My Yearly End of Summer Vacation Trip 

Every year, usually the week before Labor Day weekend, I make the trek from North Carolina to my hometown in Central New York to visit family and friends. I pick that particular time on purpose because it coincides with the New York State Fair, which is held that same week and closes out the summer fun in the Syracuse area.

I generally stay at my sister’s house, which is command central for all things family. Most of the get-togethers, parties, and other family functions are held at her house. They have a good size yard and the neighbors are spaced out far enough that the noise level is never an issue, which is critical since even a small gathering will typically be fifteen to twenty people. My sister and my brother-in-law have five grown kids, all with a spouse or significant other, and something like ten grandchildren, ranging in age from around thirteen all the way down to a couple of years old, give or take. Mix in my brother, his wife, their two teenage daughters, assorted friends that like to drop by, and one very overweight ambitiously anxious beagle, and you can see why there is never a dull moment.

With all that, you’d think I would prefer staying at a hotel so that I could have a little privacy and some time to myself. Amazingly, I actually have just that. It wasn’t always that way, but since none of their kids actually live at home anymore, I have my own bedroom and bathroom which affords me the privacy I need if I start to suffer from family overload.

I always look forward to this trip and I have pretty much maintained the same schedule of events every year. I drive rather than fly, as I love the solitude and the time it gives me to think about and solve all the world’s problems as they pertain to me.

Once I arrive at my sister’s house, I spend the first night catching up with her and her husband. The rest of the week goes as follows: I attend the State Fair on three days—which are determined based on the free concerts I want to see each year, and I spend one day (I rotate every other year) on a trip to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame or a quiet day in the quaint little village of Old Forge on the Moose River in the Adirondacks. I generally meet up with friends I haven’t seen since the year before, and with various family members while partaking in these activities. I also spend a lot of that time enjoying adult beverages, primarily craft beers from local Central NY breweries, which are available at all the places I just mentioned. We wrap up my yearly visit with either a wonderful day on my sister’s party boat on one of the area lakes, or we have one of the aforementioned family get-togethers at the house, with everyone in attendance.

It’s a routine I don’t generally vary from, and a routine that I don’t usually alter… that is until this year. This time around everything changed. My daughter and my grandson came along on my trip this year. There have been other years when my daughter or my son have come along on this journey. They are both adults and when they’ve been able to make the trip in the past, we’ve had a blast doing all the things I like to do. They enjoy seeing family that they don’t get the chance to see that often, and they like the fun that the State Fair offers, and both are baseball fans. So we’ve always had a great time and my routine really didn’t have to vary just because they were along for the ride.

But like I said, this year was different. This year it all changed. I knew it would change a little, but I really underestimated the amount of schedule altering having a fifteen month old baby along would cause. Yes… my grandson is fifteen months old, and I’m knocking on the door of my sixth decade, so I haven’t been consistently around anyone in that age group for a very long time. Now, don’t get me wrong—I spend plenty of time with the little man, but after I spoil the hell out of him, play with him, and essentially do all the things a good grandpa does, I give him back to my daughter… his mom, and I go about my adult life.

I wanted them to go to New York with me. I wanted to spend the time with them. After all, I love them dearly. They are my world. But I totally forgot that all of the careful planning I had done for this trip, the timelines I wanted to follow, wouldn’t mean a thing if they interfered with the schedule of a fifteen month old child. It has been close to thirty years since I’ve had to worry about things like that, and it threw me off… big time!

I soon realized that we were operating on LMT, Little Man Time. I had to accept the fact that we would be following his routine for the week and not mine. In the beginning of the week, I struggled with that idea. My daughter laughed at me, and told me that she knew all along that I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I insisted that they join me on this year’s New York adventure.

On the days I planned on attending the fair, we left the house every morning much later than I would have in year’s past. Last year, I would have been at the fairgrounds mapping out my day before eleven in the morning, and would plan on staying all afternoon and into the evening for the various shows and events scheduled throughout the day. This year, at eleven in the morning, I was sitting in my sister’s kitchen feeding my grandson so that my daughter could take an uninterrupted, peaceful shower.

Last year, I would stroll through the Center of Progress building looking at all the cool things the vendors had to offer. This year, we strolled through the animal buildings looking at all the cows, chickens, pigs, and goats.

Last year, I would walk around the midway checking out all of the crazy amusement rides trying to figure out how much I could have to drink and not puke if I got on any of those rides. This year, we walked around the Kiddie Land area of the midway trying to figure out which rides my grandson would be big enough to ride on with his mother.

Last year, I would find joy in watching the drunk old guy dance to whatever band was playing at the free concert venue. This year, I found joy in watching my grandson dance up and down to the music with a big smile on his face in that same free concert venue.

Last year, I ate sausage sandwiches, barbeque, loaded fries, spicy food I’d never heard of, and drank beer. This year, we ate hot dogs, mac & cheese, funnel cakes, ice cream, and drank water and milk.

Overall, a much different Fair experience than I was used to. In years past I had never entered any of the animal buildings or even knew where the Kiddie Land area was located. I purchased food this year from vendors I didn’t even know existed since they sell products I never seek out when I’m at the fair.

This time around it was Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame's turn in the yearly rotation, and that trip took on a different perspective, as well. The last time I was there, I strolled around the museum and the grounds for hours taking in the history of baseball and the area. I would walk around the village on a quest to find cool and unusual baseball related items appropriate for my personal collection. This year, we strolled around the Hall of Fame gift shop watching my grandson’s eyes go wide and listening to him yell out his favorite word, ball, over and over again at all the different sized baseballs all over the place. And, we walked around the village on a quest for cute baseball related items and clothes that were appropriate for him instead of for me.

When we left the village, we stopped at a cider mill for lunch and spent more time there than we did at the Hall of Fame. I watched my grandson marvel at the farm animals while he yelled out his other favorite word, duck. We looked at the antique tractors, homemade farm-style gifts, drank cider, and wound up the afternoon participating in a plastic duck race.

Not my typical day at the Hall of Fame experience.

Every year when I come back to my hometown of Syracuse, I like to get together with a couple of my best friends. We usually go out for a few beers and have a grand old time joking and cutting up with each other. This year, instead of meeting out at a bar or restaurant, we were all invited over to one of my friend’s house for dinner. So my daughter, my grandson, and I went over and spent an evening with two of my best friends, one of my friend's daughter, and his seven month old grandson. The energy of the evening was fueled by our daughters and our grandsons getting to know each other. All I could do was sit back in amazement as I watched our daughters talk about motherly things and all things baby. The evening had a totally different vibe than what I was used to when my buddies and I usually got together.

We ended the week with a big party at my sister’s house and I watched in admiration as my grandson quickly became the star of the show. Everyone wanted to spend their fair share of time with him, and he ate it up. It was fun watching family treat my grandson like a king for a day, and seeing them respect my daughter as a mother. It was interesting as it seemed like my sister and my sister-in-law anointed my daughter into that special club called motherhood, forever recognizing that she was no longer a little girl but instead an actual adult.

On the trip back to North Carolina, we took a side trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania and spent a couple of hours at the World of Chocolate. We took my grandson on a ride that showed how they process and make the chocolate for Hershey candy. His wide-eyed amazement and the smile on his face was all I needed to see to know that he loved it. It was loud and colorful and full of animation and music and he just cooed and laughed the whole time. I don’t think he had any idea of what they were talking about, but he sure had a good time bopping to all the music and cartoon animation throughout the ride. And to top it off, he got some free candy at the end.

After a fun afternoon at Hershey, we continued our long drive back to Charlotte. We finally arrived back at home base later than originally expected, and totally exhausted. But as a mother’s work is never done, I watched my child lovingly tend to her child, making sure he was tucked in for the rest of the night before she finally said goodnight herself.

This vacation was the longest time I had spent alone with my daughter since my grandson was born last year. I have always respected and liked the person my daughter has become as an adult, but this trip really opened my eyes as to what a truly wonderful mother she is. Seeing her interact on a full time basis with her baby, reminded me of how her mother interacted with her when she was a baby. She learned from the best and has put all that knowledge into raising my grandson. I’m lucky to have them in my life and I’m excited as my daughter and her husband are expecting baby number two in December. So I get to be a grandfather for a second time, and I am looking forward to it!

This year the trip was definitely a different experience than what I had originally planned or expected it to be, and I broke from a routine I had spent years perfecting. But after experiencing LMT, Little Man Time, and all that went along with it, I am extremely glad that they came with me, and I realized my routine was really not broken at all. It had, in fact, been changed and improved for the better over the routine I was used to following every year.

So yes, it was a different trip this year. But I wouldn’t change one moment of it for anything. With the two of them along, this year’s trip turned out to be the best one yet. The new experiences I shared with my daughter and my grandson have created some wonderful memories that will keep me smiling for a very, very long time to come. 

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So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! It turned out to be one the most joyous weeks of my life!

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