Although it's the first of October, temperatures around here have been pretty consistently closer to summer than fall (lingering near 90). So, I'll use that for today as my excuse for not posting my summer recap until now. The temps are supposed to drop significantly in the next week and become cool and rainy. My work responsibilities are nearing their shift in season. I've been engaging in some very soul-soothing Fall housekeeping that I hope to continue this weekend. I'm ready to close out the summer season with a list and welcome autumn.
Much of my summer was spent in a rented Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, or Chevy Suburban, hauling supplies and interns all across the state for pop-up fundraising events. I loved every minute of it. I swam in every hotel swimming pool. I introduced my passengers to podcasts. I ate in small-town diners and slowed to 30 through every small-town Main Street. I replaced my morning NPR listening with hotel-room morning VH1 music videos watching (where I became curiously fond of
this gem). I became the mama of the fundraising gang, coordinating not only events but also meals, rest stops, snack stops (small-town ice cream shop? yes please!), gas stops, route maps, and sleeping quarters. I owned the summer work road trip.
An illustration of my travels.Now, on to recap some summer highlights:
June-Celebrated Cameron's birthday with a family baseball game & water balloon fight
-Staffed a motorcycle charity ride in 40-degree temps
-Went to the
Utah Arts FestivalJuly-Vacationed in Washington. I've been letting those vacation photo posts marinate all summer - I promise to someday share them here.
-Day tripped all over the Skull Valley and Rush Valley region west of Salt Lake and ended up camping at
Clover Springs. A photo smorgasbord.
-Went to see Twin Sister and
Beirut play a free concert for the
Twilight Concert Series. Nearly cried it was so beautiful.
-Spent a day at the
Kearns swimming pool splashing, lap swimming, doggie paddling and eating pool snack bar food (Twix! Coca Cola! Nachos!)
August-Day tripped to Mona, Utah to visit the
Young Living Lavender Farm, swim in the Mona Reservoir and search for the fabled
rope swing at Burraston Ponds (worth being lost all day and asking everyone in the towns of Mona and Nephi for directions to a rope swing they'd never heard of).
-Attended
Craft Lake City and a screening of
Handmade Nation at the
Salt Lake Film Festival-Saw the Dum Dum Girls and
She & Him perform a free concert (again, the remarkable resource of
Twilight). Let me report, Zooey sounded amazing live and, dare I say, even more charming than on the albums.
-Rounded out the summer at an intensive week-long training (on software, no less), put up at the
Palms-Las Vegas. Swam
here every evening.
Listing my adventures in this form makes my summer seem, for the most part, very rural and quaint, which I think is exactly the way to take advantage of summers in the great wide open West. I would have liked to spend more time camping, but a sick kitty put the kibosh on any weekenders where neither Cameron nor I were home for medicines and prescription diets. I'm still in a deep love affair with the
Yaris, swimming pools, and learning to appreciate the littleness in the everyday.
(Oh, and please don't mind if posting summer photos on this blog takes us into the winter or early spring. I have many I'd like to share.)
