When summer arrived, we (like so many others) were ready to get out and travel, to see the people and places that we have missed these last few years of covid. So when a friend announced they would be celebrating their Air Force retirement after 22 years of service, we jumped at the opportunity to join them. When we stepped off the plane and out of the Orlando airport into the sauna that is Florida in July, I drank it up through every desiccated pore and follicle while my son and husband wilted in the flooded air. In the following days, we celebrated and congratulated and hugged our way through numerous reunions, five family and a fiance, two babies, three hotels, six towns, the beach, two breweries, countless ice cream cones, one fort, two swimming pools, three new board games, mini-golf, go-karts, and one Atlas 5 launch seen from a friend’s backyard. Instead of our usual travel pace, we found ourselves cramming people-visits and tourist-destinations into a jam-packed itinerary because, as we have all learned through covid, being able to visit people/places is not guaranteed.

The Cape Canaveral beach skies were full of clouds as we waited for an Atlas 5 launch that would ultimately be postponed due to weather concerns.

My son (and husband, not pictured) and I enjoyed a Florida evening in St Augustine near the Castillo de San Marcos Fort.

The Castillo de San Marcos Fort in St Augustine, FL was beautiful at night.

Our summer adventures did not start or end with that trip to Florida. The past two and a half months have been a whirlwind of trips and visits with family and friends: I have been through airport security more times in the past three months than I have in the three years prior. If we weren’t out of town, we had someone visiting us at our home in Denver - often with less than 24 hours gap between guests and/or trips. Fortunately, I love having a full house, and every friend and family who visited felt like a gift that filled our home with extra conversation and activity.

An early-June evening on my family’s farm in Missouri.

This picture was taken while hiking with friends just west of Denver, Colorado.

But now our trips are done, our guests have gone home, and the scheduled routine of the school year returns next week. I so welcome this coming quiet and the rhythm of daily life. The cats miss having laps to fill, the dogs long for routine, the neglected garden and empty birdfeeders await the attention of a present household. The pantry is full of food, forgotten in the escape to restaurants this summer, that will draw us back to our table, together. And, for me, the most longed-for return to normal is the regular, scheduled time in my studio that normal life promises, and all the paintings waiting to be made.

So cheers to all who had a freeing summer, and cheers again to what comes after!