To Do: Say Goodbye to Summer.

After being back in DC and living my new "grown-up" style life (meaning that I actually have a job), summer seems like a distant memory. But not so distant that I can't blog about it! This post is one of those to-do list things that keeps getting transferred each week to my new list. But alas, I will finally be able to check it off! However, since these events are a few months old now, I am just going to give a quick overview and picture journal of a few of my favorite summertime memories.

A highlight of my time spent at home with family was a trip to the San Juan Islands with mom and dad. Not many 25 year olds would be excited about spending 3 days alone with mom and dad, camping, on an isolated island. Good think I'm not your ordinary 25 year old! (saying that age as much as I can before 26 hits...). So we packed the Subaru and headed off to Lopez Island with 3 bikes, 2 kayaks, and a bucket of granola.

Lopez island is known as being the 'flat' San Juan island, simply meaning that it is flatter than the others but in no way flat. Hence, we didn't exercise our bike pedals as much as planned. Also, being that we picked the 100 degree weather week to leave our beloved poolside alone at home, we imagined that we would make some use of the cool Pacific waters. However, despite the warm weather and our love of cold water (mom excluded), the water was too cold even for us! We managed to wade in to about knee level and that was it! This water was FREEZING. So instead, we did get in plenty of kayaking! Both by day and night. Here's mom paddling through a kelp garden. It was national-geographic-esque.





By night, we found our favorite spot on the water, complete with a prefect dinner picnic table (seen above). We ate (mainly Trader Joes inspired camp cook-able meals) and took turns paddling into the sunset. When we finally packed up the car each night it looked something like this...



Other highlights of the trip included a trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, ice cream, and frequent trips to the local bike shop to fix not one, but two broken tires on subsequent days on bikes that we hardly rode.

On the way home, we happened to be driving through Seattle on Conors 21st birthday! Just in time for his parents to take him out for his first legal (emphasis on the legal) beverage: Vodka Cran. We also went for a swim in Lake Washington to escape the 100 degree heat. The rest of Seattle happened to be there as well.



Back home, I still had a few weeks left to enjoy friends and family before heading back to D.C. Most days were spent lounging by the pool reading Twilight :). Despite this rigorous schedule, I also slipped in a Steven Miller Band Concert, Withers and I made a quick trip up to Yale lake to visit the Hollands and Averys on their camping adventures. This is where I met met my new favorite dog- Carmella.



Overall I'd say it was a memorable summer and 2 months spent back home. And to top it all off, I had this beautiful little girl to spend time with!



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