Do you remember summertime when you were a kid? Three long months off from school with nothing to do but play from sun up to sun down without a care in the world. But then, we grow up and those three months turn into two rushed weeks of packing and unpacking the car, the kids and all the paraphernalia that goes with them. And all you end up with is needing two MORE weeks just to rest from your "vacation".
So, in honor of unofficial start of Summer, what would be your favorite summer vacation or vacation memory? Is it summering in style at some quaint beachy, coastal village or was it a road trip where you finally saw the World's Largest Ball of String? What do you like to do to while away those summer hours?
12 comments:
official start of summer?! we have been IN IT since april, here in texas. i forget some of you don't get warm until about now (second batch of homegrown tomatoes made into pico today!)
Patti, thats exactly the problem. Every time I think I need to move back to Texas, all of the memories of the HOT Aprils through Octobers I suffered through come rushing back and I come to my senses. However when people complain when it's 85 in August and sooooo hot, I laugh at them...
Fresh pico from homegrown tomatoes! You are cruel....
Bev, I love the long days of summer. And I always look forward to the start of football season, even if pre-season stinks. Depending on where I am, the weather either gets very nice (or it gets sadly hot, humid and oppressive) -- I prefer nice. Plus, everyone seems a little friendlier during the summers.
Bev: Once thing about California, we have whatever you might want in vacation spots. As a little kid, I loved our summers in the mountains at June Lake. My dad got to fish, and I could spend all day on the trails on a horse in the forest primeval. As a teenager, I couldn't wait for school to get out so we could head for our summer home in Laguna Beach. This summer, I'll be enjoying the high desert at my new home. It's windy during the day as the gusts blow through the canyons, and the sun is intense. At night, the temperature drops radically, and though it's very dark, the moon and the stars can be downright hypnotizing.
As a troll, I enjoy cleaning out under the old bridge in Spring and then going to the beach in Summer. :D
You know, MegaTroll, I never imagined trolls liked beaches. I always pegged them as forest or cave-types vacationers. You learn something new every day!
I have great memories of a 1959 family camping trip that included Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, (missed a big earthquake by one day) Grand Tetons, Great Salt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park (snowball fight in August.)
However, as a teenager, I remember playing summer baseball from age 12 through 18. We would hang at the pool in the day and usually were playing 3 nights a week. Loved picking up the pitch in thelights, the smell of leather, the sound of hitting a ball on the sweet spot with a wood bat. The old flannel uni's were tough, though. It was pre-double knit polyester.
One of my most memorable summer vacations is what came to be known as our "Canyon Burnout Trip." We went to Arches natl. park, Bryce canyon, Zion canyon, the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, and maybe even some others in the southern Colorado and Utah area. We ended our trip at Arches and I remember climbing up a red sandstone rock that was still radiating heat from the day and just lying down, watching the stars. Good times. Of course I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have at the time, but obviously enough to remember it fondly as an adult.
It was always fun to walk through waist high foxtails and have dozens of grasshoppers scatter before you. To watch lazy white clouds float against a bright blue sky. To be quiet on the porch early in the morning and hear, but not quite make out, the conversation of the old couple who lived across the road, more than football field away. To watch the curtains at the kitchen window softly flutter. To see small fish break the lake's surface trying to catch a gnat. To have bright blue dragonflies bob and weave all around as I walk past the beautiful wild white roses along the bank. To have actual pen pals that I wrote real letters to on genuine paper, and the excitement I felt when mail came with MY name on it. To race across the field on a breezy day trying to catch a cloud's fleeting shadow. To feel the warmth of the sun on my cheek one minute and be caressed by the cool shade of the catalpa tree the next. To ride my bike down to the old steel bridge across Bluegrass Creek. To look for arrowheads in the freshly plowed fields along the way back home. To stop in wonder at the awesome way the sun made the shadows pop out of the trees that lined the road. To get caught in a sudden, short peppering of raindrops that dried up a few minutes later. To dodge the Barn Swallows and Purple Martins as they swooped in to feast on bugs that took flight when I drove the tractor. To see 3 and 4 foot tall cranes fly in toward the lake at dusk looking for a safe place for the night. To hear the soft hum of road noise made by cars half a mile away, the distant, lonely sound of a train's whistle and look longingly at the lights of distant jets trying to guess where all those people were going. To look for the "V" made by ducks and geese flying in formation when the season began to change. To be fascinated by the stars and frustrated that I could never reach them. To walk down the road on moonlit nights without a flashlight. To watch sparks from a small fire touch the sky. And how great it was to feel my body sink into my mattress at night just before I went to sleep.
Tam, When I was young (10-11), we got in the old station wagon and did the big tour of the American West. I don't think I appreciated it at the time, but I still remember all the highlights to this day. It's amazing how much things like that stick with you even if you don't know it at the time!
USArguy, That sounds almost like it should be a poem or the start of a Mark Twain novel!
Ahhh…to be a kid in the Summertime! Fishing, swimming, blackberry cobbler, watermelon, beaches, the greatest time of life!
Wow, everybody, such poetry. Thanks! Those summer days are sacred times when life was carefree and all things were possible...
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