Monday Memories: Day One of Grandpa Camp in August 2009

Grandpa Camp was an annual event for my grandson Lucas from 2009 until 2012. Lucas was 5 years old (almost 6) in August 2009 and my daughter had a toddler at home in Santa Cruz and needed a break. She put Lucas on a Southwest airplane in the morning and he arrived safe and sound two hours later. The flight attendants, and his seat neighbors, loved him. He talked the whole journey.

I wrote up every day of Grandpa Camp in 2009 on Genea-Musings. Here is Day 1:

I picked up my 5-year-old grandson, Lucas, at the airport on Monday at 1 p.m. and we headed for the Miniature Golf place in Chula Vista and promptly spent about $20 on games. The golf course, the water boats, and the arcade, plus some snacks. Then it was home to have milk and cookies.

Lucas never stops running and playing. We played baseball in the front driveway (he hits, throws and catches, and chases the ball well), and then he played Uno with Grandma while Grandpa rested his eyes.

We went out to pizza for dinner and dropped more cash in the arcade games - he likes the Race Car ones where he can drive on the sidewalk and smash into buildings - it's great fun to watch him. Hopefully, by the time he's 16, he will have had enough practice that he'll stay to the right of the centerline. He ate his pizza and we brought some home for lunches for the rest of the week.

To top off the evening, we went swimming at our friend's home - Lucas is a great swimmer - he dives, he jumps from high places, he dogpaddles furiously and swims underwater beautifully. Marco Polo. Ball tag. Splash wars. We had so much fun. Then it was home for ice cream and watching the Padres game (Pads beat Atlanta 4-2). We put a puzzle together while watching the game.

He finally conked out at 10, which left precious little time for me to write anything blogwise. 

Angel Linda had him guess what was in one of her four-generations pictures while we were riding in the car to dinner. Then when we got home, she showed him the picture. The picture is of Linda’s mitochondrial DNA line when his mother was a baby! I haven't told him about DNA, of course! Yet - I better wait until he is eight and can understand genetics.

Stay tuned for more Grandpa Camp stories. I didn’t take photos until Day 3. I’m tired out just reliving this 16 years later. Lucas is now 21 and has been driving since he turned 16 - he still drives fast. He gamifies everything and loves the challenge of games.

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