Remember the good old days of summer vacation? What was your best summer? I think the time I had before entering College was my favorite time. I worked early mornings but made it to the beach most days. There was a feeling of both excitement and accomplishment. Good times.
I think my best summers were the ones I spent mostly at the river (Similkameen), jumping off the Chopaka Bridge or floating down the river in an inner tube, BBQs, or trips to Christina Lake, or Sproat Lake waterskiing, cliff jumping. Good times. Looking back at those years from about age 9-12 make me want to go back. I hated that last week though before school started again.
I think my best summers were the ones I spent mostly at the river (Similkameen), jumping off the Chopaka Bridge or floating down the river in an inner tube, BBQs, or trips to Christina Lake, or Sproat Lake waterskiing, cliff jumping. Good times. Looking back at those years from about age 9-12 make me want to go back. I hated that last week though before school started again.
One of my favorite memories was texting my buddy on a whim, and then leaving my house at 1:30 or 2am to go mountain biking with him. Met him at the trailhead at 3, rode to the top, set up our hammocks at 4 am, I was smart and brought a super light sleeping bag, and then we just waited for the sunrise to come up over the Palouse (big ass farmland).
Then ripped the descent at like 9 am.
like others here – grew up on a small spring-fed lake that the association decided to dredge when we were kids, because shallow/warm put algae all over it.
the diggers would come in and excavate to 10 or so feet, then move on to another section.
We’d swim right after, diving off the ‘cliff’. That plus damming the shallows, making forts in the razor grass, smoking reeds, getting leechy upriver, catching tadpoles. We had the tetanus shot so out there all day every day, watching things change micro to macro.
my kids have outdoors now with camps but there’s nothing like making your own plans and getting out of your own scrapes.
My best summers were when I didn’t work. I would play golf at a public course ($75 for the entire summer), go to our family cottage and hang out with my cousins every day.
I have my wife and 14-year old daughter in law joining me after a 3 year immigration process and they are coming shortly. Angel (daughter) was in school in the Philippines and their summer Holidays are April/May. Since they are coming here and the school holidays are July/August, she will have a 5 month summer holiday. My wife wants her to do schoolwork and I said no. I am getting her English novels to read in advance of Grade 10 (To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye and Romeo and Juliet) but want her to spend her time being a kid, hanging out with friends etc.
I am flying from Toronto to the Philippines to get them and then flying back to Vancouver and then taking a few weeks to drive from Vancouver back to Toronto in a camper. They’ve never camped so we can go to the Okanagan and Rockies and camp. That will be something a 14-year old will remember and give them a chance to learn a little about Canada.
Kids start work too early, they should have free time in the summer to be kids.
Going to the beach pretty much every day from around 12 years old to 15.
I’d skateboard down there and meet up with friends (who were also always there) and we’d surf, goof off, haze each other, get high.
BTW, no food, no water, no sunscreen, no money. All day.
swimming pools and beach. And staying very late at night, doing stuff outdoors or just hanging in houses.
Best summers where when I was 9 or 10 before we moved from town out to the country. Endless games of 500 up. Messing around in the local creek catching crayfish and minnows. My friend had a pet baby raccoon and we would put them in a kiddy pool and watch it catch them. Monopoly on someones front porch. Stuff like that.
Same here with golf. From ages about 8-16 my best friend and I would get a season pass at the local municipal course (75-150 a summer) and play monday-Friday. Then hang out at the course waiting for our ride back home to do more hanging out. Sometimes we would play 27 holes. The first several years we were at the same skill level then he started turning into a scratch golfer.
The rest of the foursome was always retired folks for the first 9 then we’d be on our own for the back 9.
summers I was in HS - working at a local day camp for a month, rest of summers off
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My answer is similar to the previous posts. I grew up on the coast in southeast Virginia. My best summers involved lots of surfing, laying on the beach and playing golf. The break at the north end of Virginia Beach was fun back then, and I could play a round at my local muni and eat lunch in the clubhouse for $10 total.
Then the family would pack up and head to the OBX in Carolina for 2 weeks of more surfing and golfing with my cousins.
The best times.
The best ones I can remember were when I was a pre teen and the family would load up in the ford100 truck with camper, and drive cross country to Florida from CA. Other one was from LA to Mexico City, just loved those long road trips. As I got older, it was going to the beach and surfing everyday, pretty much all day.
So 2 summers ago I took my family to the beach in the RV at least 5 days a week all summer. Last year we did a 5 week RV trip up north along the coast to Seattle. We will probably do something like that trip again this summer. Different feelings from when you were a kid, but seeing the same looks on my kids faces, well that brings back a lot of those memories, and these are some of the best again…
A nice respite from about 20 summers of racing virtually every weekend, all around the world. Those were fun too, but would have to pick and choose among the great trips, and the ones I felt I had to do…
I grew up on a large grain and dairy farm. Summer just meant I had more time to clean shit, in the literal sense.