We’ve rented the same house the last six years we’ve gone. The memories start to all run together. This year the water levels were VERY high but we enjoyed the same public beaches my sister and I swam at as children.
We rode rollercoasters. Violet and Abram braved this 150 swing thing that scared me half to death. We played lots of mini-golf. I’m pretty sure there was one day where we had ice cream for every meal. We created a short playlist of songs that involved rolling the windows down and turning the volume way, way up.
This year felt so bittersweet to me. It’s home. But not home. And while I’m grateful to return to my own bed and my own things, I miss this place the minute I leave it. It makes me wish I could live thousands of different lives and this one too. Does that make any sense? It’s the only way I know how to describe it.
Your photos are charming and what you wrote makes sense to me. It’s home, but not home is how I often feel when I see current pics of where I used to live. You can’t go home again they say– but in some ways you can. Bittersweet is right.
Thank you, Ally! I love that we get to go each year and see my dad and Gram and enjoy the lake. Home is such a special place…
Beautiful photos, Kate! I’m so glad you’re able to return year after year, and to have your children experience the same kinds of things you experienced as a child. The feeling of home but not home is completely understandable.
(How is it August 2nd already?! I hope your summer has been going well 🙂 .)
I have no idea how it’s August 2nd!! I’m totally guilty of backdating this post so that when I look back it’s when it SHOULD be because July just slipped through my fingers!
I do love sharing that place with my kids and it’s always wonderful to see my dad and my gram and any other family that happens to be around…I hope the tradition will continue. As kids are getting older and schedules busy we’re finding it harder and harder to do.
As always, I love your photos. I wish I had the skills you do in that arena. I know it’s not the most artful shot, but the one of your kids with those things on their heads? That’s my favorite. There’s just something about them that you’ve captured there. Such a tender, transitional, salty-sweet age your Vi is. And he is still all kid.
And I totally understand that feeling of wanting to live a thousand different lives. A few years ago I realized I am never going to live in all the places I’d like to live–even within the city I’m in. I want to live in a condo in an old apartment building in the heart of downtown, and I want to live in an Arts and Craft bungalow in a neighborhood with sidewalks and big, leafty trees, and I want to live in a sleek mid-Century house with all its angles tucked into the hill of an urban forest, and I want to live in an old farmhouse out where the rural area is still rural (for now, anyway).
I think we’re probably lucky that there are so many possible lives we find appealing. Imagine if none were?
Yes!!!!! Thank you for understanding! I agree with you that we’re lucky to be inspired by all the different lives we could live!! (And I love that you talk about in terms of homes because YES!!!!! I’ve thought it that way exactly!) It’s a bittersweet kind of feeling – wishful/wistful….hmmmm.