June 1988: California Vacation

June 14, 1988: Los Angeles

Steve and Charlene drove us to the Grand Rapids airport. We went from Grand Rapids to Chicago O’hare airport. We had a 1 hour layover in Chicago. We left Chicago at 10 a.m.


Carol was there to pick us up at the Los Angeles airport. She drove us in her sports car to Aunt Elsie Lang’s trailer. We had a nice lunch. Carol drove us around Stanton, which was where Elsie lived. We stayed at Aunt Elsie’s overnight. She gave us her waterbed, which was pretty cool. 



June 15, 1988: Beverly Hills

We took a tour on the Pacific Coast Tours to Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Sunset Strip, Rodeo Drive, the Farmers Market, and Universal Studios. There were 3 different looking buildings in LA that had a revolving restaurant. This is where the show “It’s a Living” was filmed.


In Universal Studios, we took a tour of where “Charles in Charge”, “Out of this World”, and “Simon and Simon” were filmed. Tom Hanks was filming at Universal Studios, but I didn’t get to see him. I saw the restaurant they used in "Back to the Future" and the log cabin used in the "Great Outdoors".


We got back to Elsie’s around 7:30 p.m. and watched TV. Elsie fed us very well while we stayed with her. She was such a wonderful lady.


She made bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. I still talk about those bagels and cream cheese with her.


June 16, 1988: Spruce Goose and Queen Mary

We went to Spruce Goose and Queen Mary on Gray Line Tours. I learned about the largest airplane ever built. We went to Ports O’Call to do some shopping. We took a cruise around the harbor of Ports O’Call. I thought that part was boring.


June 17, 1988: Disneyland

We went to Disneyland in Anaheim, which was off of Harbor Blvd. We drove Elsie’s late husband's car there, which was so old and hard to drive. It was hard for my mom to put on the brakes.


We got to Disneyland and rode a bunch of rides, such as Space Mountain, Autopia, Haunted House, and Submarine Voyage. Space Mountain was pretty cool. It was a roller coaster in the dark. There were stars on the ceiling which was pretty cool. It went backwards, too. While we were in line, I was reading all of the warnings about the ride and started to get scared, but I ended up going on it. My Mom and I freaked out on it, so we only went on it once. But, now I can say I have rode Space Mountain.


June 18, 1988: Mann’s Chinese Theater

Carol Caliva went with us to Mann’s Chinese Theater to get tickets for the Star Home tour in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Hombly Hills. We saw the homes of Ed McMann, Lucille Ball, Dick VanDyke, Johnny Carson, Aaron Spelling, Eddie Murphy, Burt Reynolds, and Lonnie Anderson. It was a 2 hour tour.


Carol drove us to California State University to the Westwood Shopping area. I bought a green sweatshirt that said "Universite of Beverly Hills" and Rodeo Drive in pink letters on it. Carol bought a white, long sleeved t-shirt that said "Rodeo Drive" on it. We ate at a Hamburger Hamlet. When we got home, we watched "Golden Girls" and "227" on channel 4.


June 19, 1988: Crystal Cathedral

Today, we went to a church service at the Crystal Cathedral. Robert Schuller was the famous pastor of the church. He had his son, wife, and 4 children at the Father’s Day service. This show was filmed for TV. I was hoping we would be seen on TV.


Later, we went to Knott’s Berry Farm. We went to an ice skating show which was good. We also went on a ride called, Bigfood Rapids, that really got us wet. We had their famous chicken dinner. There is nothing like mashed potatoes, gravy, and homemade biscuits.


Elsie was kind and bought me some gold earrings in the gift shop at Knott’s Berry Farm.


June 20, 1988:  Solvang

Today, Carol, Elsie, my Mom, and I rode to San Simeon to go to the Hearst Castle.  We drove along the mountains of the Pacific Ocean.  It was gorgeous. 
Stopped in Solvang, which was a German community with many shops.   We had our first experience eating potato pancakes.   I think I saw the actress, Traci Gold, from the show, "Growing Pains", as I came out of the bakery. 
 
We also went to a show and learned some things about the Hearst Castle.
 
When we got to San Simeon, we stayed at the Holiday Inn.  Our plans got all goofed up because Carol's travel agent told us the wrong hotel.   We had a door that divided our rooms together.
 
June 21, 1988:  Hearst Castle

 
We took tour #1 of the Hearst Castle.  The castle was all white and huge.    
 
My Mom tried to hint to Carol that she wanted to go to the Winchester House, so Carol drove north to San Jose.   We stayed at the Best Western Sandman on Trimble Road in San Jose.
 
For dinner, we went to this restaurant called, "The Peppermill".   All of the waitresses had real short outfits.  We liked the atmosphere around us, but our food didn't taste very good.   I laughed when I saw Elsie looking up at the mirrored ceilings trying to see under the waitresses' skirts.
 
June 22, 1988:  Winchester House
 

Today, we went to the Winchester House and took a tour of the mystery house.  Sarah Winchester was told by the spirits that the house needed to be built with 13 steps, 13 tiles, etc.   If she didn't do this, then she would die because she was killing someone in the Winchester family.   The gardens at the house were gorgeous.
 
June 23, 1988:  Diane Patterson/Medieval Times

 
Today, we slept in while Elsie got her hair done.   We washed our clothes in the laundry at her park.   In the afternoon, we went shopping in Bueno Park Mall.  
 
At night, Diane Patterson, came with us to Medieval Times, where we ate chicken, soup, spare ribs, potatoes, and cheesecake with our hands.   While we ate, we watched a horse and knight show.  We were on the red team.  
 
June 24, 1988:  San Diego Zoo
 
We took Fun Bus Tours to Old Town and to the San Diego zoo.  The zoo was ok, but you couldn't see many of the animals because of all of the plants in the way.
 
June 25, 1988:  Ed's House

 

Shopped at Mervyn's store.  We went to Ed's house on Segal Street.  Then, we stopped at Carol's house on 11308 Edgefield Street in Cerritos, California.  We had dinner at an authentic Chinese restaurant around the corner from her house.   I got a ride in Carol's boyfriend, Eddy's red sports car.   We went on the 39 and 605 freeways.   He taught me how to use the stick shift.  Eddy is Cuban and has dated Carol for several years.
 
June 26, 1988:  Knotts Berry Farm

 
Elsie, Mom, and I went to breakfast at Knott's Restaurant at Knott's Berry Farm.    At 1:30, Diane and Bob came over and we went to the Griffith Observatory.   We could see the Hollywood sign from the observatory.  We had dinner at the french restaurant, Mimi's cafe on Beach Blvd. 
 
June 27, 1988:  Catalina Island
 

We left for Catalina Island on an 18 mph boat that took about 2 hours.    We had lunch at Busy Bee's restaurant.   We took a tour of the casino.   The ride back on the boat was very rocky and I got seasick.

August 1987: Introduction to the Lawver and Klee Families

In August 1987, I went on my very first camping trip with my Uncle George, Aunt Marianne, and cousins, Kim, Wendy, and Joy. Marianne thought that it would be good for me to be around other kids my age.


We went to Silver Lake many summers and stayed at the State Park.


I fell in love with Jase Lawver, the minute I met him.    He was the cutest boy I had ever seen. He had big brown eyes and brown hair.     The older brother, Chad, was also very nice.    Their younger brother, Adam, was 4 yrs old at the time.   Skip Lawver was the jokester of the group and Jo Lawver was very nice, too.

Harold Klee was another of the jokesters of the group. His wife, Cheryl, was an elementary school teacher. They had two daughters, Heather and Dawn. Heather was 1 yr older than my cousin Kim and Dawn was about a year older than I am.

My Uncle George met Harold and Skip in Ypsilanti.  Harold, George, and Skip were roommates.  They have been friends ever since.


It was good to have all of these father figures around, as I no longer had that influence in my life.


Harold always used to joke around that they were going to have to initiate me into the group by dunking me in the lake.


Skip was famous for his school group where he would have all of us kids sit around in a circle and teach us funny things. One time, he held us upside down and made us recite the alphabet backwards. We would laugh so hard.



I had gone to New York City in July, so had a lot to say about the trip.


Many times, the camping trips would fall around my birthday in August, so they would celebrate my birthday with cake and presents.


Skip loved to talk about how he conceived each of the kids. We would all die laughing about how one of them was conceived in a cornfield.


One of our favorite past times was for the kids to play cards. Our favorite game was “Bullshit”. That was so much fun. I knew when Jase or Chad were lying, as you could see it in their faces.


Heather Klee was the oldest girl in the Klee family, who went to the University of Michigan and received her Master’s Degree from Pepperdine University.   
Her sister, Dawn, who was a year older than I, enjoyed gymnastics. Later on, she did a lot of coaching of the gymnastic teams.



I remember when Jase was around 15, I taught him to drive in my first car. I was so excited every time I saw him.


One year, we stayed at the state park in Traverse City and went to Mackinac Island for the day. I was so excited when I could ride bikes with Wendy, Chad, and Jase on the island. I was in love with Jase for many years, until I grew up. I took many pictures and couldn’t wait to get them developed.


The tradition of going on the three family camping trips continued each year until shortly after I moved back from Chicago in 2001.

These families continue to be a part of my extended family, for which I truly blessed.

Summer 1987: New York City

Mom and I flew to New York City to see the sights. We stayed in downtown Manhatten. We went to the Broadway play, “Chorus Line”. It was quite good. On our way out of the theater, we were walking and I looked over and noticed a 6th grade teacher from Lincoln Park, Miss Majeski. What a small world!! She took us to this restaurant, where the movie stars dine. She knew I liked to see movie stars, so gave us a bunch of ideas of where they could be seen.

We saw a taping of a morning talk show starring Mariet Hartley. I got my picture taken with she and her host. That was my first experience seeing a show taped.


We went to the Statue of Liberty and walked up all of the steps to the crown. The stairs were spiral towards the top and it was so hot that day. I thought we would never make it to the top.



We had a wonderful lunch at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. We both felt like queens for the day. We ate in the flower room, where there were many chandeliers. I think this was one of the fanciest lunches I had ever had in my life.


Mom and I went to the top of the World Trade Center and saw a beautiful view of the city. We had breakfast there in a restaurant on the top floor.


Overall, this was a fantastic vacation. We both had a wonderful time.

September 1986: 6th Grade

My 6th grade teacher at Lincoln Park was Mrs. Boonstra.      She was our teacher half the year, but had some illness, so we had alot of substitute teachers.   I remember being voted in as President of the class for a month, which I was so happy about. I got to sit at the desk at the front of the class next to the teacher.   I got to grade papers for the teacher, which I thought was awesome. Some of my good friends were:   Shannon Rynberg, Tania Smith, Kristen Vogas, Brooke Nason, Kara Filius, and Matt Johnson.   

I still hated to go out to recess, especially when it was cold and snowy outside.  That is when I got the opportunity to work in the office for the secretary during her lunch hour. I took phone calls, scheduled appointments, and made copies for the teachers.   I loved it because I didn't have to go outside for recess after lunch.    I also took messages for our principal, Mr. Howe.  I felt very important in this position.  Mr. Howe seemed to like how well I did in the office.     

Summer 1986: Wisconsin Dells

Mom drove us to Wisconsin for this summer vacation. We visited the Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo (Barnum and Bailey circus), House on the Rock in Spring Green, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Architectural home. I thought it was pretty neat that we got to go on this boat that would change into a motor vehicle when it came out of the water.

We had a hard time getting a hotel in Wisconsin Dells, as there was a convention in town. We drove for miles looking for a place to stay and found nothing, so we ended up sleeping in our Ford Tempo at a truck stop. That was so uncomfortable. The next night, we were able to find a hotel at the Dells, which was much nicer.

1985: John Kulikowski's Wedding

Had a good time at the wedding reception for John and Debbie Kulikowski. Had fun dancing with Alexia, Alissa, and Aleah. Usually, I get bored at weddings, but this wedding was fun.

My Mom was real sad. This was the first wedding she went to without my father. When it got to the slow dancing, she just started to cry and got upset. I don’t remember her crying a whole lot when my father died, as she was trying to be as strong as possible. But, I think she needed to cry and get it out of her system. I felt bad for my mom at the wedding. I didn’t want to leave as I was having fun, but I knew I needed to be with her. She had been so good to me.

October 11, 1985: Dad's Ashes

On October 11, 1985, my friends and I were looking at my dad’s ashes in this urn. I think it freaked my mom out. It was weird to see my dad’s bones and such all made into small pieces. It was sad for me to see those ashes.



My mom knew how my dad loved Lake Michigan so we decided to throw his ashes out into Lake Michigan. We went out at night and walked the Pere Marquette Pier in the dark and spread his ashes at the end of the first stretch of the pier. I remember the two of us crying as it was so hard to do that. Who would have ever imagined that my father would take his life.

Before he died, we were thinking about moving to Florida, as he couldn’t find a good job in Muskegon. Plus, his parents were living down there in the winter months.

Sometime around that night, my mother had this vision, which I truly believe to this day. It wasn’t a dream, but it was God and my father letting her know that she was going to be OK and that she was going to find a job that she truly enjoyed. They also told her not to worry about her daughter, Amy, as I would be successful.     To this day, I always believe in that.  I don’t think it was a dream, but truly God and my father talking to us.