For Ian Rae, vacations hold more than a bit of fun; they hold memories. Ever since Rae was four years old, he has gone to Rondeau Park in Canada with his family. 

They have had a cottage in Rondeau Park, which Rae and his family own, right off the shore of Lake Erie. The park is a recreational area, where there are other cottages and campgrounds nearby.

The drive to Canada takes about two hours. It takes about 45 minutes for the Rae family to get from their house to the Ambassador Bridge — the bridge that connects the United States to Canada. From there, they have to stop while entering Canada for security, and finally get to continue to the cottage. In Canada, Rae gets to drive past fields and windmills on the way.

Their cottage was constructed by Rae’s great-grandparents and has been in the family ever since. Rae reported a few problems with the plumbing, but overall, the cottage has been holding up well. It isn’t big, with the family having to be forced to squeeze in.

“It’s really nice that we can get together with our grandparents and my aunts and uncles,” Rae said. “And we can all just have fun together in the summer.” 

Rae and his family do many fun things together in Canada. Outside, they get to hang out on the beach.

About a two-mile bike ride from the cottage, there is a place where Rae and his family can learn to sail, surf and swim. Sometimes he and his family also rent a boat that they can go for a ride on. As Rae gets older, he hopes to continue the tradition of spending time with his family.

Greta Daum-Bost also has a family tradition. Similar to Rae, she spends time on a lake with her family. Every year, Daum-Bost and her family travel up north to have some family time. They stay in various Airbnbs on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Daum-Bost and her family have been going since 2010, when she was born.

On the three-hour drive up, Daum-Bost and her family only stop once at a gas station, but not for food. She enjoys the nice drive up, with the outdoors having more vegetation and plants, even a few hours after leaving. 

“It’s[the outdoors] always much prettier, even just like a few hours out, because it’s[the house] by the lake and there’s a lot more like trees and vegetation,” Daum-Bost said. “So it feels like a much different place, even though it’s not that far.”

Once they’re in their Airbnb, Daum-Bost and her family enjoy going to the beach and exploring the town.

On the beach, Daum-Bost enjoys lying down on the sand and in the sun. Unfortunately, she often gets sunburned while doing it.

In the town, she explores with her family, where they go and visit gift shops. While the town is meant for tourists, it has many fun things to do. It has many different small restaurants and shops that Daum-Bost and her family look at. Normally, she and her family buy something to commemorate the occasion. One of her favorite parts is the ice cream in the town, with her favorite flavor being mint-chocolate-chip. 

The trip takes place in July so that Daum-Bost and her family can celebrate her grandmother’s birthday.

Daum-Bost enjoys being able to get excited about her yearly trip, feeling good to have a stable tradition with her family that she can look forward to every year.

Lu Bliss still remembers his first memorable vacation when he was only seven. He remembers stepping out of his car for the first time and noticing and hating how hot it was. The Palm Trees of Florida surprised Bliss as well.

“It was weird that they had palm trees,” Bliss said. “Because their trees shouldn’t be shaped like that.”

On his way to Florida, Bliss had stopped multiple times to see different places along the way. The one he remembered most was stopping at the Smoky Mountains. It was impressive for Bliss, as it was the first time he had seen them.

In the house that Bliss stayed in with his mom, stepdad and dog, his dog had fully eaten the wooden table in the house.

“My dog ate the table at the rental house,” Bliss said. “It was like that; the table was gone.”

For Bliss, the most memorable part of his trip was the typhoon that hit Florida during his time there. Despite it, he and his mom swam in the typhoon and had fun while doing it. After the typhoon, there were many Stonewall Jellyfish on the beach, some of which Bliss got stung by. While it didn’t hurt him, Bliss recalls feeling numb for a few minutes.

Other than going to Disney as an infant, that was Bliss’s first time in Florida. Since then, he has been again, this time with his little brother. During this trip, Bliss tried lobster for the first time, which he ended up loving. He also went parasailing on that trip, where he went over sea creatures, including many sharks. Despite this, Bliss wasn’t scared, as he was well aware that sharks aren’t able to fly.

Yohanna Garashi still has her first memories of going to Japan to visit her family. Garashi had a unique vacation, where she had a road trip around Japan. Fourteen of her family membersused a bus to drive around Japan, where she saw many different areas, rural and urban.

“It was in the evening, kind of when we finally stepped outside, and it was very toasty, but it wasn’t like an unpleasant kind of toasty.” Garashi said, recalling her first memories of Japan. “And there were lots of lights and sounds, and it was really cool.”

The flight from the United States to Japan was the longest flight Garashi has ever been on. On the plane, Garashi ate rice, fried chicken and broccoli. She thought the food was very good, as well as the plane itself.

They visited different places, from cities such as Tokyo to different Japanese shrines and temples. Garashi also got to attend a Japanese school for the first few days in Japan, as well as visiting her grandparents. She also tried many different foods in Japan, with one of her favorite being the ramen.

Unfortunately, during a few days of the trip, Garashi caught a cold. While it wasn’t a serious cold, she was stuck in bed for a day.

Garashi enjoyed being able to see all of the wonders in Japan, and spend time with her family at the same time.