Jenyfer Matthews

Summer is over for me and it’s back to reality now – which means no more bacon with breakfast every morning and no more desserts every night. No more good beer or wine either. I’ll have my work cut out for me when I go home to lose the weight I put on in the process of having such a good time this summer. It’s always amazing to me how much easier it is to gain weight than it is to lose it, especially as I get older.

I admit that part of me wants to lose the weight for the sake of vanity. I have to accept that I’m at an age now that I look better dressed than undressed, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Beyond how I look is how healthy I am.

There are unhealthy lifestyles that can take their toll on the way you live and age: excessive eating / weight gain, drinking to excess, smoking, working too much to give a few examples of things that people do have some control over. Then there are hereditary illnesses like heart disease, hypertension, strokes, and diabetes that tend to run in families – not always possible to totally avoid but a sensible approach can probably avert certain disaster.

Living the expat life, most of the expats I meet are in their 30s and 40s with young children. They’ve gone abroad to make more money and live a better lifestyle than they could in their home country. The women I socialize with tend to be very fit and health conscious – many working out at the gym several times a week. In my day to day live in Egypt, I don’t interact with that many older people. It’s been very different this summer. There seem to be senior citizens everywhere I look, in varying degrees of health. Some are out power walking or bicycling while others are stooped nearly in half making their way slowly and painfully around the grocery store.

Watching them has made me realize that one day I’ll be old too – sooner than I’d like. There are always health crisis that you can’t predict like crippling arthritis or cancer, but barring those calamities, I want to be the old lady walking briskly down the street with my head high and shoulders back. I don’t expect to live forever, but I want to live well. I want to be strong enough to lift my own grocery bags and agile enough to reach the top shelf. I want to live long enough to see my children grow up and be healthy enough to see and play with their children.

I want to have the energy to spoil them rotten when they come and see me for summer vacation!

Where did the summer go?? When I arrived in July, I thought I had loads of time to do all the fun things we wanted to do. Now that we have less than a week left, we have to make every day count!

Thursday we spent the day at Lutsen Mountain Ski Resort hurling ourselves down the side of the “mountain” on their Alpine Slide. Talk about fun! It was my daughter’s first time to drive her own sled. I made sure I was behind her, just in case she decided to go slower than the next driver – I didn’t want anyone crashing into her. I need not have worried – I was going as fast as I liked and never once caught up to her!!

Friday was another beautiful day and we went fishing with my father in the afternoon. There is more to fishing than simply putting your line in the water! He caught three rainbow trout and I caught one. I’m sure that the one that stole my worm and got away would have been the biggest of the lot!

Saturday was the third lovely day in a row and we spent it at my stepmother’s family camp at an inland lake. The kids spent the day playing in the water and being dragged around in a huge tube behind a speed boat. I spent the day basking in the sun and eating freshly fried walleye. Doesn’t get much better than that.

It’s just as well we had so much fun the previous three days because Sunday it rained all day.

Now it’s time to turn my attention to buying those few things that have thus far been overlooked and packing up all my stuff. One thing that may not get packed is my ring – the jewelry with whom I left it hasn’t done the first bit of work on it. Grrrr…. He suggested maybe I could pick it up next time I’m in town, but what would be the point in leaving it with him? He’s had it since July already. If I left it, he likely wouldn’t touch it until next July anyway!!

Bored? Need a few ideas on how to spend what’s left of the summer? Or maybe you’re more like me and like to plan ahead – for next year! 100 Productive Ways to Spend Your Summer Vacation has some pretty great suggestions. I know I’m taking notes…

Unfortunately for me, paying to fly business class wasn’t really an option. So imagine my disgust when, as I am at the check-in desk in Cairo, one of the airline representatives comes to inform me that the flight is overbooked and due to my frequent flier status I’m eligible to be upgraded. Even as my heart swelled with hope she continued and tells me that it’s airline policy not to upgrade children under 12. Um, okay. So why tell me at all?? I could have lived happily without ever having been teased in that way. In the end, I got the seats I paid for, but see that cat up there? That was me, squashed in my economy class seats between two sleeping children.

(But it could have been worse – they could have stayed awake like me!)

After enduring a twelve hour flight shoehorned into a square foot of space, sandwiched between the kids, imagine my delight to find out that the next partner airline I was flying had NO problem upgrading children. We flew first class from NY to Minneapolis. It’s a different world up there. We not only had bigger seats and more leg room, but I had a real lunch with free beverages and actual glassware! I didn’t sleep on that flight just so I could better savor the experience

All in all, I can’t complain. I gave myself enough time to clear security and get from place to place and none of my planes were delayed and my luggage arrived in tact. These days, you can’t really ask for much more than that.

Yesterday was the last day of school and both children arrived home weeping. I was a good student and liked my teachers well enough, but crying because school was finished for the year was never my reaction to the last day of school!

The kids seem happier today – and have kept themselves busy. The pop-up soccer goals that Santa brought haven’t seen much action in their intended capacity but they are being used today – as tents. The kids have put them side by side, covered them with a fleece blanket and dragged their pillows inside along with their flashlights. Their intention is to sleep in “the tent” tonight. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Their room is currently a disaster, but hey, it’s better than watching TV all day and I have only heard the words “I’m bored” once today so far…

Only 12 days of peace-I mean school-left.

Putting the constant cries of I’m bored and the general sibling sniping that occurs when the children are in each other’s company all day, there are several things about summer vacation I’m looking forward to: getting out of Egypt and the heat and seeing family, no homework, no packing school lunches (x2). There are too many things to itemize really, but one very small thing that I really love about summer is not having to wake up to an alarm.

What’s your favorite thing about summer?

I have so many pictures of my time in Minnesota – what do you want? It’s a picturesque place! – I can’t possibly share them all here. I took the most pictures when I was out hiking in the woods so those are the ones you’ll get to see

My first stop in Minnesota was Duluth. We stayed in town a couple of days after flying in so I could do a bit of back to school shopping (school starts tomorrow – woo hoo!!) and take the kids to do a few town things, like visit the zoo. As zoos go, it is fairly small but it had some nice exhibits and was just big enough for the kids to get a good run around.

I try to resist taking animal pictures because they never turn out very well, but this guy was practically posing for the camera!

Calm down – it’s not a real tortoise…

Once I arrived in the woods, the first really long hike we took was actually just over the border in Ontario – called Fingerpoint Trail. The trail head actually starts in the parking lot of the Ontario Welcome Center and following the trail to the summit is actually about a 3 mile walk.

See that bump? The top of that knob is our goal…

The view from the top of the knob – beautiful!

This is a beach along Lake Superior where the trail passes. If you collect driftwood, this is the beach for you!

This shiny log caught my eye – hasn’t dried out quite as much as the others and was shining like gold in the sun

The children loved to play on the various beaches along Lake Superior – any excuse would do. It’s hardly the worst place in the world to hang out for an hour so I spent a lot of time there while they stripped down and swam. I thought after the first time that the frigid water temperatures would put them off, but what do I know? So while they played polar bears, I snacked. Look at all the wonderful beach food I found:

There is nothing tastier than wild raspberries – picking them yourself makes them taste better!

Wild beach peas – they only grow in the rocks and gravel along the beach.

These are best eaten raw – like most fresh peas. Yummy!

Tomorrow – more pictures from the deep woods…

All this week, I’ll be sharing photos from my summer vacation. It killed me not to be able to do that all along while I was actually on the spot, but it couldn’t be helped. If looking at other people’s vacation photos isn’t your thing, it could be a boring week for you. I have picked out a handful from the more than 200 I took, but I forgive you if you don’t hang around!

Our first stop was Asbury Park, New Jersey – which also happens to be the inspiration for my first book Here To Stay. Since I only recently found out that Here To Stay will be released in print sometime this fall, it was a particularly nice time to revisit Asbury Park.

I have loved Asbury Park since the first time I visited. Its hey-day as a weekend and holiday getaway was way back in the 40s & 50s and by the time I discovered it in the 90s, it was deserted and decrepit. And a potentially dangerous place to hang around. Stories abounded of people being mugged on the boardwalk in broad daylight and the old buildings were crumbling. Very few businesses existed on that section of the boardwalk and there were fewer people still taking advantage of the beach. I could never get my mind around how such a lovely location could be so neglected and forgotten. Aside from Bruce Springsteen, surely someone somewhere cared about Asbury Park enough to invest some money in it?

Until July of this year, I hadn’t been to Asbury Park in almost seven years. It was a wonderful surprise to see it doing so well. The old buildings are being restored, the Convention Center – once a creepy, echo-y shell of a building – now houses several businesses and hosts events, and the boardwalk is lined with shops and restaurants and people. I can remember when we didn’t go out after dark for fear of our lives. Now it is difficult to find a time when the boardwalk isn’t crawling with people. It’s wonderful.

Asbury Park beach, August 1998

You’ll have to take my word – this is the same stretch of beach in July 2008!

Asbury Park boardwalk, heading toward Ocean Grove, 1998
This same stretch of boardwalk is now lined with shops and activities. I’d have taken a picture this year but it would have just looked like a mass of people!

Asbury Park Convention Center, 1998

This used to be an empty shell of a building that you had to pass through to make your way down the boardwalk

Asbury Park Convention Center, 2008
This shot was taken in late afternoon when most of the sun bathers had gone home for the day. We had dinner at a neat Irish pub in the Convention Center one night. I also noticed a poster advertising an upcoming Bob Dylan concert being held there. Definitely more than a pass through now!

An old amusement park located just beside the boardwalk, 1998

Here’s what’s left of the amusement hall. Judging by how well they are trying to restore most of the older buildings, this one must have been in really bad shape. Nice to see that some of it was able to be salvaged. Though that clown face is enough to keep me from going inside!

Victorian lovelies, Ocean Grove, 1998

These houses start just after the boundary line between Asbury Park and Ocean Grove. The demarcation line isn’t so stark as it used to be but I never could figure out why a few hundred feet made such a difference. But just look at them! Is is any wonder I wanted to put story into one?

Tomorrow and the rest of the week: the wilds of northern Minnesota…

Time is a funny thing. Sometimes it d-r-a-g-s and sometimes it just flies by. My summer vacation has gone by much too quickly and today I’m on my way home.

Going home is bittersweet. On the one hand, I am looking forward to being in my own home again, in my own environment, and not living out of a suitcase. But living in Egypt isn’t always easy and truth be told, I’m not super enthusiastic about going back. Neither are my children. They’ve really bonded with their grandparents this year. To the point where they were threatening to revolt and just stay behind – see ya next year, Mom.

On the other hand, I’ve been so busy doing other things this summer that I haven’t done anything “productive” at all. My creative juices, kind of dry at the end of June, are totally flowing again. I have several ideas for new quilts and lots of ideas for writing. Once I get over the jetlag, I’ll have lots to keep me occupied in the coming year. Yes, in my mind, September and not January starts the new year.

So right about now, I’m flying somewhere high overhead on my way home. Keep commenting on Elizabeth Jenning’s Friday Feature – I’ll announce the winner to my weekend contest when I get home. See you soon…

One of the things I love to do when I’m traveling is eat – not for quanity but all the things that I can’t ordinarily get.

Our first stop on this trip was the New Jersey coast. Some may mock New Jersey but I’ve always enjoyed my visits there – though the beach may have something to do with it. Well, the beach and the pizza. My husband and I were out exploring on a trip we made more than a decade ago and stumbled upon a small local pizzeria. This was no ordinary pizza though – it’s heaven by the slice. I’ve made it a point to get back to that place every time we are in the vicinity and I live in fear that they will go under between my visits.

Imagine my delight to find it still going strong even after a considerable gap in visits. If you’re ever in the Allenherst area, give Serpico’s Pizza a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Another food I always like to eat when I’m back in the US is Mexican food. For whatever reason, it’s not easy to find good Mexican food in the Middle East. I was delighted to discover a good Mexican place located right next door to my hotel in Duluth – the burrito I ordered was obscenely large and they had nice margaritas too. I’ll be staying over again the night before my departure. Guess where I’ll be having dinner?

Now that I’m up in the woods with my parents (dividing my time between their separate dwellings) I’m enjoying home cooking that I didn’t have to prepare myself. I’ve only been here a couple of days and I’ve had fresh fish twice. My mother has a list of all my favorites planned and my stepmother loves to bake.

I’m doomed.

I mentioned a few weeks back that I’d won a year’s gym membership – I think I’m going to need it by the end of this trip!