Memoir 2

   Two summers ago my family, aunt, uncle, and cousins from California came back to Minnesota for a week. We all went up to Nisswa, a small tourist town near Brainerd and Baxter. There's a resort on Gull Lake that we stay at every other year with them. We stay in a condo near the indoor and outdoor pool. My grandparents who live in Baxter bring their boat and we go fishing and tubing.
  
   One of the days we were there we decided to go to the turtle races. My cousin Sarah and I decided we wanted to race together. I was standing in the middle getting ready to set the turtle on the ground to race. The turtle was a big dark green monster. It had sharp claws that kept scratching at my hands, and it's head kept sticking out like it was trying to eat something. After I set it down to race, it zipped across the pavement and right before the finish line it walked sideways. Stupid turtle. Sarah's didn't win either. We all went go-carting instead.

   My other uncle, Rob, and cousin, Kyle come from the cities and stay with my grandparents. Usually we go around the Fourth of July, so we do fireworks and stuff. It's really exciting. Two years ago we went to this hill by some building, and we watched the fireworks. They were huge. Bright. Loud. And right up in your face. We were really close to them because they were doing them at the bottom of the hill, across the forest, and in the lake on the barge. It looked like there were a hundred different colors, shapes, and designs.  When we were done we did sparklers and went swimming in the pool before midnight.

   That was one of the best vacations I've had there.