Time regained, a special family weekend

On Friday morning we packed up and drove to the west side of the state with Jon's parents for a family reunion of sorts with Jon's dad's family, fully intending to come home Saturday morning. Two days at the beach and two barbecue dinners later, we rolled into our own garage late Sunday evening. The unexpected, the unplanned, can be fun and exciting, and we were having such a great time, and such great weather, that we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave.

Perhaps one of the greatest things about this trip, besides the hours spent enjoying the waters of Lake Michigan, was the time spent with family that Jon remembers only from childhood, I remember only briefly from our wedding, and Calvin remembers not at all. The Ophoffs are a large family and spread all over, so to gather almost all of the siblings (for Jon the aunts and uncles) in one place for a weekend is a special event, and we spent precious time gathered in kitchens and sitting rooms talking, for some of us reacquainting, and ahhing over babies and children.

It's hard to believe, but for all the very valuable time spent in those gathering places of the home, I have almost no pictures of enjoying the people, only of enjoying the environment. On our first night there we attending the 87th birthday party of Jon's great uncle, the event that was ultimately responsible for the weekend. Tag, bubbles, and Popsicles with second, third, even fourth cousins, barbecue, cake, candles, and a belted kingfisher catching fish in the lake below.

On our second day we went to the Grand Haven State Park and staked out our towel spot with umpteen other beachgoers, who graciously left and gave us more space an hour later when the clouds started rolling in. Clouds didn't stop us from swimming and building with sand, and they lifted later as we walked along the lighthouse and pier.

This is a location from Jon's childhood. I've seen pictures of him as a boy on this very beach and along this very pier. How appropriate that I'm reading Proust these days, because these are things once lost in time, and are now found again.

Grand Haven has a quaint main street of shops (and a tiny museum) that drew us to town after dinner, and sent us home with a dragon puppet and a book about blacksmiths (because every vacation, no matter how impromptu, deserves a souvenir). And our second night in the welcoming home of Jon's aunt and uncle was again spent giggling with family over summer snacks and glasses of chilled white wine after the kids were in bed.

Impromptu is impromptu, and the next morning, about when we intended to be headed for home, Jon was on the phone canceling his two afternoon piano lessons while Calvin (successfully) lobbied for a second trip to the beach. He came to me at the achievement of this success and declared triumphantly that we were indeed going to the beach and that everyone was coming "even Aunt Karen and...and...the other man!" and that is why we were there, because these, Jon's aunt and uncle, are people Calvin had never met, but after a weekend of introductions he found them special enough to include in his conquest, and maybe he can even learn their names and to become comfortable with them.  The beach was fun, but it was the time with these people that was most notable from the weekend.

And now we're home. Being away for two days, by surprise, and having no internet access has left me feeling a little off, as far as time is concerned, and Jon staying home on a Monday is going to leave me even more confused. I feel as though we've been gone for a week, and yet I've lost days in my mind as well. We are home now, the pictures are edited, the time catalogued in the mind, then tomorrow is another holiday, another day of celebration.

Saturday on vacation

Into every vacation a little rain must fall. If it weren't for the rain we wouldn't discover things such as local museums. Visiting Holland for the tulips and the beaches is one thing, and we often hit their tourist places, like Windmill Island or Dutch Village, but we this was the first year we visited their little local museum. It was definitely little, with a rather eclectic collection that ranged from local history to bizarre Native American or even Mexican artifacts, but every museum is worth a good look. No photography allowed, of course, but we got to see Dutch impressionism by rather obscure artists, a collection of "after hours work" by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, and Calvin reading the information plaques all by himself (which alone was worth the trip).

And afterwards, rather inadvertently (like the rest of the trip, really) we stumbled onto the Tulip Time parade and its multitude of festival queens and courts—the Tulip Queen, the Maple Syrup Queen, the Red Flannel Queen, the Asparagus Queen, the Apple Queen. I had no idea there were so many eligible teens in Holland. Calvin adored the bands. And any Dutch dancers he happened to espy. And we stopped by New Holland for beers and snacks while we waited for traffic to clear after the festivities ended, because this was probably the one day in all the year that traffic crawls to a stop in this little town.

Friday on vacation

Today the weather was chillier, maybe ten degrees chillier, but still sunny and warm. There are so many treats about a vacation. Getting up a little later, for one. Enjoying time to do whatever, whenever is another. When given a number of options Calvin has been very clear about his wishes. He wants to see Dutch dancing—lots of it—and he wanted to go on a tour of the windmill. We did both of those things today. Windmill Island in Holland is home to a real Dutch windmill, brought all the way from the Netherlands and reassembled jigsaw style. It is also home to the only female Master Miller in all of America. After our tour today Calvin can tell you all of this and more.

And because it's vacation and we can do what we want, we enjoyed lunch at New Holland Brewery again today, followed by special chocolates from the Holland Peanut Store (all inadvertently timed around performances of Dutch Dance, which was perfect).

And when we got back from town it was warm enough to walk the beach down to the lighthouse, where we watched them dredge the channel a little further up.

Tomorrow promises rain, and spring vacation, Tulip Time even, just wouldn't be the same without it.

Thursday on vacation

There is only so much that I can write about while we're vacation. We're relaxing, we're soaking up the weather, which has decided to be beautiful for us, we're getting in touch with our Dutch heritage. We first started taking this now annual trip when Calvin was not quite a year old, which makes this our fifth go, and in that time we've developed a handful of traditions. We always have lunch (and beer samplers) at New Holland Brewing Company, and when the weather cooperates we walk along the beach to the State Park and channel opening. We did both of those things today, as well as visiting Marketplaats, watching Dutch dancing in the streets, and sitting in awe, long after dark, of the beautiful lightning display from storms out over the lake, storms that actually went north and south of us tonight. After Calvin was in bed Jon and I learned Carcassone, a new game that we picked up at a local toy store earlier.

They make wooden shoes on wooden sawhorses, which made Calvin think of Oz, of course.

We're here

Pictures like these and you may think we've gone off to Florida, but actually we're just a few hours from home on the western shores of Michigan, where we found blue skies and mid-summer temperatures. And calm, and joy, and smiles. And frigid, frigid water. We make this trip every year to enjoy the festivities of Holland's Tulip Time. Mostly we find enjoyable but chilly spring weather, espeically with the wind coming off the lake. Today's summer-like weather was a special treat, and it might repeat itself tomorrow. Be it spring or summer in the air, though, we're here to breath it easily and get a little rest and relaxation in. Vacation. It's for resting, reading, sight seeing, free time. We'll do all of that. Expect pictures of tulips, and maybe more of surf, sun and sand, if the weather holds (although I don't hold out much hope of that).