Eulogy for Summer

Marking the End of Summer
Summer is over not only because Labor Day just passed but because all the kids are now finally back in school. At our house, summer ended twice this year. The first ending was when Ethan and Audrey returned to school in mid-August after a short and fast summer. They went to school through the end of June so it really was short - about four weeks shorter than we're used to.

I just returned from Minnesota, delivering Molly to St. Olaf for her first year of college. Classes start on Thursday. Molly had an unusually long summer this year because as a senior, she finished classes at FIS in mid-May, graduated the first weekend of June and chose a college that has an unusually late Fall start. So, she had over 14 weeks of summer.


Despite the fact we will all miss her like crazy, I had a fun time taking her back to my old stomping grounds in Northfield, MN and seeing life on the other side of the river - at St. Olaf. In my four years at Carleton, I think I actually was on the St. Olaf campus just once. I was sad that a dear friend and old roommate from Carleton could not join us at the last minute. It would have been even more fun to re-explore Northfield with her.

St. Olaf was as pretty a campus as we remembered from our visit two years ago and Molly hit the jackpot with a very nice and compatible roommate and, it seems, a great floor of freshmen girls.

I left with one burning question -- it seems that freshman are now universally called "First Years" by colleges and universites. Though, many of the kids still call themselves freshmen. Is this a new politically correct change that I missed? Or, is it the pervasive influence of Harry Potter - using the British schooling term?

What a Great Summer it Was!
Despite the fact that our family summer was constrained by the younger kids' school schedule, we packed in a great bit of fun in our short 7 weeks. It all began with a month of visitors - perfect! We had Gary's mom and brother with family visit for two weeks for Molly's graduation. Oma stayed with us the whole time and Barry, Jackie and their boys did some touring - Berlin, France and London. We followed them throughout their journey via their posts and pictures on Facebook!

Gary and the girls took Oma down to Munich, her hometown. She was able to show the girls the apartment she grew up in, visit with a lifetime friend from kindergarten and with a cousin that she has kept up with. Great fun for everyone. And, they managed a stop at Gary's favorite biergarten from his student days in Munich as well!

Molly had a good friend from Zionsville visit for a week. I accompanied them to Paris, though I didn't see much of them during the day as they explored Molly's favorite Paris sites and spent a 16-hour day in London courtesy of the Chunnel train.

We met up with our good friends the Hubers from Zionsville on our last day in Paris. We got to spend a day together in Paris, exploring chocolate and pastry shops, soaking up history on a history walk coincidentally led by a Hoosier now living in Paris (it really is a small world..) and then spend the Germany part of their summer vacation with them. The kids loved showing them our Germany home and town! We feel so lucky that the ocean's distance has not put distance in the best of friendships.


Frankfurt itself does not offer the best of Germany to visitors. So, after exploring the nearby wine country and spending a day to catch our breath, we were off to Munich with the Hubers. On the day of our excursion to Neuschwanstein Castle, the weather couldn't have been more picture perfect. So, added to the mountain hike up to the castle (gorgeous) was a paragliding experience for the teenagers in our group.

A 40 minute tandem-glide off the top of the Tegelberg is something they will remember for a long time! Via their paragliders, the kids were able to add one more country to their itinerary as they glided over the Austrian border before landing. The younger girls did a bike ride around nearby Swan Lake.


Just as memorable for everyone was the five weeks we spent in Indiana. We stayed in a short-term apartment and did the usual summer activities - many hours of tennis clinics and swimming at Azionaqua. Most enjoyable were the opportunities to catch up with friends and family.

Molly had a part-time internship in Communications at St. Vincent Hospital so got a great experience seeing one possibility of what an English major might do after college. They graciously arranged for her to visit and interview people outside of St. Vincent as well so she met a columnist at the Indianapolis Star and some people at an advertising agency who also staff a philanthropic organization that brings creative writing opportunities to middle schools in the Indianapolis Public Schools - something that really captured Molly's interest.



Gary was able to join us for a week working at Lilly's Indy headquarters and then a weeklong vacation in the Canadian Rockies. Thank goodness for frequent flyer awards. The flight to Calgary from Chicago would have cost twice as much as a transatlantic ticket and has been one of the reasons we haven't gone to this "top 3" destination on my travel wish list before. What a fantastic place. We spent most of our time at the Lake Louise Chateau. It lived up to every one of my long-held expectations.

We canoed, did a three hour glacier hike, regular hikes, gondola rides to the top peaks and LOTS of plain ol' relaxing. The relaxing was something we sorely needed - we love the opportunities to see the cities of Europe while we're here but cannot honestly say that those travels feature much relaxing!


Oh, and, of course, I didn't forget to pick up my tacky souvenir in Canada. Mountie Moose came home with us to join the distinguished collection on the shelf in the living room!