Homesick

While on the surface I'm glad to be escaping the Chico heat, there's a deeper part of me that misses it, that wants to experience it, that wants to show my girls what a California summer is like.

• Swimming nearly every day in Creeks so clear you can see the fish swim beneath you and watch the crawdads scurry into their holes.

• Peaches and nectarines, straight from tree to mouth. Warm sweetness dribbling down your chin.

• Heat so intense it nearly knocks you over as you walk out the door, but, oh, the joys of air conditioning as you come in after a long day in the sun.

• Sunburns through clothes and 50 SPF sunscreen - oh, wait, that happens here too.

• Meeting friends downtown for Shuberts or Jon-n-Bon's.

• Mexican food - it doesn't exist here.

• Building with Daddy. Working fast to get the concrete done before it starts to set.

• Flowers, huge, intense, abundant, beautiful.

• Smelling cherry pie as it bakes, and knowing the joy of having picked, pitted and baked those cherries all by yourself.

• Family and friends, to laugh with, talk with, enjoy. I miss you my dear ones!