In 2009 I had the amazing opportunity to have breakfast with my dad and grandpa every few weeks at a local diner. Dad and I would drive out to a small town near where Grandpa lived, about a half hour away. We picked him up and sat down for their Saturday breakfast buffet and bottomless coffee. While it started out as bottomless coffee, Grandpa soon was on a liquid restriction diet, and even one cup was not good for him. See, his kidneys were failing as well as his eyesight and most of the rest of him. That will happen when you cross into your 90s. Grandpa ended up passing away in 2011, but it was these last meals with him that I hold dearest of all my memories of him.
And I have a few.
I grew up in a large family. Not that my immediate family was large but my extended family, Grandpa's 7 kids, 17 grandchildren, 27 great grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren plus spouses, spouses families, close friends, church friends, cousins, etc. were all a part of my family growing up. Truth-be-told, I have never been able to remember half the names of the people who show up to our family gatherings. And at the center of it all, was always Grandpa. With a smile on his face, a positive word, and joy in his voice grandpa was there. We would take over the church basement for a reunion, and no house could contain us for any given holiday.
When I made it to high school and began participating in sports, there were two people I could count on to be there every baseball game, every cross-country meet, every track event: my dad, and Grandpa. Even with all that family, he would make the time to come see me run a 5K or play right field or attempt a long jump. Grandpa was there on the bleachers in the rain or the cold or the heat, cheering me on, letting me know I was important.
As a kid, my family would visit Grandpa and Grandma at their house in the country. It was an old house, the one my father grew up in. But it was everything a kid could want. They had a toy chest containing many of Dad's childhood toys in the upstairs bedroom that my brothers and I would empty and occupy ourselves with. Grandma would make a nice meal, Grandpa always had something awesome to show us. We would head out to his backyard and play in the trees, or pick apples from the crab apple tree to try to feed the neighbors horse, or if we were lucky, Grandpa would let us go through his garage to see what amazing tools and "junk" he had.
The breakfasts though were different. They were one of the first times I interacted with him as a grownup and as a dad. I heard stories of when my dad was young. He told tales of his time serving in the war. We talked about first cars and sports and summers past. We drank our bottomless coffee and I watched him innocently flirt with the waitress (Grandma passed away 20 years earlier, and he never remarried) who was younger than him, but not by much. After breakfast, we would head back to his place and talk about his coin collection, work still needing to be done on his house, the Cubs, his legacy or whatever else we might come up with any given day. These are the days I appreciate the most. This is the lasting memory I have of him. He was a great man, and a grat grandfather. This Father's Day, I am thankful to be able to call him my grandpa.
Nat: We got up and got dressed was the first thing we did. Then we left on a two and a half hour drive for the Toledo Zoo. First we went and saw the Polar Bears, and they were awesome. We got to see the twin Polar Bear cubs play. They were having fun together. We saw the momma lie down, then one of the cubs tried to cuddle with her. Sometimes we would make up little words we thought they were saying by their actions and seeing what they were doing. They also had seals we got to see swimming around. They had two kinds, a Harbor Seal, and a Grey Seal. ( I almost forgot about that)
After that, we went on the train ride across the African Savannah. We saw the African Wild Dogs, (they are different than the Dingos) laying in the shade. We saw the Giraffes and the Zebras and many birds that I don't remember the names of. After we did the first part of the zoo, we got our food from our car so we could have lunch. After we finished our lunch at a shady picnic spot, we went across this bridge that went over the highway to the second part of the zoo.
Then we saw the Tigers and we sort of saw the Lion. Cause the only way we could see it was him as a big ball of fur over the ridge he was sleeping behind. So after we did that, I think we saw some more animals. We saw the Elephants and the Hippos. When we got to the Elephants, we got there just in time. We got to see the momma and her baby get cleaned and get washed and get a little drink. What was so cool was they trained the momma to lift up her feet whenever she saw this bamboo stick so the trainers could work with her. Every time she did a good job, they would feed her some carrots and sweet potatoes as a treat!
Then we went to the little fun place where they had a river walk to play in. They had a little table in this playhouse where you could paint your own face! I painted Godzilla's face as an orange tiger, and painted myself as a white tiger. We had to clean them off in the car at the end of the day because they were melting off our faces from the hot sun. Before we left the children's area, we also went through this secret passage for kids where you could get to this honeycomb climbing wall.
Once we were done with that, we went to see the monkeys. We saw these cute little monkeys with spiky hair called Langur Monkeys. One kept trying to climb up to the window on the door. It was trying to get in because there must have been something it wanted. It was so cute cause it kept falling, but kept trying. It was really fun! We also saw the Gorillas. We saw the Sliverback, the leader of the group come around to the front of the glass.where we were. First he stuck his butt in my face, then he started picking things from the ground to eat. We think they were sunflower seeds. We didn't know for sure. 
We didn't have time to see the birds, because it was time for the zoo to close but on our way back across the bridge, we saw the Bald Eagles again and we saw the wild dogs from Australia called Dingos. Before we left, we got a stuffed animal from the gift shop. I got a fluffy white polar bear cub and named it Blizzard. Godzilla got a really long snake and named it Venom, Vinny for short. Then we came back home and went to bed.
My impression of the whole day was it was AWESOME! The best day I've ever had in my entire life. Even better than Field Day at school. It was so cool and awesome! I can't wait to go back again.
Godzilla: This zoo was even better than my field trip that was the other zoo. My favorite thing was that we got to see the Polar Bears and the Lions. Some tigers almost look like lions! I also loved the Tigers and the Elephants and the Giraffes. I loved the train ride and seeing the Blowfish! 
