I wake up at 8 A.M.

Ready for the trip.
Out the door,
On the road
Ready to go.
We stop at Meijer
Starbucks,
At Lexi’s Grandma’s
Then our trip begins

3 hours later we pull up to our temporary house
In Grand Haven
Unpack, Move in,
Room with Lexi.
Makeover the entire room,
Until we love it.
It’s 12:30
“Let’s go to the beach.”

Another hour getting ready.
We walk the mile to the beach
On the shore of Lake Michigan,
Sweating already from the scalding sun.
We lay out our blankets
Side by side.
Disrupting the sparse granules of sand
That dance around us like leaves
In a windstorm, before coming to a rest
On the soft beach below us.

We set our drinks on the towels,
Beads of water rolling
Down the sides.
Sunglasses on,                                                                   Long hair whipping in the wind,
We run
To the deep blue lake
Stopping only at the water’s edge.
The sound of water lapping up on the shore
Is one of pure beauty,
like listening to a seashell.
Telling you its secret.

“You first,” she says
But before I say a word we are both running
Deeper into the big, ferocious lake
We stop dead in our tracks.
It’s freezing!
Now we’re running back to our blankets in a rush.
We lay back on our big blankets
Headphones in, letting the burning sun
Dry the icy water droplets
Off of our skin.

We walk the mile back to the house
Play volleyball for hours
And hours on end.
Beat her dad every time.

Covered with burns from the sun,
We go back inside, eat dinner,
Shower and come downstairs for
Apples to Apples.

Outside for a bonfire.
Not scared of the surrounding woods
Or what’s in them.
Just happy to be here with my best friend.
We talk and laugh for hours,
Not wanting to go inside.
Too much fun for one day,
Yet not enough.

Good thing we have six more.
With thoughts of laughter,
We go back inside to sleep.
With no sounds other than
The water down below,
And the quiet musical
chirp of crickets.