“No way! You go to Rome every summer?”
Yes, I guess you could say that I go to Rome every summer, but it’s not the Rome you’re thinking of. Scooters aren’t buzzing down cobbled streets. You can’t throw coins into the Trevi Fountain, because it isn’t here, and the Colosseum isn’t down the street, either. The Rome I go to is full of fishermen, lobsters, boats and many, many tractors. The Rome I’m talking about is Rome, Maine (and yes, I know it sounds like romaine lettuce, but it’s not. It’s an actual town; look it up).
Every summer during the same week in June, we rent a little log cabin with about 15 other families, filling 32 cabins that line the shore of a large pond. My family has been going to this same camp for 20-something years, way before I was born. And the only summer we missed was the summer I was born. Yes, I ruined my family’s vacation that year, but fortunately, my mother gave birth in a hospital, rather than in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.
To me, it’s a place full of simple pleasures and overflowing with the same things each year, but that’s one of the reasons I adore it so much. I love traditions and am not a fan of surprises (except maybe if anyone wants to surprise me with a kitten one day; I'd be fine with that). Regardless, when the 23 members of just my family make that long four-hour drive up to Maine, I know just what I’m getting myself into.
Looking back on my vacations, I don’t know if others could deal with the things we encounter. We sit, a lot. No, we're not stuck in the middle of the woods fighting off bears and rabid raccoons. Instead, we're just sitting, often. That’s basically our main activity for the day, sitting and talking. That’s just another thing I find absolutely irresistible, relaxing and bonding with my family. We sit at the dining hall when we eat. We sit on our porches and talk. We sit around fire pits at night, and we sit in floats constructing our very own float train from the shore all the way out to the middle of the pond. Anyway, you get the picture, we sit, a lot. But it's all in good fun to be able to spend hours on end with my favorite people on the planet: my family.
Sitting, however, isn’t our only plan for the day. There are countless activities to do with this great pond in front of us. As for me, I like to do things that are a bit “unconventional” for a teenage girl. How many teenage girls do you know hang out with their male relatives, go fishing and wade in the shallows of a pond? I’m sure you can’t think of one, until now. Just imagine a five and a half foot 19-year-old girl with pin straight hair (because she can’t begin to imagine stepping out of her house with frizzy hair) wearing a perfectly coordinated and matching outfit with Sperrys on her feet. If you saw me, you’d probably assume I was headed for the mall, but not during this week of my summer (any other week you would find me there, for sure). Instead, I’m jogging onto the dock to catch my father and brother as they start the engine of our pontoon boat to cruise out into the rocky area of the pond, just to drop a line and wait for a simple bite. Yup, that’s me just doing what I love with the people I love.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love relaxing under the sun just like any teenage girl does. I just get really impatient waiting for my tan to arrive within the first five minutes, and tanning is not my main priority. All I want to focus on is spending these precious moments with my family. This home away from home is just overall perfect to me: the location, the food, the activities and the people. Absolutely perfect.
Someday, I’d love to go to Rome, Italy, but I don’t think it’d compare to the Rome I’ve grown to love, even if this one does have a few hillbillies.
