Some of the best times of my life were during summer vacation.

After working hard to get good grades during the school year, it was time to blow off some steam over the summer. I just wanted to relax and have some fun. That is exactly what I did, either with my friends or with my parents.

One of the things I am sorry I never got to experience with my daughter, Kirsten, and my late wife, Carol, was a road trip during summer vacation. I used to love our trips no matter where our travels took us.

I can remember packing up the car and heading west one summer to visit my grandfather in Wyoming. It was a long trip by car of course, but we broke it up with several stops along the way. Stops like Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.

Unfortunately, my daughter never got to experience anything like that. Things like heading to California where my brother Chris was stationed in the Air Force. We made the jaunt up to San Francisco to see the spectacular sights there like Fisherman’s Wharf and Lombard Street, or when we headed to Las Vegas.

That is the old Las Vegas too. The one that was not as family friendly as it is now. Not that there was not plenty to see and do for kids back then, but it is nothing like it is now. We also made a stop at Nellis Air Force Base, which is the home to the Thunderbirds.

The best part of the trip was going to the original Disneyland.

I was fascinated by the amusement park, but in particular, the rides like the Haunted Mansion and some of the animatronics. I had never seen anything like that before. It was well before we all got used to seeing such special effects everywhere we go.

Closer to home, it was great to be a kid in the summertime.

When we were not playing some type of sport, we usually were headed down to Lake of the Woods for swimming. In your younger years, you first traveled to the lake to take swimming lessons. Once you accomplished that, you had to work to gain access to the big raft in the deeper part of the swimming area.

You had to pass a test to be able to get out to the raft where all the “big kids” went. Otherwise, you were stuck in the part of the lake with all the other kids who had not yet passed the test or did not want to even take it.

The park was great. There were swings and slides and a cannon that we all used to climb on and pretend to fire it at oncoming pirates. To this day, I am not really sure what the cannon was there for. I am going assume is was some sort of tribute to the veterans.

Summer also used to consist of a couple of months of baseball.

Unlike today, we did not start in April and wrap up in early June. Our season started pretty much when school let out. We would spend June and July playing games in our own league before All-Stars were selected, and we spent August playing in a couple of tournaments.

I played on some pretty good teams, but what I remember most about summer baseball and All-Stars were those wool uniforms we used to wear that were unbearable when it was hot. I swear, you felt like you were going to die some days, especially since I was a catcher with all that gear on.

But I would not trade any of it. It was a great time to be young, and it is a time I will always remember fondly.