Favorite Summer Memories

 Blogust is hosted by the wonderful  Beyond Elsewhere  and Do What Now?  This is where you write something every day in August. 

Today's post is: What are your favorite Summer Memories?

My favorite summer memories are going on vacation to Virginia Beach, Virginia and  going to see my grandparents in Spring Valley, Il.  The two places could not be more different from each other. My parents met on a blind date when my dad was in the Navy and stationed at VA Beach. His roommate was engaged to my moms best friend from college. She convinced my mom to go with her to see her finance. Her friend told her fiance to find a nice guy for my mom so they could double date. Well, the guy he chose was his roommate. My dad happened to be dating another girl at the time, but he still went on the date because he wanted to help his roommate out. My dad broke up with his girlfriend, and married my mom six months later. 42 years later they are still happily married.  Since they met in VA beach, that became our families vacationing spot every year. When went there, it was pretty much a small town with a great beach. There was a restaurant we went to every morning for breakfast that served the best pancakes ever, and for dinner we would go to this little hole in the wall seafood place. 

 I went to their website to get pictures for this post, and I can't believe how much the city is grown. They have chain restaurants now! They also have upscale hotels! We stayed at The Hilton and that was pretty much as nice as hotels there were at the time. This beach is also special because it's the first & only time my middle sister and were picked up on by two Navy guys. It is such an embarrassing moment, because we were in the middle of a huge fight, and they totally stunned us when they came over to us & started talking to us. 

                                                  Image from Memorable Beach Vacations


My second favorite memory comes from spending the other half of my summer in a little teeny tiny town called Spring Valley, Illinois. Instead of playing in the ocean, my sisters and I played in cornfields and roamed the streets. I had a pack, and when we would drive up onto my Grandma's street, all the neighborhood kids would chase the car down the street. I would hop out and immediately catch up on what had happened. Unfortunately, my pack was all boys and when we hit our teen years we went our separate ways out of shyness, but I still have great memories of playing ghost in the graveyard and hide in go seek in corn that was taller then I was. 

Image from fishhawk on Flickr