By the second half of June most teachers have been on their summer break for a week or longer. The teacher groups I belong to on social media always seem to have several members who are surprised by how late the school year goes for some of us. But it evens out - those of us who just started our summer breaks won't have students in front of us again until after Labor Day.
As part of my usual start to summer I had a way to interrupt my personal routine on the calendar. I didn't have one last year, but last spring was an overwhelming pattern interruption, so I didn't miss having my own plan. I did miss traveling and having plans on the calendar, but somehow once summer began I did not struggle with what to do with myself. I couldn't even tell you what I did. Sleep?
This year a friend of mine from high school, who teaches in our home state, came up for a visit a week after her school year ended, which was two days after mine ended. It had been three years since we had seen each other, when we met in Las Vegas for an end of year getaway. This year we took an impromptu overnight to Leavenworth, Washington, a Bavarian style village in the Cascade Mountains. It's a complete tourist trap, with a few blocks of hotels, shops, and restaurants that locals probably wouldn't be caught dead in (unless they work there). But I love to visit once in awhile.
We also went wine tasting in Woodinville, where there are tasting rooms stacked on top of one another. Despite the variety of options all within walking distance of each other, I realized I took my out of town friend to the same tasting rooms I've already been to multiple times. I think I'll have to push out of my comfort zone and try something new the next time I go wine tasting. Maybe.
On her last full day here, we did nothing. We sat in the backyard watching the pets (two cats, one dog, one tortoise) interact with each other. We drank the last of the growler of cider we brought home from our tasting excursion and opened a bottle of wine as evening arrived. It was so peaceful I fell asleep in the sun for a bit and ended up with my version of a sunburn (very pink skin that never hurt, but itched for a couple of days).
Her flight home was in the evening, so we left the house early enough to have lunch and poke around downtown. We hit the sweet spot of weather not being too hot, recent homeless encampment cleanup, and tourists making their way back to Pike's Place. There were crowds waiting for someone to buy a fish so they could see it thrown, a long line in the sun to get into the first Starbucks, and generally enough people in the indoor and covered spaces that we donned our masks even though we are fully vaccinated.
It's a strange time. COVID is beginning to recede from the forefront of all my decision making, but it is definitely still lurking in the background. This weekend we have plans to visit my in-laws for the first time since the start of the pandemic. My husband's parents were champion quarantiners until my father-in-law needed urgent care for an infection. We and they have all since been vaccinated, so we finally feel comfortable subjecting them to our germs.
We have no further plans for the summer. It's a far cry from two years ago when we went to two different countries and two national parks. But it's certainly a step up from last year when we went nowhere and no one visited us.
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