Dwelling on The Summer Break and Getaways
Another post in the #Architalks blogging series. #Architalks is organized by Bob Borson at Life of an Architect . A group of architects writes blog posts around a single theme or subject and posts them all at the same time, ensuring a good range of various takes on the subject or theme. Last month we wrote a post on our THREE FAVORITE WORDS. This time we write on the theme SUMMER BREAK. I hope you enjoy this as well as the other #architalks posts. Be sure to check out all the links below and search #Architalks on Twitter. Our regularly scheduled blogging will resume after this little summer excursion.
The Emerald Coast
Summer break around the Stafford Household, aka Modus Operandi Design World Headquarters is, well, life goes on. You see, we don’t have kids. So the notion of summer break is not as meaningful as it would be if we were parenting kids off from school. We prefer to enjoy the fun times with kids, nieces, nephews and then send them home with their own parents – hmm… maybe the best of both worlds? The most effect we do see, living in close proximity to the district middle and high schools for this area, is the lack of school traffic in the morning and midafternoons. That’s a welcome change for Annmarie’s commute, my trips to morning meetings and afternoon post office/bank runs.
Key West
The other affect we have from summer break is that we usually plan out getaways around it; as in we wait until school is back in session to go. That schedule strategy runs us into the tail end of Hurricane Season though. It is ok! We’ve had some great getaways – destination weddings to Key West…revisiting the family beach vacation to the Emerald Coast followed by a detour through New Orleans on the way back home, which was Memphis then…the obligatory Caribbean Cruise…Then we took trips to Asheville, NC for two fall seasons in a row. I know, this is not summer, but hey. We fell absolutely in love with this place and moved within the next couple of years after that last fall trip to the Appalachian Mountains. It has been like a vacation or early retirement ever since then, even though we have worked as much or more than before moving.
Orienteering
Getaways have been different since we moved here. We really LIVE in a getaway, in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Hiking on Craggy Pinacle
There is not much effort to go from work-a-day life to hiking a trail close by, fly fishing a stream for half a day, mountain biking a line before lunch, kayaking on a long weekend, or just sitting at an overlook off the Blue Ridge Parkway and taking in a mountain vista. Long weekends are great opportunities to head out a bit further and have some outdoor fun or visit one of the relatively close mountain towns.
So, in the tradition of the vacation slide show, I’ll let the pictures do the blogging now. These are a bunch of shots of our getaways, both local and far away. You might want to know, what this little summer excursion has to do with architecture? Well, it is inspired by the Seth Godin Quote in the picture below. Annmarie and I rarely need to escape or get away. SO, that attitude makes its way in to designing for the lifestyle of my clients. What are you doing to enjoy your summer? Let me know in the comments. In the meantime, live nicely!
Set up a life you don’t need to escape from!
Bent Creek
Biltmore Estate Bike Trail
Biltmore View from Dianne Statue
Brown Trout on the Davidson River. Pisgah National Forrest, NC
Lake Jocassee, SC
Frauenkirche at Sunset. Dresden, Germany
Zwinger Res. Dresden, Germany
Moore’s Cove. Pisgah National Forrest
The Gorge Zipline. .Saluda, NC
French Broad River. Near Marshall, NC
Take a look at these posts from all the architects participating in #Architalks … in no particular order:
Bob Borson – Life of AnArchitect – @bobborson
Architectural Bucket List
Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture – @FiELD9arch
SummerBreak?
Marica McKeel – Studio MM – @ArchitectMM
Summer Break = Extreme Architecture
Jeff Echols – Architect Of The Internet – @Jeff_Echols
Summer Break and Aunt Loretta
Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect – @LeeCalisti
summer break
Mark R. LePage – Entrepreneur Architect – @EntreArchitect
2 Simple Systems That Will Transform Your Studio
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC – @L2DesignLLC
Vacationing with an Architect
Cormac Phalen – Cormac Phalen – @archy_type
MILES AND MILES OF ROAD
Andrew Hawkins, AIA – Hawkins Architecture, Inc. – @hawkinsarch
Summertime
Rosa Sheng – Equity by Design / The Missing 32% Project – @miss32percent
#Architalks 10 – Give me a Break!
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect – @mghottel
#Architalks 10 – “summer break”
Meghana Joshi – IRA Consultants, LLC – @MeghanaIRA
Architalks: There, but not there
Amy Kalar – ArchiMom – @AmyKalar
Summer Break
Michael Riscica – Young Architect – @YoungArchitxPDX
Architecture Students Summer Break
Stephen Ramos – BUILDINGS ARE COOL – @sramos_BAC
Architect: Gift or Curse?
brady ernst – Soapbox Architect – @bradyernstAIA
The Education of an Agrarian Architect
Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect – @bpaletz
Summer Vacation
Tara Imani – Tara Imani Designs, LLC – @Parthenon1
A Brilliant Summer A Brilliant Summer Break
Eric Wittman – intern[life] – @rico_w
summer break [or] summer school
Sharon George – Architecture By George – @sharonraigeorge
#ArchiTalks Summer Break
Brinn Miracle – Architangent – @simplybrinn
Summer Break
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Sure is!
True Lora! It would be hard to. I am developing a theory about the nature of being surrounded by and living in a dominate geography (mountains) versus the more urban life setting. The omnipresence and majesty of the mountains can have a profound influence on ones idea of place and attitude; a sense of belonging. I’ve experienced the same with vast flat lands and oceans. Blog post in the making, I suppose.
…worth a thousand words.
Thank you Lee. And I am sure SG appreciates it also.
that Seth Godin quote is amazing. I tried to say something like that in my blog but not nearly as coherent and concise. I guess that is why I am not Seth Godin. Well done sir! -Steve
Love it! Hah…It is hard, sometimes, to find the words to adequately convey the though. I find it like sculpting with clay…there is a lot of kneading, adding, and taking away to get it right. Then, sometimes it just works.
I generally feel the same way about not needing to escape from my daily life. It is amazing what you can find to do close to home if you just take the time to look.
That is a good point, Matthew. There are great surprises waiting all over our nation but nothing beats the mystique of foreign lands, cultures, and destinations. True whether domestically or overseas.
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Summer is definitely a state of mind for many of us!
So true…like age. The longer I am out of school and out of a schedule punctuated with summer breaks, the more I like Spring and Fall, though.
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