Memories of Home

So I have lived in Kansas City Missouri for just over 12 years now and while it is a great city I miss my home state of Michigan. I guess you would say this is home now and to some degree it is since I have a family here, but truth be told, I will always be a Northern girl.

Growing up, my family lived on a small inland lake about 10 miles from Lake Michigan. I say small because, well, Lake Michigan is big enough you cannot see the other side; to me that is a big lake. Paw Paw Lake is approximately 10 square miles and if you asked the kids, they would say it was rather large. Being landlocked in the great state of Missouri, I pine for those days when I could walk out of our house and jump off of our dock into the cool, crisp water. I remember jetskiing with my sister all day during our summers and lounging around the fire pit my Dad built in a rather large sandbox in our yard! I remember spotting for my Mom as she would pull my Dad slalom skiing behind the big blue beast and hours spent waxing said beast under the watchful eye of my Father. My Grandpa taught us how to ski when I was 10 years old. We had a pair of pint size skis that were bolted together and I don't think I've ever been prouder than when I actually stood up without falling back over. It got even better when I could slice through the wake behind the back of the blue beast.

Fall is my favorite time of year. I think it has to do with autumns spent raking leaves, again under the watchful eye of my Father. Back then, we would pile them up by the road and burn them. Nothing smells better than burning leaves.

Winters in Michigan can only be described as serene. The town I grew up in received large amounts of lake effect snow. We would get dumped on regularly, but I loved it. I learned to drive a stick shift into a snowbank and how to properly remove the car from it. My friends and I would do 360's in the parking lot of our high school, that is until I almost hit a parked bus. School was rarely called off due to snow. Michiganders know how to drive in it and the county had salting down to a science. School is called off in Missouri if there is a slight dusting.

I remember biking with my sister and Dad while my Mom was at work. We would pack a lunch and bike the 10 miles, or at least it felt like it, to Lake Michigan. We'd eat our lunch on the beach and pick up rocks and driftwood. I loved those rides and the sand, which is unlike any I've walked through on the East or the West coasts. Now when I visit my parents, I soak in those walks along the beach and carry them back to Missouri...