Three Great Summer Vacation Ideas

So are you thinking about the summer and what to do with the family, yet? Well, I am hoping to make your dilemma a bit easier with a Summer Vacation Series sure to spark some interest and get your summer vacation planning kicked into high gear!

As stated in previous posts, My husbands parents plan a great summer vacation every year for my husbands whole family...all twenty of us(at the latest count)! We have been to each of these three destinations and loved each one. From the shores of Lake Champlain and the Tyler Place Family Resort, to the beautiful sandy beaches of the Outer Banks and finally the glorious green countryside surrounding Keuka Lake of New York, each trip offers a little bit of something for everyone.

Wake Boarding Keuka Lake
Finger Lakes, New York








The Outer Banks...Corolla Beach, North Carolina






The Wall
Photo Courtesy
The Tyler Place Family Resort









Look for part one in the series highlighting The Tyler Place Resort located on the shores of Lake Champlain just north of Burlington. Better yet subscribe at the bottom of this page to be e-mailed the most recent posts.

Start Planning...summer is almost here!
Medelise

Home and Recovering

Hello everyone,
It has been a long time.
For those that don't know, I have had a very lengthy and scary hospital stay. I have spent the better part of the last six weeks in one of two hospitals, Westerly and Brigham and Womans in Boston. To make a long story short, a bacterial infection in my colon caused my ulcerative colitis to flair ended in the ultimate removal of my entire colon. So after two months of no food, lots of pain medication and major surgery, I am home and recovering.

Although the recovery is slower than I would like, I am making progress. I am gaining about 1/2 lb-1lb a day and developing some of my muscle tone back. It will take months to get to where I was but I am grateful to be heading in the right direction.

So with all this somewhat behind me, I am gearing up for some great new posts. I am planning on a three part series that will highlight some great family vacation ideas for the summer. I am also working on adding to the Rhode Island surfing section with photos and updates on where to surf in the Ocean State. Inspired by the retro surf photos of Leroy Grannis and considering that I will not be surfing in the next few months, I thought I would would experiment a bit with our camera.

So check back soon or better yet subscribe at the bottom of the page to be notified of all the new posts.

To all of you that have held me up with your prayers, thoughts and acts of kindness, Thank you!
Hardly adequate as a way of expressing my gratitude but heartfelt.
Medelise

Women and Surfing

Did you know that for the first time in history the number of woman entering the sport of surfing has surpassed men. Traditionally, surfing has been dominated by men, but not anymore. Some statistics indicate that there are twice as many women entering the sport as men.
"There are an estimated 260,000 women surfing in America, and female participation is growing twice as fast as that of men, according to the Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association. The number of female surfers jumped 15 percent last year alone."
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And those are statistics from as far back as 1998. In the last three years, I have seen an explosion of young and not so young female surfers at our local beach break in Narragansett, Rhode Island. On any given day, I witness just as many women in the water as men...sometimes more.

About five years ago, My daughter was interested in a surf camp here in Rhode Island. Having tried surfing 12 years earlier but never really getting the knack for it, I thought it would be fun to enroll myself. I have been surfing ever since. At forty five I may not be the youngest female in the water but I am certainly not the oldest one either. In the early 1980's, "Gidget" Lee Ferrera, began surfing at the age of 21. She was recently featured in an article in the Rhode Island monthly on the diehard pioneers of surfing here in the Ocean State.

Photograph by Dana Smith
Rhode Island Monthly November 2007
She surfed for love before she loved to surf. “I had a boyfriend who surfed, and if I ever wanted to see him I had to go in the water,” says the Peace Dale resident. “That first time felt like dancing on water. I still get that feeling, that ‘Yeeaaahhhhh!’ What a rush!” A year and a half later, she was surfing competitively. Ferrera was a Northeast division champion in the Eastern Surfing Association and still competes, recently scooping first place in its thirty-five-and-up women’s division. Her first board—a 9'6" 1967 David Nuuhiwa longboard—still “rides like a gem.”
This article appears in the November 2007 issue of Rhode Island Monthly.


I love this paragraph run in a SurfPulse publication back in 2002 titled Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,
"Today, however, a whole new culture is emerging within women's surfing: surfing for fun. While previous rises in popularity revolved primarily around professional surfing, today's surfer-girl to be isn't necessarily aspiring to be a traveling pro. Rather, she may just want to go down to the local beach to ride a longboard, hang out with her friends, and enjoy the ocean. This represents a 180 degree shift in both mentality and image for women's surfing. Instead of the previously serious, often very aggressive representation of women in the surf, today's portrayals are centered simply on women having fun."
Written by Dane Larson


So this is for all you women out there!!! You are never too old or too young to start surfing. It may just turn out to be the most exciting thing you have ever done. If you need a little inspiration, check out this link to my a favorite video clip of an amazing longboarder by the name of Summer Romero that can be found on the online surf magazine Jetty Girl.

If you are ready to take the next step there are numerous camps, clinics and resorts that cater to the female surfer. Here are a handful to get you started.
Surf Diva
Las Olas...Surf Safaris for Women
Pura Vida Adventure
Boardfolio.com...surf directory

Yours Truly...Costa Rica 2007