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This summer we are exploring Apalachicola and St. Augustine, Idaho's mountains on a shoestring, the French Alps, New Caledonia, Kure Beach, Kauai, and crossing the Yukon into Alaska. It will be our last summer before children, and our first summer traveling with a newborn. Our family is a glutton for the epic roadtrip, so picture us with our three daughters rolling through British Columbia in our rickety minivan, and wish us well.
It's also worth mentioning that we are wrapping up our PhDs, and touring Harvard, starting our Med/Surg clinical rotations and finally, after all this time, selling the business. We are also searching for a new job, if you hear of anything.
This summer we are diving into the Enchantments with our tiny children and organizing the Hootenany for the hotel's centennial summer, and yesterday we graduated with our masters, holy hallelujia! and the freedom we felt the next morning when we woke up - without an alarm, late morning sunlight streaming in - was astonishing. In the early evening, when the mean eye of the summer sun has dropped, we're planting a garden (our first!) and at night we're reading the books we've been meaning to read our entire lives. (How did you put it? New worlds in new pages. I like that.)
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Many of us are going to Ireland, so let's plan on meeting up? Somewhere by the water.
In a small number of weeks we will be boarding an inflatable raft and plummeting down the rapids of the Colorado River, one mile deep in the earth. Away from all contact with the world (that sat phone is just a prop- we tried to use it once.) Wave hello to Elve's Chasm, the blue falls of Havasu, Red Wall, Lava, Crystal, Soap Creek and all the gems and all the rest of the big miracles down there. Remember, if you fall in love on that trip, it might fall apart once you reach dry land, but it will work out in the long run, very different and even better.
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We will also begin Ethics and Accounting this summer. And Practical Reasoning, Biological Anthropology, GI Science. We will be in the classroom a fair amount, but there's something sweet about summer school, the wide open campus, the sweating glass of iced coffee and liquid ink fountain pens. We are celebrating our first homeschool graduate, and we're moving! How exciting! We're moving to New Mexico, Maryland, Maine, Vancouver and Vail. And Boston (go directly to Mike's pastries, buy a pound of Italian cookies and eat them at Waterfront Park.) We're so proud to be taking this leap. Moving means a blank canvas and there's nothing quite so tempting as a blank canvas.
We're finally pregnant, it took a great deal of effort and it's paid off at last, so we're exploring slowing down this summer. We're exploring joyful nausea. And we're lightening up- a surprisingly grand adventure- eating only the things we're supposed to eat, whittling down and recognizing ourselves in the mirror after a long time away. And we're going to Mt. Rushmore on one day and Acadia on the next. We'll be doing a lot of driving.
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And that's to say nothing of all the state parks, the local swimming holes, restoring the boat, the lakes of North Georgia and the shores of Northern Minnesota, marshmallows, star gazing, Mississippi day trips, Mt. Rainier and upstate New York on the same trip. We'll be doing a lot of flying.
This summer we will be wandering the PCT alone with our daughter. If that isn't a beautiful sentence I don't know what is.
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Some of us, on the other side of the world, will be taking our four year old skiing for the first time. Some of us on this side will be choosing snow, as well. For those amongst us who will be guiding in the alpine this summer: have a safe season, polish off a few jars of Nutella for the rest of us because mountaineers can eat whatever they like, good luck, and send us a post card.
Finally, the other day we went hiking with our son, and we found a glass bottle that had been cracked and half and looked exactly like a peace sign. We think this bodes well.
Much love and happy adventures,
From all of us.
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