Elin Hilderbrand’s Top Ten Ways to Survive the End of Summer
The end of summer is indeed bittersweet, and no place more so than here on Nantucket. Being the author of nine (soon to be ten) summer novels and a real summer person, I find the ending of summer positively excruciating! Here are some of the ways I like to celebrate the final days…
10. Hit the farm market. I buy corn on the cob from Bartlett Farm here on Nantucket every night that we’re home for dinner, and I always get a few extra ears, cut the corn off the cob, and freeze it for the winter. And I buy pounds and pounds of Roma tomatoes and turn them into sauce. Yum!
9. Get out on the water. Pond, river, lake, swimming pool…or here, ocean. I will go to the beach every day until the middle of October, but these last days of August and first of September, are the very finest beach days. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we do a lobster bake, complete with a beach bonfire and s’mores, and we turn our cars’ headlights on the ocean and the kids swim in the dark.
8. Baseball game. I suffered through a very long Little League All-Star season with my older son (last game on July 27th) but now I find I miss it. I’m getting tickets to the Red Sox!
7. Get out on the water, part 2. But go in a boat: rowboat, canoe, kayak, sailboat, power boat. We always do a sunset cocktail cruise on Labor Day weekend with sushi and lobster rolls, and my dear friend Margie’s birthday is on September 2 and the way we celebrate is to take the launch up harbor to the Wauwinet Inn for an al fresco lunch.
6. Move it, move it! There were days this summer when it was too hot to leave my bedroom where the a/c was on full blast. However, now is the time to run ten miles, bike the long loop around town, golf nine, play an extra set of tennis, stick the croquet wickets in the fragrant grass. Nothing says summer like croquet!
5. Spend the day with a book. You were waiting for this one, weren’t you? My favorite summer novels are…my own. But assuming you gobbled down The Island on July 7th the way you were supposed to, you are now free to move on to other of my favorites from this summer: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and Every Last One by Anna Quindlen.
4. Catch fireflies. Remember to punch holes in the top of the jar.
3. Stargaze. My favorite childhood memory is one where my father would wake us all up in the middle of the night (say, 11pm) and take us outside to look at the stars. This was followed by a game of “midnight UNO,” played by candlelight at the dining room table.
2. Go barefoot, put your hair in a ponytail, sprinkle sand in your shoes, raise your face to the sun (with sunscreen, of course!) Hold on to that feeling for as long as you can.
1. Don’t despair. There are good things about fall, too: apple picking, pumpkins, cider, brilliant foliage, good movies, good TV, new theater, and the NFL! And remember…there’s always next summer.