Week 2 of our U.S. trip was the Gray-cation. It was first-ever reunion for my dad's side of the family in Grand Beach, Michigan. There were 23 adults and 5 kids in a
lodge sort of a place that used to be a little hotel in the woods.
We decided on day one that if the movie The Shining were set
in the Midwest, it would have been filmed at this place. It
had a big screen porch, huge common rooms with slightly shabby couches, an old
phone booth in the hall, and a player piano that no longer played. Each bedroom
had a theme ranging from cowboys to sailboats to kitty cats. I knew that if I
heard piano music in the middle of the night, or if spurs clicking their way
down the hall, it would mean the place was definitely haunted.
Thankfully, though, we made it through the week. The
scariest things that happened were running out of beer in the cooler and
finding earwigs where you’d least expect them. We had a pool out back and the
beach – perfect for watching sunsets - was a short walk away. If you’ve never
swum in Lake Michigan before, picture a very calm ocean with only fresh water and no seashells.
It was fantastic.
It’s funny to get to know your cousins as adults. These are
the ones that always lived far away, that we would only see every couple of years.
The cousins from my mom’s side of the family have shared kiddie tables at
countless family gatherings and seen each other in all stages of awkward
growing-up. We still fall into the roles
that we’ve played since preschool. Hanging around with the Gray cousins and
their spouses was different. It was more like seeing friends of a friend that
you’d met before and always hear about… but never really gotten to know until
now.
The crowning moment was on the last night when my
cousin-in-law Rachel showed off her design of my father’s and his four
siblings’ heads carved into Mount Rushmore. I don’t think they enjoyed the
drawing as much as my generation did. It would have looked great on the wall of
a Black-Hills themed room, or better yet, the Presidential suite.
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