Some of my Best Memories are the Summers I Spent with my Grandpa!
I admit I’m a guy that loves spending time with his grandparents and I admit that I I’m lucky to at least have all four of my biological grandparents still living. My mom’s parents have long been divorced so I in a sense was lucky enough to have three sets of grandparents, and my mom’s father lived in Michigan, and at some point in time, my younger brother and I would go up to Michigan each summer. Those summers in Michigan are the best memories of my childhood.
The first summer me and my brother went up to Michigan was in 2006, I was 11 years old and a rising middle school student. That summer my grandpa and his at-the-time future wife took us to the movie theater several times seeing movies such as Nacho Libre, Click, Cars, Little Man, and Superman Returns. We also went on many adventures such as taking us to Saint Louis around the 4th of July (a tradition that would continue each summer), taking a day trip to an Amish village in Indiana, and taking us to Ceder Point.
The following summer in 2007 was just as amazing as we went to Saint Louis again for the Fourth of July which as discussed earlier became a tradition. That year in Saint Louis in addition to the extended family cookout and the firework show that was the norm, we did a fairly short river cruise of the Mississippi River. He also took us to Niagara Falls that summer. We also started going to the summer camp at the local Boys and Girls Club a tradition we would continue to do for the 2 summers that followed. I went to a go-cart/laser tag place called CJ Barrymores with the Boys and Girls Club.
2008 which is the summer that was a great year as well. My younger brother and I flew for the first time in our lives as unaccompanied minors up there. That summer, my grandpa had a wedding to his now current wife, we go to Michigan Adventures in addition to our usual Saint Louis trip and were confounded to see a lot of different movies in the theater as we did in summers prior.
After 2008 we would continue to go up there but for shorter periods of time 3–4 weeks rather than almost the entire summer but that was just as amazing. From 2009–2012 we would continue to go for the Mason Family Reunion which I have left out mentioning until now, go to Saint Louis for the Fourth of July, and go to the movies a lot. But I will list different things we did each year starting in 2009.
2009- he took us to Orlando Florida before taking us to Michigan and we got to go to Universal.
2010- we went to Atlanta for our Mason Family Reunion before he took us back home to South Carolina. And we went to Mackinac Island Michigan.
2011- Cedar Point for a second time.
2012- Michigan Adventures for a second time. That was the last summer we spent with our grandfather as I was 17 and my younger brother was 16. However, I love and cherish those memories I have with my grandfather.
