Here are the song titles that deluge my mind in August- It Happened In Monterey. Fly Me to the Moon. Come Fly With Me. It's Nice to Go Travelin'. The fact that they are all Sinatra hits may or may not be a coincidence. Frank Sinatra lived his life on the road, when he wasn't ensconced between gigs in his home in Palm Springs, decorated in his favor color of orange. He used to say that orange made him happy. Who am I to argue? When he sang, he made me happy. Those records still bounce; they still fill the air with the sense of possibility. What's around the corner? Who will you meet at a romantic rendezvous? What adventures lie ahead?
I live in a beautiful place, a town called Westport, in the lovely state of Connecticut. We are blessed to live here, in a town that many still turn to as a vacation destination. Nevertheless, when summer comes, I need to change my scenery, lovely as it is. I must get away. Those Sinatra songs beckon in my mind.
Since June, I have been to Cape Cod, the Hamptons and Lake Placid. I had never been to Lake Placid before, and it struck me, as we left our inn last night, just how different all three vacation venues are. Think Cape Cod- you see beaches, dunes and lobsters. I don't even eat lobsters, and I see lobsters. Hamptons? A scene straight out of The Great Gatsby, complete with modern day hedge fund tycoons competing from behind those hedges to see who has just finished the latest, biggest monstrosity on the block. Tut, tut, how gauche. Tut, tut, mine is better than yours is. Lake Placid caused me to invent a new Jackie Mason joke, with apologies to Jackie. " A Jew and a gentile are pausing to consider where they will ride their bicycles. The Jew says, "That road looks good. Nice and flat, no bumps in the road." The Gentile says, "That mountain looks great. All peaks and valleys." And there you have it. I was the Jew in Lake Placid, land of the great Whiteface Mountain, and many, many lesser hills. My husband, on the other hand, was the gentile, metaphorically speaking. He had a blast cycling, I had the greatest of fun walking, doing yoga, and inhaling that fabulous air.
I store up those images of mountains, lakes, dunes and beaches. They sustain me when life gets too hectic and too commonplace, when getting away becomes something I do in my mind, rather than in my car. May you too enjoy your summer changes of scenery, whatever they are.
A Change of Scenery
