Dear Travelers,

There is a brief window between spring and summer each year when life moves outdoors again.

Not quite the heat of midsummer.
Not the rush of holiday travel.
Just that stretch of late spring and early summer when porches fill up, lemonade appears, and people remember how to linger.

This afternoon I found myself sitting on the porch with a book and a glass of chilled wine.

No itinerary.
No deadline.
No destination.

Just an hour to sit still.

It struck me that some of my favorite trips have felt exactly the same way.

We often think travel is about movement.

Airports.
Road trips.
Train stations.
Packing lists.

But the trips I remember most clearly aren’t the busiest ones.  They’re the mornings spent lingering over coffee in a small café.  The evenings watching the light change over a harbor.  The unexpected conversations.  The extra hour on a hotel balcony.  The walk taken with nowhere particular to be.

Travel doesn’t always have to be about seeing more.  Sometimes it’s about noticing more.  Maybe that’s why porch season feels so much like travel.  Travel and slow summer afternoons spent on a porch both invite us to slow down.  Both remind us that not every meaningful experience requires a packed schedule.  And both create a little room to pay attention to what we might otherwise miss.

Summer arrives soon enough with its flights, road trips, family reunions, and adventures.

For now, I’m content with a porch, a book, and a chilled glass of pinot.

Sometimes the season before the journey is worth savoring too.

Travel well,

xx, Kay