Childhood Summers

For those of you who have not been to Mama Kat's website Mama's Losin It , you shoudl quickly remedy that.

She has weekly writing prompts and since my first  instinct was to complain endlessly on my next post (about the smog and my job), I decided instead to spare you my pity party and choose one of her recent writing prompts. (For those of you secretly disappointed that you will be missing me rant about my life, be assured...its only Tuesday...yeah thats when I started writing this and now its Friday)

List your top 10 favorite things about summer growing up

I had a rather atypical youth...not for the first 9 years, but after that... definitely not mainstream. I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and went to a nearby Episcopal Elementary School. We lived in a beautiful neighborhood in a custom riverfront house. I had a adorable cat named Mickey and a younger sister who drove me crazy.

When I was 9, my family moved onto our 50 foot sailboat "Nighthawk" and lived at the marina down the street from our house. For 1 year we lived on the boat, getting acclimated. Then we left to sail around the world. For the next 6 years, we would visit sail to 27 countries for mostly short stops with the exception of Australia (1 year) and New Zealand (almost 2 years).

So for this post I will split my 10 favorite things in half. 5 for <9 years old and 5 for >9 years old (the rare math symbols that I remember).

Pre 9:
1. Not having to be in school anymore (The best part...damn I miss having 3 months off in the summer...why is work not like that?)
2. Getting to spend all day out on the water on the boat (Waterskiing, all day)
3. Getting to stay up as late as I wanted (Doesn't every kid like this)
4. Summer birthday parties (always more fun)
5. Kanuga (A family type retreat in North Carolina where we used to spend a week in the summer. In the woods, no TV's, barely any reception, very relaxing...I worked there for a summer in college...never seen more pot smokers in one place)

Post 9:
1. Not having to study (although since we were always on the move, I didn't have the typical 9 months on and 3 months off schedule..more like 11 months on 1 month off)
2. Getting to spend al day with my friends exploring whatever new location we were currently located at

Yeah...that's all I got for years 9-15. When I was 16-18, I loved getting to drive to North Carolina and spend the week with my cousin or spend the whole day out at the beach. I would spend days at my friend Kelsey's house just back and forth from the beach.

-As many of you have probably guessed, I am not a small child in any of my pictures...that is for the sole reason that I am in China and can't access my mothers desktop. Oh well, these are some of my favorite summer pictures.