At the moment it seems like most of the northern hemisphere is experiencing a fairly miserable heat wave — and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s more than ready for cooler weather. If I could just take off and head to the coast or the mountains, I’d be gone! Today the projected high temperature in my part of town is 111°F (43°C), while up the road in the mountains it’s 80° (26°C). Wouldn’t I love to be up there right now.

I have a few different coping strategies to deal with the heat. Mostly I stay inside the house, drink plenty of water, and find ways to stay busy without working up a sweat. One oppressive summer I dug out some old episodes of Northern Exposure, specifically ones with snow and icy weather in them, and pretended it was actually the middle of winter. Another trick is simply thinking back to happy memories of places and times where the climate was much more comfortable. In August 2014, looking to escape the valley heat for awhile, The Big Guy and I drove up to Caples Lake, near Kirkwood in the Sierra Nevadas.

The Big Guy was after trout, while I hunted around for things to shoot with my Nikon Coolpix 5700 (I still love that camera!). We’d brought along a nice lunch, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So even though we’d forgotten to bring any music to listen to during the drive, and even though at the end of the day it was back to the oven-like Sacramento Valley, this was a good day and one I still enjoy looking back on nearly three years later.