What a summer this 2019 summer was. This was the first summer in a long time where I didn't have a full-time job to maintain--which strangely made it one of my busiest summers of all time. Why? Because I didn't spend my time getting too tired to have fun by working 40 hours a week, but was still getting paid--which meant I could do anything. As you can imagine, being able to do anything for me can be pretty wild if not dangerous.
In the 40 days between June 13th and July 22nd, I only slept in my own bed four times. Sounds fun, right? But by the time I finally made it home from all my traveling and settled back into life after those 40 days, I found myself with just 2 weeks of summer vacation left before my job started back up at school. Suffice it to say I won't be doing that much traveling again next year. I think.
The summer started the way it always does--my group of friends getting together in mid May during the basketball playoffs to write down our summer goals. But this time, it started out with Grillin' and Chillin' and concrete smashin'.
As for the goals I wrote that day, you can find them here. In review, I did most of them (16 of 25) despite being out of town for literally about half the summer. Honestly, I had a lot of work intensive, long-term goals this year. When I was actually home, I made a lot of progress with writing, getting in shape, and learning guitar--but I didn't PR my 5k time and I wasn't home enough to say I did guitar and writing 5 days a week. I aced an exam, ran through a lot of video games, re-studied my least favorite branch of mathematics, and did an ill-advised 45 mile bike ride with my mutually unprepared friends.
But my first goal? "Run that race today." Or in more descriptive words, "run that half marathon on a whim that Matt and Katie were running that day as we were writing goals." Well I ran it with them and all things considered, I'd say it went pretty well. We finished somewhere around 2 hours and 13 minutes--though really I was just jogging alongside them the entire way and didn't want to mess up their pacing, so time wasn't really part of my goal at all. Not that in all my (non) preparation I coulda ran it much faster anyways, if at all.
But as soon as school actually got out on May 24th, it was almost strictly business. I left out of town less than 24 hours later on a trip to LA to see Lindsey for our shortest trip of the summer together (4ish days). This trip was certainly the least action-packed of all our trips (more on all those other trips with her later), though one of the highlights was definitely the man date I got to go on with John Luna, eating at both Bludso's BBQ and Pink's hot dogs, buying a date soundtrack at Amoeba, and having discussions about funk and soul music and whether or not it's okay to be a fan of Donald Trump as an actor/TV personality.
My first day of summer not in LA, cross country practice started and I ran my first 5k time of the summer at 23:57 (55 seconds off my PR set in 2010). By mid-June, Jesse was hosting his annual 24-hour gaming party charity event, at which I spent 15 hours playing Spyro, speedran Minecraft with Kyle, beat a few other games, and ate the least healthy food I could get my hands on.
Next up was the 45 mile bike ride summer goal Matt, Kevin, Katie, and I made to bike the entire Jordan River Parkway trail. The trail follows the Jordan River from Utah Lake up to the Great Salt Lake and, all stops considered, took us about 8 hours of beautiful scenery and painful riding (our butts weren't ready for all day on a bike saddle).
In the 40 days between June 13th and July 22nd, I only slept in my own bed four times. Sounds fun, right? But by the time I finally made it home from all my traveling and settled back into life after those 40 days, I found myself with just 2 weeks of summer vacation left before my job started back up at school. Suffice it to say I won't be doing that much traveling again next year. I think.
May
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| Me trynna act like I know how to swing a sledgehammer (May 4th 2019) |
But my first goal? "Run that race today." Or in more descriptive words, "run that half marathon on a whim that Matt and Katie were running that day as we were writing goals." Well I ran it with them and all things considered, I'd say it went pretty well. We finished somewhere around 2 hours and 13 minutes--though really I was just jogging alongside them the entire way and didn't want to mess up their pacing, so time wasn't really part of my goal at all. Not that in all my (non) preparation I coulda ran it much faster anyways, if at all.
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| May the Fourth half marathon with the Matt and Katie in Farmington, which was technically my first half marathon race. I didn't actually sign up, but I did get a medal that I'd eventually realize glows in the dark four months later (May 4th 2019) |
June
Next up was the 45 mile bike ride summer goal Matt, Kevin, Katie, and I made to bike the entire Jordan River Parkway trail. The trail follows the Jordan River from Utah Lake up to the Great Salt Lake and, all stops considered, took us about 8 hours of beautiful scenery and painful riding (our butts weren't ready for all day on a bike saddle).
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| Biking the entire Jordan River Parkway Trail--the conclusion of 45-miles of sun, guzzling water, and the 8 hours of sitting on a bike seat that none of us were really ready for (June 3rd, 2019) |
Besides playing a lot of disc golf and participating in Dakota's summer-long tournament (I got second because I actually showed up every time), the next big summer experience for me was leaving the country for the first time. I flew up to Edmonton, CA for the Solsnitch fantasy quidditch tournament and had hella fun. My team was not good. But I felt like I played fine and got to experience a unique camping tournament with people from another country where the sun goes down at 10 PM and comes up at 4 AM when it's the summer solstice. And I got to experience customs, I guess? I also got to bike around and explore the city of Edmonton, and even took the time to sit in on a legislative session for the province of Alberta where they were discussing education bills.
In the middle of my 40 days of almost never being home, I took the one full day of me being in town to destroy the math content PRAXIS without any preparation and after a day of international travel, staying up almost the entire night hanging out and playing video games. Because it's actually a pretty important test for my career, I was actually pretty stressed about taking it, despite my careless attitude. So I'm thankful it was easier than I thought it would be and that the actual exam went well (quick numbers: I needed a 165 to pass, the average score is 160--ended up with a 190 out of 200). Before the end of summer, this would lead me to finally get my official teaching license.
Literally the next day, I flew out to Los Angeles/Hollywood to see Lindsey some more and hang out with my Lost Boys fam. We went to stand up comedy shows, saw an especially remarkable production of Les Mis at Pantages, went out to see several movies, ate a lot of food, John and I went to Disney (which was actually low-key the best time I've ever had at Disneyland), and we all played in the Funky Fiesta fantasy tournament.
As far as the tournament, I was actually pretty stoked my team made the finals and performed pretty well (after a slow start) because on paper we were supposed to be pretty good. We ended up with second place, but also I managed to somehow win my first ever tournament MVP in my many years of playing quidditch. So that was really neat.
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| "Three dudes hanging out" John Luna, Nick Offerman, and I sitting in the parking lot before he performs at John's comedy show (June 2019) |
As far as the tournament, I was actually pretty stoked my team made the finals and performed pretty well (after a slow start) because on paper we were supposed to be pretty good. We ended up with second place, but also I managed to somehow win my first ever tournament MVP in my many years of playing quidditch. So that was really neat.
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| Me with the Spartans at Funky Fiesta, complete with the MVP tiara and our second place trophy (June 29, 2019) |
July
After finally getting home from my two week Hollywood excursion, Dakota and his girlfriend had invited me on a trip to the Grand Canyon and to see her family in Chino Hills, CA with their friend Stephanie. The four of us drove through the night to see the sunrise at the Grand Canyon, which I surprisingly hadn't even been to at all before.
We spent the 4th driving from the grand canyon to Chino Hills, taking naps, going to a family BBQ, and going to Huntington Beach for a firework show over the ocean. Probably the highlight of the trip was Dakota and I breaking from the group to go see Leon Bridges perform at the Hollywood Bowl (which included us experiencing a real live earthquake at the bowl) and eating, as Dakota put it, some good, good BBQ.
We made it home after the long weekend, which meant I had about two days to rest, have my car break down and try unsuccessfully to get it fixed before leaving, and pack my things to head back to Canada--but this time, to Prince Edward Island off the east coast of Canada.
To fly to Canada in relative comfort and in good company, I first flew to Lindsey in LA for a few days before the long cross country flight so we could sit together. After some flight cancellations and flying all night and most of a day, we landed and Clay and Nancy picked us up at the tiny Charlottetown Airport. In all honesty, even though the idea of traveling with someone else's family you don't know--in addition to it being the family of someone whom you're not even necessarily dating--sounds like kind of an intimidating idea, I loved it. I felt like I got along pretty great with the family (though the one relationship I regret not developing more was with the family dog, Mr. Bean, who's literally perfect). But although there was so much to see on the island, and even though the island culture was so far from anything I'd ever seen before, and even though I had a lot of "firsts" I experienced on the trip, I think my favorite part of the island was honestly getting to know Nancy and Clay and experiencing firsthand a family dynamic I knew little to nothing about going in. New places are always cool, but to me, the majority of the joy of traveling has to do with the interesting people you're with and the new ones you meet along the way. Although their family is so different than my own in a lot of ways, I really enjoyed just spending time with them.
Upon arriving, I was basically given the lowdown on life on the island and was bombarded (not in a bad way) with coupon books and travel brochures and lists of things to do. They had me make my own island bucket list to accomplish before I had to leave, which consisted of:
-Seeing the bottle house (small houses, buildings, and a church made out of glass bottles)
-Seeing the confederation bridge
-Doing a ropes course
-Kayaking
-Golfing (my first ever round of golf)
-Lobster dinners(also a first)
-Seeing Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown (the musical is set on PEI, fyi), as well as seeing the Anne of Green Gables museum
-Seeing the red rock beaches
-Going to a potato farm (okay, this wasn't on my list, but visiting the red dirt farm and digging up potatoes was low-key one of my favorite parts of the trip)
We also visited a lot of shops and in the evening we watched a few seasons of Animal Kingdom (family crime drama) with Nancy and Clay. Honestly, the whole island experience was literally like I had teleported to a new existence to experience some new thing I'll probably never see again, stay and live there with a new family for a couple of weeks, and then have it all end abruptly and be transported back to reality by an early morning airplane ride--just like that. If I had to pick one highlight from the summer, I think my experience with the family on PEI would be the clearcut favorite.
July ended and August began with a pair of great concerts. First was a Streetlight Manifesto show, and second was a co-headling Reel Big Fish and Bowling For Soup show. I won't go into detail on the shows, seeing as this isn't a concert review blog and I've seen all three bands multiple times before, but they were each great shows to see with friends. Since age 16 or so, good summer memories have often revolved around amazing concert experiences.
By the time my summer traveling and the concerts were over, I had less than a week before professional development started back up at school. I was back to running with the cross country team every day, but I had one more weekend trip to Moab with Lindsey between professional development and the first day of school. While she was here, we made it all the way down to arches national park, managed the Delicate Arch hike in the morning before the heat of the day set in, and went to the opening night of the Book of Mormon musical downtown in Salt Lake.
And just like that, the summer was over as I dropped Lindsey off at the airport in the morning of my first day back at school. But besides school and cross country meets starting as early as August 14th (truly a sin), my friend group did have one more summer memory to make up at Pat's cabin in Driggs, ID. In our 14 years of friendship, it was the first time Dakota made it to the cabin trips and I was also stoked Jesse and Jared came with us as well. The five of us lit fires, played Grand Traghee disc golf, saw mouse house, watched Dakota eat the entire stack of pancakes at Big Hole (which had apparently never been done before), went to Lava Hot Springs, and were just generally rambunctious in our 36 hours there. Stay tuned--there should be a travel video coming soon.
In the end, this summer I went a lot of places and did a lot of things for the first time--probably moreso than any summer in memory and definitely more than I expected going in. I spent time with people I care about and worked on my own personal growth and goals. Everything might not have worked out perfectly, I didn't complete all my goals, and there's never enough days in summer like there's never enough hours in a day. There's also certainly some other beautiful moments and memories I missed, and probably some that I've already forgotten. But to me, summer is the reoccurring holy time of our lives for being outside, exploring, improving, experiencing, and loving. It's for remembering what it's like to be a kid with endless potential. Even though it sounds cliché, if I had it over again, I wouldn't go back and spend my summer any other way--which is legitimately nice to be able to say.
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| Grand Canyon Sunrise feat. my hair being too long and the squad (July 4th 2019) |
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| "Tetherball is too easy" Dakota and I playing feet-only tetherball at some gas station somewhere on the way from the Grand Canyon to California (July 4th, 2019) |
To fly to Canada in relative comfort and in good company, I first flew to Lindsey in LA for a few days before the long cross country flight so we could sit together. After some flight cancellations and flying all night and most of a day, we landed and Clay and Nancy picked us up at the tiny Charlottetown Airport. In all honesty, even though the idea of traveling with someone else's family you don't know--in addition to it being the family of someone whom you're not even necessarily dating--sounds like kind of an intimidating idea, I loved it. I felt like I got along pretty great with the family (though the one relationship I regret not developing more was with the family dog, Mr. Bean, who's literally perfect). But although there was so much to see on the island, and even though the island culture was so far from anything I'd ever seen before, and even though I had a lot of "firsts" I experienced on the trip, I think my favorite part of the island was honestly getting to know Nancy and Clay and experiencing firsthand a family dynamic I knew little to nothing about going in. New places are always cool, but to me, the majority of the joy of traveling has to do with the interesting people you're with and the new ones you meet along the way. Although their family is so different than my own in a lot of ways, I really enjoyed just spending time with them.
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| Tucker, AKA Mr. Bean--the world's first perfect being (photo by Lindsey, stolen from Instagram) |
-Seeing the bottle house (small houses, buildings, and a church made out of glass bottles)
-Seeing the confederation bridge
-Doing a ropes course
-Kayaking
-Golfing (my first ever round of golf)
-Lobster dinners(also a first)
-Seeing Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown (the musical is set on PEI, fyi), as well as seeing the Anne of Green Gables museum
-Seeing the red rock beaches
-Going to a potato farm (okay, this wasn't on my list, but visiting the red dirt farm and digging up potatoes was low-key one of my favorite parts of the trip)
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| Lindsey and I on the ropes course on PEI (July 2019) |
August
By the time my summer traveling and the concerts were over, I had less than a week before professional development started back up at school. I was back to running with the cross country team every day, but I had one more weekend trip to Moab with Lindsey between professional development and the first day of school. While she was here, we made it all the way down to arches national park, managed the Delicate Arch hike in the morning before the heat of the day set in, and went to the opening night of the Book of Mormon musical downtown in Salt Lake.
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| Lindsey and I at the delicate arch--and yes, we got a little bit closer to it than that (August 11th 2019) |
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| The Boys feat. Dakota in digital print (August 25 2019) |
In the end, this summer I went a lot of places and did a lot of things for the first time--probably moreso than any summer in memory and definitely more than I expected going in. I spent time with people I care about and worked on my own personal growth and goals. Everything might not have worked out perfectly, I didn't complete all my goals, and there's never enough days in summer like there's never enough hours in a day. There's also certainly some other beautiful moments and memories I missed, and probably some that I've already forgotten. But to me, summer is the reoccurring holy time of our lives for being outside, exploring, improving, experiencing, and loving. It's for remembering what it's like to be a kid with endless potential. Even though it sounds cliché, if I had it over again, I wouldn't go back and spend my summer any other way--which is legitimately nice to be able to say.
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