Chocolate

It is common knowledge that there is something in chocolate that makes you feel like you are in love. My favorite kind of chocolate is dark chocolate. At the C-Town in Our Community, I usually by the 70% cacao Lindt. If I am at home, I like to mix it with peanut butter. But when I am at the Cape, I make S’mores with it. S’mores are so popular lately they even sell them at the Cosi. You can get these things that look like Chinese PuPu platters to roast them on.

Family

My family has always bonded around time together spent camping, or by the ocean, or both. And, of course, there’s the food and the cats. Making S’mores on Lt. Island brings all of those elements together. (Even the cats are there.) It is like camping at the beach, and then we are roasting our food over the fire. In the light of the campfire, you can see things that you can’t see in the daylight – things that are in that space just between. A lot of our experiences of our families are kept in that zone, and can only be seen by those in it.

Campfire

Making a campfire has to be one of the most primal traditions we keep. My father and I love to start fires together and put in various kinds of things that turn different colors when they burn. When I was a kid, we used to build these crazy bonfires at camp. I swear one stood as tall as a two-story house. In Beijing, I made a campfire, with the help of a bunch of friends and strangers, next to a coal transfer station. It was amazing to watch the wood burn to the color, and then consistency, of the coal behind it.