posted by Ashalah on Life, My Great Adventure of 2009, travel

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As summer rolls into town, there is something that I miss that I cannot get here in CO. There is something that is so ingrained into my summer memories that I cannot help but have a slight twinge of longing for it, even while I’m enjoying my new state. And that slight twinge? Isn’t so slight.

I miss the water. I miss waves. I miss the sand between my toes and the salty air. I miss seagulls and seashells. I miss the way the sound of the waves can soothe me, no matter how stressed I am. I miss bonfires on the beach and smores. I miss sand dunes and itchy dune grass. I miss the moon reflecting off the rolling water. I miss thunderstorms over open sea and salt in my hair. I miss the hours spent in hammocks lying by large bodies of water with a good book. I miss the feeling of being beaten up by large swells.

When I was in Europe, I spent a lot of time thinking about where I wanted to live when I got back. I remember being in Lucerne, Switzerland, with it’s gorgeous mountains, the lake and a fantastic town and thought THIS is the type of place I’d like to live. I wanted mountains, natural beauty. I was in Norway and thought the same thing: I need natural beauty. Just like this. Again, in Scotland.

I was in Amsterdam, sitting in a living room full of strangers who treated me like family and I thought, this is also what I want. I want open-minded, friendly people. I want a city that feels like a community. Where people were warm and welcoming.

I was in Spain, on all the many beaches I would walk along, on the sand where I’d watch the sun set over the foreign waters that were then my temporary home, that I said I needed the ocean nearby. That I needed it’s soothing lull, where I could escape to daily and walk along.

I listened to most of my internal dialogue and got the majority of that correct. With the exception of the ocean, of that water. I’m living for the first time in my life in an entirely landlocked state (Michigan does not count. After all, Ben mistook the great lakes for oceans ). I love the mountains, I love the natural beauty and the beautiful people who are open minded and have welcomed me into this community with open arms. I love going out for dinner or drinks and running into people I know. That never happened in New York. When it did, it was monumental, I’d play Disney World’s It’s a Small World and announce it breaking news style to everyone I knew. Now it’s the norm.

I miss the water though. I hear it a lot from people who have been transplanted here. At first I was okay with everything, I didn’t mind not having the ocean nearby. Granted there was still snow on the ground and I never was at the beach anyway. But summer’s heat has rolled around and dreams of Montauk, of my parents lakehouse on Lake Michigan are on the edges of my days. I long for a cool ocean breeze to tame my bodies rising temperature.

I’m hoping for a job, that hopefully will give me money so that I can make a trip to NYC and out to Montauk so I can fulfill my thirst for the ocean and a sandy beach. In fact as I was writing this, I received an email through Couchsurfing regarding a Tent Surf that is happening in Mexico this coming weekend. The spontaneous crazy traveler in me wants to drag my friend Jen down there and enjoy the sand and surf, but alas, this lack of job keeps me sitting in Boulder, prohibits me from being spontaneous. Would be fun though!

(There’s been a lot of hoping lately. Let’s keep our fingers crossed it all pays off, mmkay?)

Tags: From the Big City to the Big Mountains, Life in Photographs, Nothing At All