Summer is coming to a close, and it is always a very bitter sweet time for me. I’m a parent of a soon to be high schooler, so I quietly dread these next four years, but no matter what the year ahead brings, I really do hate to say goodbye to summer.
I’m guilty of reminiscing and romanticizing about my childhood summers. Days that meld into nights with no plan, no real playdate, no prearranged ghetty, no expensive lunch or dinners out, and definitely no mani’s and pedi’s. We won’t even talk about the fact that my first nail salon visit was when I was 22 living in New York City…
My neighborhood friends and I lived on our bikes, in the pool, and playing board games on rainy days. Nights were usually spent playing softball or watching my brother’s baseball games and always topped off with an ice cream run. On the occasional night off from sports, we would play games outside in the dark with the neighborhood kids and it seemed no one ever had to go inside. Those were different times, and ones I will always cherish.
As an adult I have made choices that don’t really allow for my daughter to live such an independent, free spirited life like that, not to mention we live in a very different time now. Our choices living in big cities are a bit more planned, calculated due to driving conditions, and a little less independent. Yet, I do try to instill the innocent pleasures of summer to my daughter as much as I can and she seems to embrace much of it….of course until Netflix calls, or her friends are going to the mall.
Since my late twenties I have been spending my summers on the East End of Long Island. This has become my second home and this is truly where I can relax and relive some of my favorite childhood past times with my daughter and husband by my side.
We go to the beach almost everyday, we eat at the beach side shack, we swim in the pool, we go to the farm stands, we eat ice cream almost every day, we still visit the duck pond and the local candy store, we play putt putt golf, we do smores on the beach, we watch fireworks, we go to a movie theatre as opposed to watching our 9 x 11 inch screen (oh, what’s the wifi password again?), we ride bikes and go to the park, we exercise in the park (who needs a gym?), we barbeque and we watch family movies at home.
It’s not all paradise, trust me, the 21st century teenage kid rears her beautiful head every once and while, and the prices definitely aren’t the same, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
This is my special place, and I thought I would share a few photos of my trip with all of you that express why I love it here:
