Zachs+Moment

Memorable Moment It had been 8 years since we'd last seen my dad's relatives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This could be my brother's first time meeting them. As we disembarked the airplane, I saw my cousins in the distance, but I wasn't completely sure if it was them. Then I saw my Uncle Randy, the weirdest uncle ever. He would do some of the funniest and strangest stuff, like lighting his farts on fire, or just being plain wacky. For sure it was them now. It was awkward. Though I couldn't remember the last time I saw my cousins, somehow I felt I knew them. I felt like I had to introduce them to my brother, but yet, I knew nothing about them. Our greeters gave us huge smiles and adults started conversing straight away, while the cousins smiled and stared awkwardly at each other. My uncle was wearing one of those Milwaukee "cheese head" hats, he plopped it onto my head. We went to baggage claim and collected our stuff, while my aunty and other uncle got the cars. My brother and I got into the car with my uncle Pete, my cousin Graham, and my cousin Tyler who was my age, about 12. Graham was my brother's age, 9. The rest of the family got into the SUV with my other cousin Ashley who was 16 at the time. While the ride back to the house was still a bit awkward, we started opening up to each other now, finding common interests, like Yu-Gi-Oh, and music like Blink-182, and other rock bands. All of my family members on my dad's side were jokers, and so much fun. Once we got to the house, it seemed we'd knew each other from way before. My cousin's two dogs, Chaucer and Sherlock, greeted us with wagging tails and we took our luggage up to the rooms and got settled in. Then we went down stairs to chat. The house was beautiful. They had a large piano, an amazing stone fireplace, a basement; stuff you wouldn't normally find in Hawaii. The house smelled of cinnamon and maple. And it had the feel of one of those real mainland homes. Large and inviting with a white picket fence. It was such a different and exciting experience. Then we saw their backyard. A full acre, with a swing set, and a huge campfire place. This is the place where we ended up spending most of our time. I knew this was going to be fun. Jet lagged from our five-hour flight over, my family rested for the day, relaxing in the shade of the large trees in the backyard. My brother and I played football with my cousins and played with the dogs. Chaucer was my favorite. He was insane, always wanting to play. He would run into the bordering woods of the backyard and come back with a huge tree branch, too big for him to even carry. Sherlock on the other hand was an older dog. But whenever one of us would be lying down on the couch, he would come out of nowhere and start licking in your ear. It was so funny. He was wiser and kept to himself more. Just sniffing around like he was on to something. Just like his namesake, the famous investigator. Throughout the course of this awesome vacation we did so much. One thing I can remember the most was the renascence fair. The renascence fair was probably one of the most fun places ever. There were people all dressed up in their costumes and playing their parts perfectly as if they were really in the middle ages. At the fair we saw a joisting match between four guys on horses. It was gruesome but we knew it was pretend. I got the winner's autograph after the performance, and I still have it in my room to remember that amazing day. Another exiting thing we did was we went to Chicago on a train with our cousins. Although we had to wake up really early to catch the train, it was worth it. There are so many interesting things going on in a crowded city like that. Probably the most memorable thing we did in Chicago was going to the Chicago Museum of Natural Science. There were a lot of cool things there. Better than any museum in Hawaii. My favorite exhibit there was probably these two big, bowl like things flipped on their sides. They were far away from each other but when you spoke into one of them, the person standing in the other one could hear you perfectly. Something funny also happened in Chicago. On our way back to the train station, a drunk guy followed us the whole way saying, "yeah, we're family, we're family!" I thought that it was really funny but it freaked out Ashley a lot. After we got to the train station, the man walked into the candy store and just took a bunch of candy bars and walked out. Then we saw the cashier called someone; probably the cops. There are just too many things to say about this trip. We did so much more than I have time to talk about. It was adventurous, funny, emotional, awkward, and even a bit scary. But overall it was probably one of my most memorable moments.