It’s August now. What happened to summer? We had all these plans to make this summer memorable, and while we were able to make a few of those 
memories in June, July with its oppressive heat confined us to the comforts of air conditioning with our new best friend, Dora.
It’s August, but it’s not too late. Still plenty of time to squeeze the life out of summer. We’re making the next 30 or so days count. So begins our quest to save summer.
We start in Illinois. As you can see, the kids have wasted no time jumping in to summer activities.
Though neither of them are wearing swim pants in this picture, I’m confident we’re going to run through the stash we brought with us. Swimming is almost all Isabelle can talk about right now.
Not to be outdone by summer fun, my husband, his sister, our brother-in-law and I stole away while the kids were napping to the Amboy Pharmacy with its old-fashioned soda fountain to have an array of Green River treats — two Green River floats and a Green River milkshake. No bottled Green River, though. Not even the friendly staff at the Pharmacy could tell us where to find it.
Such a pity. It was a favorite drink of ours when my husband and I were dating. I can’t really explain what it tastes like, only that I like it and so far, Amboy is the only place I know to get it. May have to add it to our tour of food when we come home for visits.
To further our spontaneity and memory making, we decided to indulge in the penny candy (well, most of it cost 5 or 10 cents, but still …). The Pharmacy has this fantastic selection of loose candy you can hand select and purchase individually. We were all a litte giddy, like kids in a candy store (har, har, har), filling our little brown bags with our sugary selections, counting out our change like we were 10 and spending all the money we had. My husband and his sister recalled the many times their grandma would send them to the Pharmacy with a handful of change to buy whatever they wanted. The only restriction, they said, was candy cigarettes. They weren’t allowed to come home with those.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m pretty excited about this week in Illinois and a few fun things we have planned when we get back to Pennsylvania. Stay tuned.