Summer Travels

Bonifacio, Corsica

Our family vacations have always been predictable.  We have vacationed on the coast of North Carolina for the past 15 years, first on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and then for the past 5 years on Topsail Island. Our children grew up with the joys of cramming into a large beach house with all their cousins, spending many enjoyable hours in the waves, getting a sunburn in spite of the bottles of sunscreen used, building sand castles, catching ghost crabs, fishing for sharks, and then when weariness settled into their bones, gathering around a big table piled with home-cooked food the adults had prepared. This summer, though, we deviated from the routine of our usual summer vacation.

It started when our oldest daughter, Natalie, announced she was flying to Paris this summer to meet her boyfriend, then on to Corsica, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, to spend two weeks with his family in their home. Then, our second daughter, Rosemary, decided to spend two months at A Place for the Heart, a music/art/ministry school in Sophia, North Carolina.   This changed the dynamics of having a typical family vacation, so while our girls were off enjoying their diverse experiences, my husband and I took our son to the coast, in an attempt to keep up the annual ritual of beach-time with the cousins.

While I missed not having everyone together this summer, we all enjoyed some amazing times.  Here is our journey in pictures.

Porto Vecchio

Leo and Natalie

Harbor at Porto Vecchio

Rosemary with fellow student musicians

World Race Training Camp in Tennessee

Students enjoyed a weekend at Apple Lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Ethan and Fred on the Pier in Surf City

Aunts, Uncles, Cousins (this is only half of us!)

Summer vacations are for making memories, and we made lots of them this year!