Then Versus Now

Now that summer is officially underway, I thought this would be a great time to talk about what summer means to us all. I have written before about what summer was like when I was a kid, so I thought that today I would talk about the then vs. now. 

Then: We used to have a campfire every weekend. We would roast marshmallows and hot dogs and just stand there, flipping from front to back to keep both sides of us warm after a cold river swim. Now: I might whip out the backpacking stove on a trip to make coffee or rehydrate my dinner, but I am not really a big campfire person. I guess part of it is that it smells and I am going to be wearing the same clothes for several days and they are already going to be smelly enough, so I don't really want to walk around smelling like a forest fire on top of it all. The other part is that sometimes there are a ton of mosquitoes and I would rather just chill in the tent and read. In other words, I am a party pooper. 

Then: We used to sleep outside in the backyard in the summertime. All of my cousins would be there and we would be lined up, sleeping bag to sleeping bag, under the stars. Now: While I have never slept in my current backyard, I definitely still sleep outside on a regular basis! A modern summer usually involves at least two weekends and and at least two weeks of camping and backpacking each year! I don't cowboy camp (sleep with no tent) as much as I did then, but I do like to sleep in the tent without the rainfly on it and gaze at the stars through the mesh! Another big change is that I use a sleeping pad now, whereas we used to sleep right on the ground. 

Then: I would spend a couple of weeks each summer with my aunt and uncle, who live in the Bay Area. I could eat what I liked, watch MTV all day, hang out with my baby cousins, and go watch the Giants with my uncle. Now: I live in the Bay Area; I usually go to at least one Giants game per year, and I eat what I like, although I guess now I should be providing my aunt and uncle with their favorite foods instead! Also, my baby cousins all now have babies themselves! 

Then: We used to spend endless hours at the river, swimming, chasing white rocks, having contests of who can stay under the water the longest, or swim across the river the fastest, or throw a rock the furthest. We could entertain ourselves for hours. We used to do endless loops of floating down the rapids in a tube and then walking a half mile back up the river and floating down again. Now: I still jump in a body of water any time I get the chance, but I don't spend the same amount of time in the water. Last year we did have a cousins weekend and we all went to the old swimming hole and swam and jumped off the rocks and it was almost like old times, except we are all more careful not to hurt ourselves these days (sigh, getting older is hard sometimes). On the flip side, we had better snacks! 

Hanging at the beach with Broski

Then: I had to work every summer because my parents owned their own business and summer was the busy time. Many weekends had events and this is where I could really make and save some money, which I would then use to buy my own school clothes later in the summer. Now: I still have to work every summer but now I try to take a week off for each of the summer months and go somewhere and get outside! Unfortunately, I also still have to buy my own school clothes. 

What were summers like when you were younger? What things do you still do now that you did back then (or how have things changed if they have)?

Looking Back: June

June is a transitional month, one of warm days and long nights. It is a month where your 5 am run is barely even in the dark. It is a month of planning days and weekends and weeks in the future.

Running: Although this was not my highest mileage week, it was a monumental one, in which I finished a 100 mile race near Bryce Canyon in Utah! In the past several months, I was starting to get a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. However, in the weeks before, and definitely once I started the race, I knew I was going to see that finish line by hook or by crook. I ended up the month with 196 miles, 100 of them due to the race, and I climbed about 30,000 feet.

Reading: Due to a bit of travel as well as an increase of audio book time, I ended up reading 8 books in June. Many of them were just so-so, but there were a few standouts, such as Small Great Things, which is about racial issues, and To the Bright Edge of the World, a story about Alaskan exploration.

The Bones of Paris ***
The Aviators Wife ***
Small Great Things ****
Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? ***
To The Bright Edge of the World ****
American Sniper ***
Minding Frankie ***
Evicted ***

Travel: I feel like I was barely home in June, as I spent two weekends in Santa Cruz and one in Bryce Canyon. The Santa Cruz trips were full of visiting and walking and seaside views, while the Bryce trip was hot and sweaty and beautiful in an entirely different way. I will let a few photos do the talking for this.

Holy hot, batman! Bryce, UT (photo credit: E.V.)

Willis Creek, UT (photo credit: C.A.)

  

Fall Creek, Felton, CA

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Etc.: What else is happening? Not much! The garden is growing, but the yard is not mowing itself unfortunately, so most of my spare time has been spent just barely keeping things from looking like a hillbilly lives at my house!

Purposeful cucumbers and volunteer tomatoes -- mid June

Plums! Mid June

Tomato Jungle and volunteer squash -- Mid June

Corn, I hope. Beginning of June

Radish! Get out the salt!

Tomato Ladder, beginning of June

What did you do in June? What was your favorite book? Have you done anything new or exciting lately?

Summer Flurries

Some things fill up fast in the summer and lately I have been in a mood to plan. This means the summer weekends are nearly all booked! Here are some of the things I am looking forward to in the next few months:

Oregon:  In a few weeks, I head north for the Gorges 100k, which will not be my best race, but it will be a lot of fun, and I expect some great beer at the end. Later this year I will go to Sisters for my annual girls' trip with my friend, her two girls and her mom. This year her sister and three kids are going to join us, so it's going to be a gaggle of girls!

Mt. Washington, Oregon

Yosemite: I have been several times, but can never get enough. So much so, in fact, that I have not one but two trips planned to the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite this summer. The first trip will be in May for my parent's anniversary and the next will be in August for some trail running and hiking. I got really lucky and got a campsite (you basically have to camp on line all the time until one opens up) for both weekends. I am really looking forward to some fun times out in the mountains!

Colorado: Lisa and I just booked a weekend in Colorado in late May where we will do lots of hiking. Check out this site, which has a ton of great looking hikes! I only hope that the snow is gone enough for us to do some of the higher routes. However, if not, we are happy to go wherever the wind takes us! I am really excited because I have always heard about how great the hikes are in Colorado, and have even been looking into some Ultraracing there. This will be a great preview for possible trail races as well as a fun time with a friend who I have not seen in a while!

Tahoe:  TRT Training Run: Last year I did this, and it was a ton of fun. This is a weekend in June where you go up to Tahoe and do back to back training runs on the weekend. This is a great way to get used to the elevation while also enjoying great scenery and hanging out with a bunch of great people.  TRT: The actual 100 mile race is in July and I am looking forward to finishing this race and having a great time doing it!

Tahoe Rim Trail

Europe: A friend of mine got into UTMB, which is 100+ mile race around Mont Blanc, and I am planning on heading there with her for some running, hiking, good food and a bit of exploration. Things are really just starting to come together, so I will have more on this later!

Mayerhofen, Austria

Besides these fun travel plans (and I love the planning them!) the weekends are also full of races, family time and other events which have pretty much taken up every weekend. I am not complaining, but I will have to start booking some "free" weekends before I get too crazy!

What do you have planned for this summer? Where has been your favorite place you have ever traveled to? What is your favorite place that you go year after year?

Fish Are Jumping and The Cotton is High

First, join us over at Women Rockin' The World, Topic: Food, where Sarah talks about Biker Food. Later this week I will talk about Being a Vegetarian in Argentina, the Beef Capital of the World. Don't forget, if you have a travel story, we want to hear it!

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And now for our regularly scheduled post. A while ago, my friend Lisa did a post about her childhood and some of the things she remembers for each season. Her first installation was Summer and she invited us to join in. I better jump on that boat before it sails! So, here are a few things, Lisa style, that I remember from...When I Was A Child.

Cousins: Every summer my cousins would come and stay with us and we would do everything together. Even though they annoyed me half the time (especially one, but I am not going to name names), it was great having them around and they were all like brothers to me (and one little sister). We would go to the beach, play board games, watch movies, throw water balloons, annoy each other and do all those other things cousins do.

The Beach: Nope, I did not live near the ocean. However, I was only steps away from the beach at the river! We used to go to the beach almost every day. We would play the white rock game, where you throw the white rock (quartz) into the water and everyone races to get to it first. Whoever gets there first gets to throw it the next time. (We also used to do that with pennies in the pool).  We would build sand castles and bury each other up to the neck in sand. We would have swimming races and contests to see who could hold their breath under water the longest. It was all so much fun!

My brother and I. Notice the beer cans? Good times!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Don't ask me why, but this, along with Gulliver's Travels, were our two favorite movies to watch for at least one summer, if not more. I remember being grounded becuase I threw sand at my brother and my two punishment choices were (a) no beach the next day or (b) no movie. I chose...no beach the next day! WHY!? I guess it was an instant gratification thing.(p.s. Remember when he makes the mountain out of mashed potatoes? We used to do that all the time!)

Mudballs: We used to have contests to see who could make the best mudball. By best I mean, it has to be very round and smooth and when you throw it, it CAN'T BREAK. If it breaks, you did not make a very good one. There is an art to this, believe it or not. I can't tell you the secret though, or I would have to kill you.

Working: Yup, I said working. My parents used to run a summer resort, with cabins, tubes for rent, a bar, restaurant and general store. Many (MANY) hours of each summer was spent working. I didn't necessarily enjoy it at the time, but now I can look back upon those times and laugh. I remember having to be the tube renter girl. I had to sit with all the tubes and fill out paperwork and take money when people wanted one. It was near the beach. However, I could not GO to the beach, but I could hear everyone else having fun at the beach while I was stuck renting tubes. It sucked.

Reading: When I wasn't working, watching movies with my cousins or going to the beach, I was ALWAYS reading. I remember reading anything I could get my hands on. I would read my Mom's Agatha Christie books. I must have read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (my favorite) about a million times. I love Laura Ingals Wilder and Nancy Drew and CS Lewis. I read the Sweet Valley High series and all the John Grishams and even my grandma's trashy romance novels (when I was a little older, of course).

Campfires: We used to have a campfire almost every weekend night. We would roast marshmellows and eat s'mores and roast one side of our bodies at a time (oooh my legs are burning! Turn around! Ooooh now my butt is burning!) We would go swimming at night and then go stand at the campfire to dry off and warm up.

Sleeping Outside: The best part of summer is that we used to put a mattress in the back yard and we would sleep outside in our sleeping bags under the stars. We would count shooting stars and tell ghost stories and talk about the adventures we were going to have when we grew up.

The Big City: When I got a little older, I used to go and visit my Aunt and Uncle in the Bay Area and they would take me school clothes shopping and we would go bike around San Francisco. I felt so grown up hanging out with them.

At Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco (Yes, I know my sweatshirt is awesome, but NOT as cool as Uncle's PANTS!)

Ah, childhood. Wasn't it great? What were your fondest memories of your Summers as a child?

Beautiful Summer

Henry James once said that the two most beautiful words in the English language were “Summer Afternoon”. Personally, I tend to agree. There is nothing better than a warm day, sitting near the water with a book in hand, watching the day go by oh so slowly.

However, in the last…almost ten years, I have really not even noticed the passing of the seasons in the least bit. First I lived in San Francisco, where there is only gray and fog with the occasional burst of sunshine. However the sunshine is not in the “summer” but instead in the strangest of times – April, May or October. After San Francisco, I lived in London and Istanbul – London was mostly rainy (I was there in the “summer”) and Istanbul was mostly hot (I was there in the “fall”). No normal seasons there! Then I spent some time in Florida and Louisiana. Again - no “summer”. There is only hot, hotter and hottest. Oh and muggy, muggier and muggiest.

I miss the time of year when winter slips into to spring, where the first buds come up and the countryside is so green and new. I miss the fall, where the trees turn fiery orange and red and you can feel that slight bit of crisp in the air. I miss the winter – the sledding, the snowball fights, the pink cheeks and hot chocolate.

But most of all, I miss the summer. I miss the cold water of the Feather River. I miss laying on a huge rock trying to get warm before jumping back into the cold water. I miss having a beer on the porch at 10 o’clock at night when it is still warm. I miss the midnight dips in the river. I miss fishing, swimming, camping, hiking, barbeques and family times.

This year I am going to “take the summer back!” I may not be in a place where I have a so-called summer, but I am going to make my own summer wherever I am. Last month I went camping and hiking in Canada. Yesterday I went fishing in my grandmother’s pond. I went swimming in the ocean. In August my grandmother turns 75 and we are going to have a big party in the park where we will hang out with family, swim and barbeque.

Perhaps if I can bring all the elements of summer together bit by bit, once again I can experience the most beautiful of the beautiful – my very own “summer afternoon”.