American summers are as various as the nation we stay in. For some, summer season means tenting in Sequoia National Park; for others, it is Disney World; and for but others, it is a backyard cookout with burgers, deviled eggs, Popsicles, and sparklers. Summertime means strolling barefoot in fresh-cut grass, sporting seersucker to the office on Fridays, ready for the lifeguard’s whistle to mark the begin of grownup swim, planning a tee time for after work.
As the outdated Gershwin tune goes, “Summertime an’ the livin’ is easy.” It actually felt that means throughout these long-ago summers on the Cape after I would go to mattress with sunburned shoulders and sand in the sheets. But what I’ve discovered in the 40-plus years since is that summer season can also be evanescent. The morning we packed up the station wagon to depart the Cape and head again to our actual lives, I began to cry: Please, cannot we keep? My father put his arm round my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “The reason summertime is special,” he mentioned, “is because it always ends.” I climbed into the backseat of the automobile, letting that bittersweet reality sink in.
An eight-episode tv adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel The Five-Star Weekend, set on Nantucket and starring Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, and Chloë Sevigny, premieres July 9, 2026, on Peacock. A particular launch of her 2023 ebook, tied to the present, is out now. Hilderbrand, thought-about the queen of the seashore learn, has written 32 novels over the previous 26 years. The Thoroughbreds, which was cowritten along with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, will likely be printed this September. This article appeared in the July/August 2026 subject of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal here.