- Reading a good book
- Visiting family
- Watching Survivor
- Sitting around a campfire
- Making s’mores
- Eating s’mores
- Walking in the sunshine along the river
- Wilderness camping
- Writing & editing a novel
- Binge-watching home shows like Flip or Flop, Love It or List It, Desert Flippers
- Getting a pedicure
- Getting a massage
- Decorating a Christmas tree
- Planning parties
- Eating stuffed crust pizza
Category Archives: Nature
Things I Love About Late Summer
- Cooler nights
- Fresh sweet corn
- Sleeping with windows open
- The first red leaves
- Late night thunderstorms
- The drone of cicadas in the late afternoon
- Still wearing flip flops
- Boots and sweaters at the stores
- Back to school supplies
- Clearance sales on cute tops
- Grapes
- Planning for fall & winter holidays
- Bonfires
- Going to sleep with bonfire smoke in my hair
- Fields polka-dotted with hay
- Thick green ravines dripping with heavy air
Possible Activities for While My Family is Visiting From Out of Town
- Vanderveer Park
- Swim at the Y
- Bettendorf Family Museum
- Putnam/IMAX
- Channel Cat water taxi
- Red White & Boom
- ComedySportz
- LeClaire (American Pickers, Happy Joes, shops)
- Steel Plow shakes
- Blackhawk State Park
- Game Night
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
- Thunderstorms
- Beaches
- Book stores
- The Legend of Zelda
- Warm sunshine
- Cabins in the mountains
- Fresh oranges
- Dinner with family and/or friends
- Reality TV
- Office supplies
- Sharpies
- Unlimited data on my cell phone
- Caramel
- Walking along the river
- My birthday (in a couple weeks!)
- Traveling
- Laughing so hard my stomach hurts
Places I Visited On My Road Trip of Awesomeness Earlier This Summer
- Mount Rushmore
- Wall Drug (Wall, South Dakota)
- Gillette, Wyoming
- Missoula, Montana (including dinner with 2 college roommates)
- Spokane, Washington
- Idaho (a gas station somewhere along I-90)
- Columbia River Gorge
- Horsetail & Multnomah Falls (Hood River, Oregon)
- Portland, Oregon
- Crescent City, California
- Redwoods National Forest
- A beach somewhere along the California coast
- Trinidad Bay & Memorial Lighthouse (Trinidad, California)
- Redding, California
- Reno, Nevada (visit with the Lewis family)
- Virginia City, Nevada
- Lake Tahoe Overlook
- Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah)
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Casa Bonita (Denver, Colorado, with another college friend)
- State Capitol Building, Lincoln, Nebraska
- Huxley, Iowa (Aunt & Uncle’s house)
