How I Spent My Summer Vacation

As the season winds to a close tonight, I cannot think of a summer I've spent more enjoyably in my adult life than this one. I teetered on the brink of having more fun than I was comfortable having--than I even think I deserve. 

I sailed the Grand Canal and scaled the Acropolis. I had a date in Constantinople who was waiting in Istanbul. I sampled ouzo in Mykonos and pizza in Napoli. I walked the ancient streets of Pompeii and clambered to the top of the Coliseum in Rome. I straightened out that Tower business in Pisa where I also had a great meal. I saw Castellers castelling in Barcelona.

After all these years, the Mayor showed me his boyhood neighborhood in Barcelona and we celebrated his memories and the beauty of the city with wine and tapas on La Rambla de Catalunya.

My sister, herself, and I spent evenings on the Mediterranean photographing the sunset then drinking wine at the piano bar. I developed an obsession with the samba and blamed it on the Bossa Nova.

I saw my beautiful niece marry her true love on a shell beach in Sanibel. It was as lovely as that sentence makes it sound.

I watched the boy grow taller and the girl grow happier.

I added more blue to my life with an impromptu painting project.

I survived a hilarious night at dive bar karaoke.

I spent a week at a beach with blue skies and gentle waves.

I've never felt readier for the fall.