It’s been quite a summer! The last weekend didn’t go as planned, alas, but the summer on the whole was still good. In my mind summer started with my May 9-13 Paris trip, which was absolutely charmed (unlike the Labor Day trip…). Then I guess it ended with our trip to the Franklin Institute this past Monday with three of five kids. They’re showing “The Art of the Brick” exhibit, and had a huge Lego play area, and the kids spent a solid hour building stuff. I guess it’s more fun when it’s not your own Legos in your own playroom?
Anyway, here’s what I said we’d do, and here’s how it went.
Go to a baseball game. Yep. My husband, 14-year-old, and I went to a Phillies game in June. I enjoyed this and would be willing to go more often though I’m not sure it was anyone else’s favorite. I did not order a beer there (we had a long trip coming up the next day) but I did go to beer gardens twice — once at a local place, and once at Longwood Gardens. The beer garden in Asbury Park is closed so we were not able to go there, alas.
Bike. I went biking solo a fair amount. My bike fits into the back of my car (or what was my car…I guess it’s mostly my son’s now but I still haven’t managed to get a new one…) so I’ve been driving it to a local trail. I can be done with the whole thing in about 90 minutes for a 50-minute bike ride, so that certainly fit on some slower afternoons. We did one family bike ride with 6 out of 7 of us. We did buy another adult bike so now we could do all 7 and may try over the fall.
Do some early AM runs. I have been running more seriously this summer now that I’m signed up for an October half marathon. I definitely did some morning runs (heck, I ran on the treadmill this morning), though my favorites were on the boardwalk over the beach trip. And in Central Park! I took the 17-year-old to NYC for several days (definitely a summer highlight too — though that June trip seems like ages ago now) and I had a lovely 5 mile run around the reservoir.
Go in the hot tub at night. We wound up doing a lot of evening pool trips, which tended to end in the hot tub. This was a great way to get in some TOAD time (time outside after dinner) when it was getting dark late. Now that dark is descending earlier I’m happy we got the pool lights fixed. It feels like something always needs to be fixed on the pool but so it goes. I’m not sure how often I’ll go in the pool with cooler temperatures, but the hot tub should be good for another few weeks (we’ll close it in October).
Go to the beach. Yep, we had a lovely two weeks there in August, same house as usual. I have rebooked for 2025! We did all the usual traditions, including pinball, ice cream, and lobster rolls.
Go to a farmers market. I went to the local one once (maybe twice? trying to remember). This is an item that I’d like to have be more of a summer thing but our local market isn’t that big. Maybe some summer when we’re traveling somewhere…
Do all my research for Big Time. Well, I did my Evening Hours Challenge and have the (significant!) results from that. I’ve got everything set up to run for the Better Workday Challenge in the fall. I did a lot of interviews and I am excited to start writing. I have not done ALL my research but I feel like I have ideas and hooks for most of the chapters. I could write a book with what I have now and I’ll have more material by April 1.
Write summer sonnets. I’ve been writing one a week all summer and, as you might imagine, several are summer related. My favorites are probably the ones I’ve posted here, on tiger lilies, Paris (well, that was more spring), peaches, the beach house, etc. I did listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons summer section (and a lot of Bach, but that wasn’t summer related).
Do something one-on-one with each kid. I did not do official Mommy Days but each kid got a fair amount of one-on-one time for something or other. I took the 17-year-old to NYC for three days, which was a major undertaking. The 12-year-old and I went to the Olivia Rodrigo concert, which was a summer highlight I didn’t know would happen at the start of the summer, but was amazing nonetheless.
Try some nice restaurants with the older kids. My husband and I took the 14-year-old to Morimoto. We took the 17-year-old to an Indian place. I took both boys to Morton’s steakhouse after the Scotland screw-up. The 17-year-old and I went to some nice places in NYC. My husband and I took the older three out for Mexican a few weeks ago and that was fun.
Look at the stars. Well, I looked up. And time in the hot tub at night counts! There was no camping. I’ve realized that camping is something I like in the abstract but am not so keen on in the execution.
Buy some alternatives to shorts. I’ve been pretty happy with my summer wardrobe — particularly my cropped/frayed Nic + Zoe jeans. Now I just have to figure out winter (though I can probably keep wearing these jeans probably for a while…they’re not that cropped because I’m not that tall…).
In terms of other cool stuff, I’m happy that my four older children all had the opportunity to experience a week or more away from home. My older two boys each went to academic camps for three weeks, and the 9-year-old went to sleep-away camp for two weeks. My daughter went to visit cousins for a week. I love hanging out with my older kids when they’re home and I also think it’s important for kids to have some time to develop their independence, where they are figuring out who they are apart from family dynamics. Time off on their own helps build a lot of skills. They all handled it pretty well.
I’ve already got some fun stuff in the works for Summer 2025! So stay tuned for that list next May…
Is Catherine Newman’s “Sandwich” on your TBR list given your summer at the shore tradition? Might be thought provoking!
@Kt – SHU had mentioned that as good. I hadn’t really thought of reading it but maybe!
Putting in a plug for keeping the hot tub open longer. My absolute favorite time to use it is when it’s about 20-30 degrees outside and you get all toasty in the tub and it’s cool and crisp all around you. (Admittedly getting out isn’t amazing, but it’s bearable and usually worth it.) We were told that it’s cost neutral in terms of expense.
Also I wanted to thank you for your detailed description of your NYC trip. We stayed at the Park Lane hotel because of your recommendation, and it was perfect.
@omdg- so glad you liked the Park Lane Hotel! The location really can’t be beat.
We were in NYC at the same time and it does feel like so long ago! I thought to myself, ‘was I really there in June??’ I had a busier season of travel this summer with 3 trips in July so that made the summer go by extra fast. I am glad I didn’t travel in August. Our kids spent 2 weeks away from home – one with us and another with my parents. The 6.5 yo handled it well; the 3.5 yo seems to be punishing us a bit for leaving him there for a week. He’s spent a week with my parents before but was 2 then and I don’t remember this challenging re-entry period! But I know they had a blast and my parents loved all the extra time with them.
I really commend you for your one on one times with each kid. I have three significant childhood memories of time with my parents: once with my mother, once with my father, and once with both. I think the reason these memories stand out is not because of what we did, but because they were the only times I remember being with either or both of them, without any of my four sibs. I wish I’d had more alone time with them.
I started doing our photo album (yep, old school) for this summer and suddenly realized I did manage to do a lot of fun stuff!
I also think it’s great that you create memories with your kids doing one to one trips. I didn’t do those until I took each kid on a one to one trip to Paris for milestone birthdays. I wish I had done it sooner, although I guess I should count all of those one to one college search visits. Some of those resulted in great conversations!
Here is how did for the summer fun list:
1. Visit 2 long time friends this summer. Already planned. We traveled a ton on long trios this winter and early spring. While I’m looking forward to being home more over the summer, I know that spending a couple of long weekends with some of my favorite people will fill my soul. Result: Both friend visits were great! Lots of catch-up, laughter and heart to heart talks.
2. Pick strawberries. Already done. This has been on my list for a few years, but I always wake up and think about it too late in the season. The strawberry place is around the corner from me, so I put it on the calendar for the first time this year and got there in time. Result: We ended up doing it twice. As a bonus, our ever-bearing strawberry plant was very late blooming this year, so I a hoping for more berries during ths mid-September week.
3. Get to the beach at least 5 times. We spent today at a sometimes light rainy Long Beach Island, NJ beach today. Had a free night certificate from IHG in my husband’s account so we booked a Holiday Inn not far from the LBI causeway. We’re only an hour from home, but we had a great meal at a little restaurant nearby (Mud City Crab House) and I got to walk the beach today. Result: I got to the beach 7 times-a record!
4. Go to some events with a Meetup group that I joined. It’s called the Novel Tourist Book Club-they are Philadelphia-based. They pick several suggestions of books to read and pair meetups that are tied to the theme of the book. I’ll be reading a lot in June, since I will be going out for lunch at an Indian restaurant and reading a novel set in India, visiting the largest Indian temple on the East Coast after reading Indian folk tales, and attending a performance of “Our Town” and then discussing Ann Patchett’s “Tom Lake.” This will help me fulfill my desire to explore more things in the Philadelphia area while feeding my voracious reading appetite. Result: I’ve had a great time with this group. It’s nice that it is comprised of women of different ages. Check it out, Laura…..
5. Take a tour with the Central Park Conservancy in New York. This has been on my wish list for years. I will be doing this with my sister and niece in June. Result: It was a good tour-a little too brief, but I saw parts of the park which I have not seen before. I thnk different tours cover different areas.
6 Go to the Mary Cassatt Exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and attend the Friday night cocktail event at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia with my adult daughter. I’ve been to the Rodin Museum in Paris multiple times, but never visited the one in my own area. Result: Mary Cassatt and cocktails near Rodin were great.
7. Go to my 20th Major League Baseball stadium (Washington Nationals) and take in a game. My husband and I are on a mission to visit every major league stadium. We knocked off the 3 SoCal teams on a recent trip, so I’m excited that we’ll be 2/3 done with our quest. Of course, I’m not as excited about the prospect of planning future trips to Houston, Dallas and Atlanta in the heat of the summer….Result: Went to the game and am plotting to hit the Seattle stadium on the way to Hawaii next year.
8. Explore one or more new to us ice cream places in our area. My family enthusiastically supports this one! Result: We found one new place.
9. Go to an outdoor concert. Result: Went to see ZZ Top and Foghat (which none of your readers have probably heard of).
10. Walk outdoors more. We have a trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone planned around Labor Day, so I know that we’ll walk a lot then. Result: It was too beastly hot to walk much in the Philadelphia area this summer. We walked a lot in Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs, as well as in Jackson and Bozeman. Just got back. Bozeman is now my new favorite airport.