In May of the year 2000 I began what became an annual pilgrimage to the cabin of my good friend Justin. Last year was our not so grand finale of this annual tradition. This weekend I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on my annual tradition and this being the first year I didn't make the trip I thought it was worth sharing some good memories of our shenanigans and adventures.
In the interest of time, rather than telling a long disjointed story I'll list out some of the highlights of what went down on these weekends.
Easy Cheese - The first year we went grocery shopping and I insisted on getting like 4 cans of the stuff. I may have finished one, the others greeted me more than one year after.
Cookies.
My mexican "poncho" the guy who sold it to me called it a pullover though. Ponchos don't have sleeves. This was a staple piece of my weekend wardrobe, I usually slept in it.
Putting in the dock - We only did it one time and it was freezing.
Losing the prop on the blue boat without beaching it, still an unsolved mystery.
Launching fireworks, lots and lots and lots...and lots of fireworks.
Going to movies on rainy days.
Bowling at night.
I got a boaters permit to drive the Jet ski solo, I rode the jet ski for hours. Bouncing spinning, tipping, and falling off were some of my favorite things to do, as I got older I realized I really like driving around looking at houses too.
Taking the new Jet Boat out one morning and running it out of gas. We got towed back in.
Taking a Jet Ski out and flipping it and it didn't restart, this was a different year but I think the same guy towed us back.
Tubing, waterskiing, learning to wakeboard, and cruising in the pontoon listening to the best rock and roll the early 2000's gave us.
The Kite tube.
Smoking my first (of many) cigars on the dock. I didn't know cigars could impair someone's ability to walk before that one.
The real naked centaur.
Some other naked things. Mostly involving running and swimming.
The Kite Tube.
Mountain Dew (before it became MTN Dew), Lots and lots of it.
Board games, like Talisman and Settlers of Cataan. Risk was also played over the course of a day often, I did not partake in Risk usually.
Puzzles.
Throwing farts.
Setting up the water trampoline was always one of our jobs. An air blower and a giant inflated tube was hours of fun for a bunch of 15-18 year olds.
The blob. We had more fun with it on land launching people off than we ever did on water (too slippery).
Lots of really really good food. Justin's Dad is a wiz on the grill and we had some fantastic meals like Brats, Houston Burgers, Lobster (or was it crab legs?), Salmon, Prime Rib, Steaks, and yummy egg bakes.
Geocaching
In my time the Houstons had (not all at once) 3 power boats, 1 pontoon, and 4-ish Jet skis.
Eventually we all turned 21 and alcohol consumption became a part of our weekend. There was a beer pong tournament for a few years.
Haircuts.
Football tossing and yard games.
Night cruises on the pontoon.
Bar Hopping, Justin always liked this bar called the Top Spot.
Long conversations about anything under the sun, the foundation of our fantastic friendships.
Summer Shandy in a can!
Lots of stories, catching up, joking, drinking, smoking, and laughing around a campfire.
Last year I even found some morel mushrooms and fried them up.
Relaxing, and getting some sun.
I think I will forever associate Our Lady Peace and Oasis with riding shotgun in the Lexus with the windows down to the cabin.
I went up there with a group of guys who I still call my closest friends for fourteen years. We didn't always have the full crew and new people rotated in and out but it was always a good time. Unfortunately all good things must eventually come to an end. Last year most of us had either moved all over the country, or recently married to begin or continue new traditions. Every year memorial weekend was a source of bickering between Laura and I because it's the first Long weekend of the summer and she never shared it with me. After beginning college and then moving to Illinois I found spending memorial weekend with my best friends more and more valuable, I loved catching up with everyone along with running around naked, shooting fireworks, and getting drunk around a campfire (sometimes all in the same night). Life has a way of changing, our final few memorial weekends were remarkably different than our first few, not only in our activities and lack of nudity, but also our conversations changed too. We went from talking about school, sports, girls we liked, girls we needed to break up with, what college we were going to, and stories from the year at school, to more adult things like, current events, who was buying what house/car, where people were moving to, what their new job was like, and what their goals were. Of course like old friends do, we would still trade stories and memories from the old days.
With a heavy heart I'm sad to be moving on from this annual tradition, but like someone once said, when you shut one door a new one will open. I have a new baby girl, and I'm excited to start shaping her memories of memorial weekend traditions. This year we didn't start anything noteworthy but next year will be a new and exciting time as she'll be up and moving.
So, Cathy and Lanning Houston, thank you. Without you guys providing a wonderful place to make memories and supplying hungry guys with endless amounts of food, fireworks, mechanic shop bills, and gasoline we all wouldn't have made the lasting memories we have. You may never read this but I'm forever grateful.
And to my friends, Justin, Jon, Andrew, Brian, Henry, Matt, Ben, Tom, and Alex, thanks for the memories.
This is probably one of the sappiest blog posts I've made yet but like I keep telling myself, I write this blog as a diary of sorts, everyone else who enjoys it is a bonus. Today I realized that for nearly half my life on the same weekend every year I went to the same place and had a great time, this is worth marking in my online diary.
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