Summer Getaway

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.

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.

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.

Getaways have been different since we moved here. We really LIVE in a getaway, in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

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!

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