The sun was shining and the grills were sizzling this Memorial Day weekend, and a couple different families chose to spend their Sunday afternoon at Riverfront Park.

Dianna Dixon had a holiday cookout planed for her sister, nieces, aunts, uncles and father at the pavilion in the park, which has views of the bridges and the water.

“This is our first time doing it here. We normally do it at the house,” Dixon said. “This is the first time we decided to come out here to the park. Just to get out of the house.”

The Dixon family had a speaker system set up with music playing and relative Derrick Cole had the grill cooking as the group waited on family from Brandon and Jackson to arrive. A feast of Rotel dip, chips, ribs, chicken, hot dogs and baked potato salad sat on the picnic table.

“We normally do it on Memorial Day,” Dixon said.

She said her plans were to enjoy her family and some barbecue, and the children would probably play on the playground equipment.

Another family spending time at the park Sunday afternoon was gathered around a picnic table eating a chicken dinner from a fast food restaurant.

“We didn’t feel like grilling. We thought about it, but it was much easier to stop and get some chicken. We don’t have to do cleanup, just throw the garbage away,” Mike Arno said, and with less to clean up there was more time to play with the children who were already done with their meal and raring to hit the slides and swings.

Arno of Yazoo City said it was a fun, inexpensive way to spend time with his family in Vicksburg during the holiday. Hazel Morris said it was a good day to just hangout and enjoy her grandchildren.

The family was spending as much time together as they could before one member had to head into work at Ergon.

“I’m just spending time with my family before I go to work,” Reid Saxton said.