The end of summer is always bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I am sad to bid farewell to our unscheduled days hanging at the pool, reading in the hammock, and eating late dinners on the deck. Another part of me is ready for the lazy days of summer to end and the busy school-year schedule to begin. But before I get too excited about carpooling and making lunches, I want to remember how much I enjoyed my summer.
This summer was an especially fun one for us because it was filled with traveling. We started the summer off with an amazing trip to Maui in celebration of my father-in-law’s 80th and my husband’s 50th birthdays. Most of the vacation was spent beach hopping along the coast of South Maui, enjoying the clear warm water at Big Beach, Kamole III, Palauea, and Poolenalena beaches. The highlights from our Hawaii trip included multiple sea turtles sightings, delicious fish tacos, colorful rainbows, and stunning vistas on the Road to Hana. While in Hawaii I kept thinking how great our Cuddlefish Towels would be for island living because they’re small enough to keep in your bag so you’d always be ready to hit the beach. Plus the towels would dry almost instantly in Maui’s warm breeze.
Later in the summer we squeezed in two more trips, one to New Hampshire and another to Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, Idaho. Being originally from Montana, I love the mountains because they feel like home. Our mountain vacations were a bit more active than the beach bumming we did in Maui and involved tennis, volleyball, hiking, tubing, jet skiing, swimming, and even a few CrossFit WODs with sisters. But my favorite part of the lake vacation with my family is always the campfires--funny banter, s’mores, old music (The Night Chicago Died, Billy Don’t be A Hero), poem readings (Cremation of Sam McGee, Casey at the Bat), and star gazing. Doesn’t get much better than that!
The last trip of the summer was a quick overnight trip to Richmond, VA to move my daughter back into the dorms for her sophomore year of college. What a difference a year makes--she was so excited to be back and knew exactly where she wanted everything to go in her room. The move in was a breeze (and much less emotional). Plus this year she brought a few Cuddlefish Towels with her so now she has more room for clothes in her closet!