Summer Kickoffs
Written By Jennifer King Lindley
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Click here for a Summer Fun List printable and a Summer Fun Chart printable to track your summer fun.
PJ's all day, the first splash in the pond, an after-dinner stroll with the cat . . . all sure signs the season has arrived.
Every summer, my husband, two kids, and I pack up our station wagon in Indiana, readying for a two-day journey to my sister's house on Cape Cod. We're veterans by now: We know just how many M&M's are needed to keep up morale, and how to cram the car so full it won't hold even one more towel; we know which hotels near the midpoint (and sometimes the breaking point) have indoor pools and waffles at the free breakfast buffet, and where to cadge a latte on an otherwise desolate stretch of interstate.
A thousand or so miles later, we get our first whiff of salt in the air, and soon our car crunches onto the gravel driveway. We lurch out, stiff-limbed. Hannah, Ethan, and their cousin Charlotte hop with excitement; Scout and Wednesday, two ancient yellow Labs, greet us with full-body wags, investigating the french fry wrappers that billow in our wake.
But I don't really feel like we've fully arrived until we've dumped our stuff in the little guest room and taken a walk down to the pond. It's a ritual we'll repeat almost every afternoon of our stay, rain or shine. My sister and I, designated pack animals, tag along after our kids, toting rafts, sand shovels, and drinks. We cut through the sand pits, past low bushes of tiny wild blueberries, until we get to a trail opening so unremarkable you could easily miss it.
In the shade of the woods the kids pause, remembering to look for toads as small as their own thumbs. We walk singlefile down the pine- needle-covered path, stubbing our toes on tree roots. All of a sudden the trail's incline drops away and we see the water below. The kids shriek and race off, abandoning their towels. I hear their splash, splash, splash, thwapp — the sound of summer beginning.
Next: Reader's Summer Traditions
