And the Livin’ Is Easy
​            Summer in my San Francisco beach neighborhood is typically chilly and gray, but the other day felt like the quintessential summer day. The sky was a deep blue, the heat of the sun was tempered by a breeze, and flowers were zinging with vibrant colors. It was the last day of spring, and the next day, the first official day of summer, was just as perfect.
            When I was little, my dad played the piano after work, between household chores, and at night after we kids went to bed. We never knew if we’d hear Beethoven or Brubeck, or when the season arrived, his jazz rendition of Gershwin’s “Summertime.”
            As a kid who lived through very long winters and blink-of-an-eye summers, summer meant going to the beach at an Adirondack Lake. Just as the lake water finally started warming up in late July, we’d be hit with morning frost in August.
            There’s something magical about a beach, sun sparkling on the water, whether it’s at an Adirondack Lake, a California beach filled with surfers, or a Florida beach lined by white sand.
            This week HikingAutism features a new World Walks contribution. Check out Cape Francis Beach Walk, another Florida walk contributed from traveler friends from the Netherlands.
            We’ve just passed the summer solstice, and the days are already getting shorter. Take time to find special moments that bring the magic of summer for you!
            This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Stinson Beach, an iconic California beach that makes me feel like I’ve started a beach vacation the minute I set foot on it.
 
This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives:
(Original Hike Notes 147): Stinson Beach
 
            Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links.
            Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777

Someone to Walk With
            I loved stepping out my front door as a kid and choosing which direction to walk on a whim. Through our apple orchard to the creek? Past the wild roses down the stone stairs into the back fields? Past the fallen barn, ducking under barbed wire to catch a glimpse of the swan and mallards on the Jones’s pond? Walk the 2.2 miles “around the block” on our country roads and hope none of the farm dogs were loose off their chains?
            Sometimes I walked with my brothers or dad, but I often went alone, sometimes with my beagle Spike alongside.
            Time outdoors on my own has long been a necessary treasure. Thoughts and feelings have a way of sorting themselves during the act of moving through a forest, along a shoreline, or even through city streets.
            I wonder if my severely autistic son wishes he could walk alone? We let him walk ahead on the trail a bit, when there aren’t crowds of people for him to bump into, but for the most part, someone is always within arm’s length to redirect him if needed.
            The concept of dangers such as electricity, fire, or falling from high places have not registered with him yet, despite being in his twenties, so even at home he’s under supervision.
            I believe that time outdoors is also a necessary treasure for my son. Since he still needs to walk with someone, I’m glad we family members are here to walk alongside him.
            May we all enjoy time soaking up nature, whether alone or with a companion, moving by the power of our feet or a wheelchair, or simply looking out our back window. Keep putting one foot forward!
            This week’s Hike Notes, Shakespeare Garden-Golden Gate Park, one of the many interesting nooks and crannies in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
            Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links.
            Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777
New this week:
Hike Notes 183: Shakespeare Garden-Golden Gate Park

By Any Other Name
            As a kid growing up in Upstate New York farm country, surrounded by fields, creeks and forests, I knew lots of plants by what they looked like, what they smelled like, and whether they could cause an itchy rash, cut my skin, or stick to my clothes, but I didn’t often know their formal names.
            It really didn’t matter. To this day, I don’t know the official name of the common weed with jagged-edged leafy structures radiating from the center that were so common in my childhood stomping grounds. “Watch out for the prickers!” my brothers and I would warn each other if we were running outside barefoot, which we usually were.
            Having moved to California as an adult, though I still absorb the essence of my surroundings through my senses, I have a much stronger tendency to ask the name of plants, trees, and other items around me. I can list dozens of Northern California plants off the top of my head, but can’t do the same for the plants where I grew up, though I can pull up their images from memory.
            The natural childhood skill of soaking up our surroundings by sight, sound, smell, taste and touch is something we can retain and hone again, even as we process information about our world more analytically as adults.
            The flower photo featured with this Insights post is from the Fuchsia Dell in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, but it doesn’t look like the fuchsia I’m most familiar with. Could this be a different kind of flower that just happened to be growing near the various fuchsia in this dell? Again, it really doesn’t matter.
            A lovely flower is a lovely flower is a lovely flower, regardless of how we label it.
            May we all tap into our childlike superpower of absorbing nature’s offerings through our senses, and not always worry about what to call things!
            This week’s HikingAutism Hike Notes from the archives is Fuchsia Dell-Golden Gate Park, a shady section of San Francisco’s urban oasis featuring a variety of fuchsia.
 
This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives:
(Original Hike Notes 134): Fuchsia Dell-Golden Gate Park
 
            Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links.
            Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777

Dads
            In the disabilities community, we often hear about “autism moms” and their fierce determination to do everything humanly possible to help their children on the autism spectrum. The more daunting the challenge, the more determined mothers seem to become.
            There are fathers who also fit that description, but in many families, including mine, the dads may take a quieter role: steadfastly driving kids to school and therapy appointments, handling bath/shower time especially as kids outgrow their moms, remembering medications, supplements and special diet restrictions at meal time.
            The daily reality of being a father may feel very different from what dads of special needs kids originally anticipated. In the big picture, though, it is the same job of figuring out how to help children live a healthy, happy life. The goal of helping our family member achieve full independence may feel out of reach, which makes unconditional love all the more important.
            It’s a little early for Father’s Day, but cheers to the dads out there doing their best under unexpected circumstances. May we all find the resilience to evolve with the hands we’re dealt in life. Keep putting one foot forward!
            This week’s Hike Notes, Half Moon Bay State Beach-Francis Beach, takes readers to the main hub of a multi-beach stretch along the Half Moon Bay shoreline.
            Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links.
            Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777
New this week:
Hike Notes 182: Half Moon Bay State Beach-Francis Beach