Every summer I spend early August rafting down the Fall River and riding quads near Idaho Falls, Idaho. For two weeks out of the entire year I get a chance to connect with nature and feel calm before the chaos of school starts again.

I love Mission Viejo in California, but I don’t get the same feeling when a bald eagle flies over the river to get to its nest, or when a crack of thunder interrupts the sunny sky, a bomb in disguise. Or just the feeling of recklessness as I’m hurtling through the brush along the roar of the river, gassing the four-wheeler as much as it will comply with my hunger for adventure. Or even just enjoying the river view and “setting out on the deck,” as my grandma would say, catching up with the locals whom are tougher than nails, relating a story of her pregnant daughter being flattened by a sick cow that had died and keeled over when she tried to nurse it.

Idaho puts me in a meditative state of mind and really opens my eyes. I love being able to set aside all the temporary worries in my mind and be in the moment with my family because when we get a chance to get all together, it’s too much fun to be anywhere else. However, the one thing that I learn every time I come here is I can be happy and content anywhere if I have the right mindset. Idaho is my happy place and I wouldn’t spend my summer vacation anywhere else.

-Megan A.