Watching and listening: Stop talking and find some silence
Summer vacation for me and my family means the beach. Every year, with one or two exceptions, we find a way to travel to the ocean. The place we have settled on is a quiet barrier island in North Carolina. It has no boardwalk, nightclubs or amusement parks, just a grocery store and a fish market. We walk the beach, build sand castles with grandchildren, ride bicycles from one end of the island to the other, and discuss at some length what dinner should be.