Ah, summer. Those precious days of vacation trips, visits with family and extra time spent with our children. Summer brings back all of the feelings of childhood that I treasure so much: long days of playing, hot summer nights catching fireflies, block parties with neighbors.

As a teacher, I am blessed to have an extended break in the summer. Granted, I didn't always have this long break. Most teachers work all summer long to supplement their income. I myself didn't have summers off until a few years ago, and I still work throughout the summer as an educational consultant for school systems around the state, but these jobs are all based on my own schedule, so it still feels like vacation.

I have also spent my entire adult life in Chapel Hill, having moved here from Ohio immediately after graduation to find a teaching job. I've been here since the mid-90s, and my memories of Chapel Hill in the summer are some of the best!

We are so lucky to live in an area that supports so many different styles of life. There are indoor activities galore for adults and children, if you don't like the heat. Some of my best memories include visits to the Morehead Planetarium, before children and after I had children. Once, when my parents were visiting from Ohio, I took them to a psychedelic Beatles laser-light show that filled the planetarium with a cacophony of sounds and lights that I found thrilling and exciting. My poor parents were a bit stunned, I think!

Since my wife and I had our three children, we've enjoyed some hot afternoons browsing through the excellent planetarium gift shop, traveling through space with "Jack and Annie" in the "Magic Tree House Space Mission" and literally taking time to "smell the roses" in the beautiful rose garden outside the Planetarium. And let's not forget the awesome (and huge) sundial that my children love!

If you like outdoor activities, Chapel Hill is perfect for summertime. I love taking long walks through the forested trails at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. The shade provides ample protection from the heat and the sound of a babbling brook cools my soul at its core. Then I head over the herb gardens and the many educational trails that the Botanical Garden offers. I find myself conjuring up new and exciting ways to cook in the summer just by smelling the amazing fresh herbs that you'll find.

However, as a history teacher at Chapel Hill High School, I am always stressing the personal stories that make history fascinating. Just as history is more than a litany of places, dates, and events, my memories of Chapel Hill are more than just enjoying the many amazing activities that our town has to offer. My summer memories are personal stories that define who I am. They are, in effect, MY history.

As I look back, I realize that my summer memories wind through the years like a personal timeline that I often have my students create. My students study historical figures and look at their lives to find out what makes them extraordinary. Most often, it's not the places these people have been or the date on which they were born. It is often the simplicity of their experiences in life that make them important. That's how I look at my summer memories of Chapel Hill. It's not where I was or when I was doing them that makes them special. It is the simple experience of them and how they affected me that makes them special.

One of my most treasured memories is from a few years ago. I'll set the stage for you (bear with me, this is the history teacher coming out in me). It was July 4th, and it was the first time our children were old enough to go to the fireworks at Kenan Stadium. It is not the actual experience of the fireworks that I remember. It was the simple pleasures of the entire evening that stick with me.

The trip to Maple View Ice Cream in Carrboro, where I watched with quiet joy as each child licked and licked and LICKED their cone until it was completely gone. (If you have children, you know how long, and sometimes messy, ice cream cones can be!)

Then we headed to the UNC campus where we enjoyed the commons area adjacent to the Old Well. We had brought a beach ball, and we hit, kicked and ran after that ball with the glee that you have when you are child. The simple pleasure of watching my kids play tag around the statues, drinking from the Old Well and running from path to path still fills my heart with happiness.

We ran into some teacher friends from the high school who were walking their dog, and we stood and talked while the kids petted and enjoyed their dog. Then we meandered over to Kenan Stadium, where we found our seats and enjoyed one of the best firework shows I've seen.

But it wasn't the fireworks that made it special. Each time the sky lit up, I could see the smiles on my children's faces. I could see that I was making memories for them as well. And when I looked at my wife, her face lit up in the night, I could see shimmering tears in her eyes, and I knew she was thinking what I was thinking: "What a life I have been given! What a history I am making!"

This summer, take time to make your own history in Chapel Hill. Visit the sites. Enjoy the outdoors. And most important, make memories. In the depths of winter when it's cold and barren, you can pull out your summer memories and warm your soul enough to last you until next summer, when you can add more history to your timeline of memories.