It must have been 2011 when my uncle, my aunt, my cousin Kyle and I decided to take an hour’s drive to a water park while at my uncle’s up north beach resort after a sunny morning of Kyle giving me pointers on how to play Crysis 3 on his 360 upstairs. It was on such a whim of how my uncle proposed it to me.

“Want to go to a water park?” He said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because we have nothing to do today.”
“How long of a drive is it?”
“About an hour, why?”
“How long did it take you to make that decision?” I asked.
“About a sixth of that.” I trusted his judgment.
“Okay, let’s go.” We each packed up a change of clothes and a swimsuit, climbed into the truck, and went off.

My uncle was a thin guy, about 5’10 with black hair, light blue eyes and sunburned red skin. He probably would have worn his Harley-Davidson leather jacket that he’s had forever. My cousin Kyle had longer hair at that time. It was never long, but it wasn’t as short as it is now. He had  light, dull brown hair and green eyes. I was taller than him even then. I had to have been ten at that time. Kyle would have probably worn ripped and tattered jeans and an Aeropostale or American Eagle shirt. My aunt was shorter, about 5’6. She had black hair down to her shoulders. She’s never had a strict style besides jeans. I probably still had short hair then, and I basically wore whatever fit, or whichever clothes were nearest. I was a heavier kid. I usually wore a sweater and cargo pants or something.

They have a DVD player for the two back rows of seats in the truck, and Kyle popped in a Michael Bay film. It was one of the Transformers movies. Kyle was going off about how hot Megan Fox is in that movie. He had to have been twelve or thirteen then. I was in the middle right seat, Kyle sat behind me in the back right. My uncle was driving, and that left my aunt in the passenger seat. I remember us stopping in at a Wal-Mart in West Branch because I didn’t have a swimsuit and I needed one. As soon as we entered, Kyle and I grabbed pool noodles, water guns and foam swords and started beating each other through the store. It’s a miracle we weren’t kicked out. At one point while we were wandering through the store Kyle vanished for a few minutes and came back wearing a bunch of women’s clothes. A gray beret, a sparkly orange scarf, brown tinted women’s sunglasses, and a gray and black purse. He kept talking in this feminine accent, and I ended up taking a couple pictures on my little Tracfone which I still have.

That hotel where the water park was edged on a Great Lake. Land, rocks, and cities curved out into the endless water in the far distance to out right and left, like we were in the halfway point of a U. I thought it was amazing, seemingly more than anyone else. We booked a ground floor room for the afternoon, and throughout our stay we had a wedding going on literally right outside the sliding glass door that went towards the water on every ground floor room. Kyle poked his head into the curtains and went,

“Garret, come here! There’s a wedding going on right outside our room!”
So pretty soon we’re both poking through the curtains as the bride is walking down the “aisle” made of a roll of white, velvety carpet that goes straight from our door to the stand. We were a foot back from the last row of people in suits and dresses in folding chairs on the grass.

We got bored with what was going on outside of our room, and Kyle and I were the first ones into the water park. Our stay ended with Kyle and I repeatedly switching from  the Great Lake to the water park and back again, me climbing on the rocks by the shore, and Kyle and I repeatedly jumping from the elevated Jacuzzi into the pool. Back at the resort, we threw a bonfire, watched a movie, the usual, and we all eventually passed out at about five in the morning.