Day #132: My Favorite Summer Smell is Sunscreen and Little Boy
I was thinking today as we stood on the beach and both of my kids chucked rocks in the water about a playlist my now husband made for me in 2008 when we were dating and I took off for 7 days in Wales and 3 days in London. And then I started thinking about all the adventures I'm glad I took.
I'm glad I once got on a Greyhound bus and took a job in Iowa when I was 20 years old.
I'm glad that at 23 when my friend and I took off to run a summer camp in New Hampshire we decided to drive there. And then that I got to spend a day off in Hanover, New Hampshire, which remains to this day one of my favorite day trips.
I'm glad I once filled a backpack and went to New Zealand for 6 months, which is how long it took for me to run out of jobs and money. I lived in the Girl Guide Hall that someone had spray painted on "The Girl Guides of Picton Has Been Infiltrated."
I'm glad my husband and I took a honeymoon road trip driving Highway 2 and half of Route 66.
I'm glad I went to NYC for my birthday and sang on the stage at Carnegie Hall because who would pass that up?
I'm also glad I've spend lots of days standing on the beach where I was today with my kids. I remember the feeling of cold rocks on my feet when we were getting over hand foot and mouth. I remember the gray whale we once saw in the inlet on which the beach is located. I remember many many rocks thrown into this water.
Our adventures are somewhat limited these days. Sometimes we find a new park. Or a new trail. Sometimes we revisit the old ones. Sometimes we just drive.
But motherhood has done this to me, too. My passport is about to expire. There are no stamps in it. I have not left this country since before I was married. I rarely leave the state anymore except to see family. And now we have to be where we are because it is the safe smart and reasonable thing to do. And there are worse places to be.
I grew up adjacent to the foothills of Mt. Rainier. On a good day I could see it from almost anywhere. Some of the best views were from the Mervyn's parking lot. Of course, this is western Washington so some months there aren't a lot of good days. We refer to the mountain being "out" like you might say the sun is out. I remember a Mexican exchange student came to stay with us for a month one summer. Her dad was a geologist and she had been told to get good pictures of this mountain. For weeks you couldn't see it and then one day there it was. We pointed it out to her and I remember her double take...a direction you have been looking in for weeks and only seeing gray sky and then one day, boom, there's a mountain there.
I'm much further from the mountain now. It still can be seen but requires a much clearer day and is often hazy. There are other mountains, but not as impressive. And then...some days...boom, there it is...so much clearer than it should be from this far. Today was such a day. It is like coming home when that happens. I remember watching Fantasia 2000 in a movie theater with friends in college. There is a scene in which there is a very Rainier like mountain. My friend next to me, who is from my neck of the woods, just looked at me and did the sign language sign for "home."
Our adventures are smaller these days, but oh, to live in a place like this.
I find that every place has its moments, though. When I was in Iowa I used to tell them how big the sky was and they would laugh at me. But it is. Our skies here are lovely but our big evergreens and mountains, not to mention endless stretches of gray days pen them in just a bit. In Iowa the sunset lit the whole sky on fire as far as the eye could see with nothing to reign it in. Not every place is beautiful. I've been to some really ugly places. Kellog, Idaho comes to mind. But there is a lot of beauty to be found.
I don't know what the lesson of today is, but I feel a little less constrained, a little less on edge, than yesterday. Not enough, as my kids will happily tell you, but a little.
Media consumption: not a ton. James and I started reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic and it was fun to watch him giggle. James and I are at our best these days when we are reading. I am hoping to go finish Rebel Bookseller tonight. It has been such a delightful surprise.
Today I'm grateful for my mountain, friends, books, the beach, to be writing this at bedtime and have Josh hold Max, it finally feeling like summer, and just one more day in paradise.
I'm glad I once got on a Greyhound bus and took a job in Iowa when I was 20 years old.
I'm glad that at 23 when my friend and I took off to run a summer camp in New Hampshire we decided to drive there. And then that I got to spend a day off in Hanover, New Hampshire, which remains to this day one of my favorite day trips.
I'm glad I once filled a backpack and went to New Zealand for 6 months, which is how long it took for me to run out of jobs and money. I lived in the Girl Guide Hall that someone had spray painted on "The Girl Guides of Picton Has Been Infiltrated."
I'm glad my husband and I took a honeymoon road trip driving Highway 2 and half of Route 66.
I'm glad I went to NYC for my birthday and sang on the stage at Carnegie Hall because who would pass that up?
I'm also glad I've spend lots of days standing on the beach where I was today with my kids. I remember the feeling of cold rocks on my feet when we were getting over hand foot and mouth. I remember the gray whale we once saw in the inlet on which the beach is located. I remember many many rocks thrown into this water.
Our adventures are somewhat limited these days. Sometimes we find a new park. Or a new trail. Sometimes we revisit the old ones. Sometimes we just drive.
But motherhood has done this to me, too. My passport is about to expire. There are no stamps in it. I have not left this country since before I was married. I rarely leave the state anymore except to see family. And now we have to be where we are because it is the safe smart and reasonable thing to do. And there are worse places to be.
I grew up adjacent to the foothills of Mt. Rainier. On a good day I could see it from almost anywhere. Some of the best views were from the Mervyn's parking lot. Of course, this is western Washington so some months there aren't a lot of good days. We refer to the mountain being "out" like you might say the sun is out. I remember a Mexican exchange student came to stay with us for a month one summer. Her dad was a geologist and she had been told to get good pictures of this mountain. For weeks you couldn't see it and then one day there it was. We pointed it out to her and I remember her double take...a direction you have been looking in for weeks and only seeing gray sky and then one day, boom, there's a mountain there.
I'm much further from the mountain now. It still can be seen but requires a much clearer day and is often hazy. There are other mountains, but not as impressive. And then...some days...boom, there it is...so much clearer than it should be from this far. Today was such a day. It is like coming home when that happens. I remember watching Fantasia 2000 in a movie theater with friends in college. There is a scene in which there is a very Rainier like mountain. My friend next to me, who is from my neck of the woods, just looked at me and did the sign language sign for "home."
Our adventures are smaller these days, but oh, to live in a place like this.
I find that every place has its moments, though. When I was in Iowa I used to tell them how big the sky was and they would laugh at me. But it is. Our skies here are lovely but our big evergreens and mountains, not to mention endless stretches of gray days pen them in just a bit. In Iowa the sunset lit the whole sky on fire as far as the eye could see with nothing to reign it in. Not every place is beautiful. I've been to some really ugly places. Kellog, Idaho comes to mind. But there is a lot of beauty to be found.
I don't know what the lesson of today is, but I feel a little less constrained, a little less on edge, than yesterday. Not enough, as my kids will happily tell you, but a little.
Media consumption: not a ton. James and I started reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic and it was fun to watch him giggle. James and I are at our best these days when we are reading. I am hoping to go finish Rebel Bookseller tonight. It has been such a delightful surprise.
Today I'm grateful for my mountain, friends, books, the beach, to be writing this at bedtime and have Josh hold Max, it finally feeling like summer, and just one more day in paradise.
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