds like a lot of summers I spent camping too. Have to love up North in the midwest going to lakes with hard to pronounce named. :)
The part about the bicycle really made me think about my childhood. I usually hung out with the boys and remember waiting with my Huffy at the top of a big hill wondering if I could make it down in one piece like the boys. I vividly remember a few bike accidents- it's a wonder we survived without helmets ;)
Summer vacation and camping up north in Michigan are some of my fondest memories too. We always went with our cousins. There were 5 girls and 2 boys in our family and 5 boys and 2 girls in theirs. They were a little older and full of shenanigans too.
I can also relate to your bicycle crotch experience. Once when I was 7 I was hurridly riding my bike around the block (we were just about to leave for somewhere and I was trying to get a quick ride in). Suddenly there was a car backing out of a driveway and I couldn't stop in time. I hit the car with my bike and yowzer, my crotch took the brunt of the impact from the bicycle bar. I couldn't pee without it stinging for several days. I guess I'm just lucky that I hit the car instead of the car hitting me.
Kyle, I actually used to know what the lake's name means. It was named by the Sioux Indians.
Aimee, that Huffy caused me a lot of pain, but I wouldn't take back anything!!!
Rita, I have a lot of bad bike incidents, and unfortunately they have all happened in the last 2 years!! I fell off my dad's bike in my driveway because I stopped paying attention to what I was doing and for some reason stopped pedaling and ended up in the gravel....way to go 18 year old!!!
You are so lucky you hit the car and not the other way around, I bet you scared the shit out of whoever was in the car!!! I would have liked to get their faces on camera!!!
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