When I was young, my family didn’t take summer vacations. Fall, winter, and spring vacations weren’t on the list either. My dad worked super hard to provide for his family, and that’s pretty much what I remember about him as a kid. He worked a lot.

Growing up in the Midwest means I was land locked and hundreds of miles from the ocean. The first time I remember seeing the ocean was a Christmas trip to Galveston, TX my senior year of high school. It was chilly, but I thought it was the most gorgeous, amazing thing I’d ever seen. The first time I actually saw the ocean, I don’t remember it. It was another Christmas vacation to Galveston and I recall getting a cowboy hat and touring the battleship Texas, and loads of kids sleeping on the floor of my aunt and uncle’s house.

The sound of ocean waves rushing the beach is an instant relaxer for me. Water has that effect on me in general, but sitting on a beach listening to the friction between the wind and the surface of the water create hypnotic music. I’ve always been drawn to water. The cliffs in Summer’s End … that was a real place I enjoyed as a teenager.  Fox Creek is actually a small creek not far from where I grew up (I don’t know the real name of the creek).

One summer, some friends and I cruised the countryside on 4-wheeler ATVs. We spent all day driving around. At one point we drove alongside that creek and found a deep pool of water (the current is very mild) and jumped in with our shoes and clothes on to cool off. It was a blast.

Summer is my favorite time of year.  The heat and the long sunny days are what I like most. But, I also love to hear frogs of all kinds, cicadas, the smell of fresh cut hay and grass, the smell of mature wheat being harvested, and the taste of tall field corn in the air at the height of humidity. If you haven’t experienced the Midwest countryside in the summer, you really have missed out.

I’ve already shared a couple video clips on Facebook and Instagram of my families summer vacation, so go on over there and check them out and make sure you say hi!

What’s your favorite Summer Vacation?

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