road trip americana

I think I've made a pretty well-rounded set of summer memories over the course of my childhood and adolescence, from the horseback riding and tennis lessons I took as a kid, to the splattering of summer camps I attended, and even a trip or two to China and the western Mediterranean. But sometimes, I can't help but to feel cheated of the whole summer nostalgia experience because I've never been on a proper road trip.

Like Westerns and drive-in movie theaters, there's something so inherently American about a road trip across the country. Since the creation of the Interstate Highway System in 1956, millions of families have driven under the unending open sky in search of adventure and new discoveries. Everything about the idea of it tastes like nostalgia-in-the-making, from the diners older than your parents that serve the best vanilla milkshakes you've ever tasted (or a newly-built McDonald's and the prospect of sharing some French fries) to the secrets spilled underneath the stars after the day finally cools (or at the only motel you could find on the side of the road).

I think the closest thing to a road trip that I've taken was last June, when I went to Indianapolis for nationals for debate. My coach booked our flight from Seattle to Saint Louis, so we had to rent a car and drive the four and a half hours up to Indiana. Looking back, it's all just a blur of air conditioning, illuminated crosses next to the highway, and one late-night Sonic stop where everything looked a little green from the florescent lights. I think the other kids in the van were watching The Searchers at some point during the drive for the film studies unit in English, but I don't really remember...It was a long trip, and I'm pretty sure I slept through most of it!

Lately I've been drawn to the kind of style that goes with road trips: cotton dresses, denim cutoffs, thin cardigans and giant sunglasses. Oh, sunglasses! I went everywhere last summer in my knock-off Wayfarers, and I can't wait for sunshine just to wear them around again. As much as people associate rain with Seattle, the weather between June and September is fantastic: even Shakespeare would've had to think twice to comparing a young maiden to a summer's day if he lived here, because nothing is more lovely or more temperate than a summer in Seattle.

What are your summer plans? Are any of you going on a road trip?

xoxo, vivian

Images from this post were taken from: yaitsrachael, "On the Road" by Paul Jasmin for Glamour Germany October 2012, "Two for the Road" by Corrie Bond for Marie Claire Australia December 2012,  Zeb Andrews,  françois duquesnoy, Yerse Spring/Summer 2012, Urban Outfitters Spring 2013 lookbook, Feargal Norton, "On the Road" by Teen Vogue March 2013, and "In Back of the Real" by Stephen Shore for AnOther Magazine Spring/Summer 2006