Summer is moving right along. Tucson’s humidity finally broke and it’s now hot – 104 and low of 81 tonight –  and dry, at least until we got more monsoon rains.

Last weekend, Randy Seaver mentioned that he needed some ideas for SNGF and I’m pleased he picked one I suggested for this week’s challenge:

1)  What is your favorite summer memory?

Although I grew up in new Jersey, I was very fortunate to have grandparents with a cottage on Little Sebago Lake in Maine and an aunt and uncle who had a cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

I loved both camps, but one eventually became my favorite. While I adored vacationing with my grandparents in Maine, Little Sebago was a sleepy little lake. Aside from playing with my baby brother, which I didn’t consider much fun, the only other kids around were the two occasional nieces of the man who owned the camp on one side and a granddaughter of the couple who owned the camp on the other side of my grandparents, but who I only met twice in 13 years!

On the other hand, Lake Winnipesaukee is a much bigger lake – the largest in New England – and there was much more socially available. Not only did I have two cousins, but there were six of us girls close in age with whom to have fun.

I spent summers on Winnipesaukee from the time I was 12, when my aunt first invited me to spend the whole summer in New Hampshire until I was off to college.

In the intervening years, all the kids had plenty to keep us busy. Of course, there was swimming and lots of rowing the boat up and down the cove.

We took long walks exploring around the cove where we all lived and met kids that lived quite a distance away. There were trips to Center Harbor, Laconia and Weirs Beach, but the most exciting boat rides were when my uncle took all of us by boat (rough waves were the most fun) from Meredith clear to the other end of the lake in Wolfeboro, where we’d get ice cream cones.

However, my most favorite memories of all the hours we spent waterskiing. I wasn’t generally very interested in sports, but when I was 13, everyone wanted to learn how to waterski.

Lake Winnipesaukee presented some challenges because of the waves and wakes created by passing boats. However, by the end of that summer, all of us were up on skiis!

We eventually got good enough that we could waterski all the way down Meredith Bay and back without even falling in the wake of the Mount Washington sightseeing boat.

One of the very best ski adventures that we had was when three of my friends and I all waterskiied together behind my uncle’s boat. We could all slalom, but decided to stick with regular skis to cut down the possibility of any of us falling.

Someone even took a picture of us!

There are actually two of us on the far left – one skier is hidden.

I’d have to say my most favorite summer memories are all about the waterskiing fun.