Beautiful Things Happen — When You Focus on Summer

DEP Summer Contest

Dear Reader,

This article is about the summer season and what it means to me. The prompt for the summer contest is How does the idea of summer inspire you? Due to the brevity and guidelines provided for the article, I will only cover some of what summer offers.

Summer is enjoyable but can also be hazardous due to the weather. The season brings hot temperatures and storms. Here in Florida, when the sun shines, it is often in the 90-degree to 100-degree temperature range. Weather aside, you can still have a tremendous time if you do things right.

Summer has its perks; we enjoy the extended daylight hours. Sunrises and late sunsets are beautiful and always welcome.

Children can take a break from school and do other things like run, play tag and other games with friends, hike, bike ride, and sleep in. Then families can do things together like go to the park and picnic.

Having a barbeque and inviting family and friends to join you is fun. Catching up with important things in our lives and the lives of others can be enriching. The aroma of cooking hotdogs, burgers, steak, chicken, ribs, and seafood on the barbeque grill is pleasant.

The taste is out of this world good! Almost everyone loves the taste because of the smoky flavor it exudes. We can do this at home, a park, or another location.

Traveling to the beach and listening to the waves rolling into the shore is fun and relaxing. We can go water skiing, wakeboarding, swimming, surfing, and tubing. We can also ride horseback and enjoy the scenery we otherwise would not see.

It is an excellent time to travel by airline, bicycle, automobile, RV, riverboat, or train and view new sites. My family and I have loved and enjoyed these activities in the summer. Is anyone up for traveling to Alaska, Hawaii, Finland, or Australia? What fun!

Concerts and Jazz Fests

Music concerts and jazz fests abound. I love to attend. The Rolling Stones, Peter Tosh, and Kansas rock groups were my first concert.

My favorite music types are rock and roll, country, and jazz. I have seen the Rolling Stones, Kansas, Peter Tosh, Chicago, Rod Stewart, Foreigner, Hall and Oates, Kenny G (jazz), Alabama (country), Oak Ridge Boys (country), and Kenny Rogers (country). Summer is when most bands tour.

Other Great Experiences

Visiting a large zoo, aquarium, or botanical garden is fantastic family fun. The animals and fish are always fun to watch and enjoy. The trees, shrubs, and flowers are, at their best, so beautiful.

My family has also vacationed at amusement parks like King’s Island and Cedar Point in Ohio. We have enjoyed Disneyland in California, Disney World, and Sea World in Florida. We loved riding the various rides in the parks and watching the shows. My wife and I both love roller coasters. It is so much fun going on those rides!

I want to thank DR Rawson — The Possibilist, for creating the opportunity for the writing contests used each season of 2023. I would also like to thank Dr. Gabriella Korosi from Dancing Elephants Press for announcing the summer contest at https://readmedium.com/dancing-elephants-press-summer-2023-contest-begins-f1b803695940?

I extend my best wishes to readers and their families for a great summer. We hope you can escape the daily grind and enjoy yourselves. Life is too short not to take some downtime, relax, and have some summer fun when the opportunity presents itself.

I would love to give a Big Shout Out to Rick Allen for his article https://readmedium.com/life-pays-me-once-in-a-while-1557fe76817e. His article about a trip he took was inspiring. The reader who misses this article has truly missed a great one! Great job on the article, Rick!

I would love to give a Big Shout Out to Carmen Micsa, MA in English, podcaster, for her poem at https://readmedium.com/soaring-soles-cd98313c1564. She did a masterful job linking her love for running with her love for poetry. Her article is a great read! I recommend it to anyone who loves good poetry and running.

This article is complete. Thanks for reading, and please provide any constructive criticism appropriate. We value your time and very much appreciate your reading and commenting.

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