10 Perfect Ways To Spend This Summer: Bring Back Fun In Your Life

Build A Sandcastle

Some of the world's most fun-oriented scientific research comes from, of all places, the Islamic Republic of Iran. A team of Iranian scientists studied the engineering principles required for making the perfect sand castle and reported them in a journal published by the prestigious Nature Science group.. It's essential to add a little bit of water to the sand to make it stick together, but only a little water, so the sand castle won't buckle under its own weight. The most stable sand castles are 99% sand and only 1% water. A sand castle should be no more than 2/3 as tall as it is wide, so the base of the castle can support the structure. You can build an underwater sand castle if you make sure you to mix sand with air, which performs the same role as water in sand for building a castle on the beach itself. Not mentioned in the article explaining the engineering principles of building sand castles is who funded the research.

Pick Wild Berries

Wild berries are delicious. Picking wild berries makes a perfect pre-picnic activity. And the health benefits of wild berries are astonishing. Ounce for ounce and gram for gram, freshly picked wild berries pack up to 3500 times the antioxidant potency of commercial tomatoes and up to 100 times the antioxidant potential of oranges and grapefruit. It's tempting to eat berries straight from the vine or bush--and why not? Just remember that most people are better at spotting fruit than at picking fruit. We see berries from a distance, and may walk right by them if they are too close. Older berry pickers who wear bifocals will know just how true this is.

Every Now And Then Invite Friends And Family Over On Barbecue

Barbecues can be great fun. But to keep your family or neighborhood barbecue from becoming a social and gastronomic disaster, be really careful about certain principles of barbecue safety. • Keep meat, especially bloody meat, well separated from any vegetables or fruits that will be served raw or in salads. • Keep melons, which can trap trillions of E. coli in their rough rinds, separate from salad vegetables in the refrigerator. • Don't operate a gas or charcoal grill indoors, and never squirt starter fluid directly onto hot coals. • Never start a fire with kerosene or gasoline; they can explode. • Don't close the grill before you are ready to cook (unless you are using your grill as a smoker). • Dispose of hot coals by removing them one by one with tongs, extinguishing them in a bucket of water. • Never throw hot coals into the garbage.

Nap In A Hammock

For some us, our favorite sport is taking naps. Short rest periods are particularly important for people who work on the night shift. And getting your nap in a hammock in the shade is especially beneficial. Why? The more social support we have, the less time it takes for us to fall asleep. If you are secure enough about your surroundings to take a nap in a hammock under a couple of trees in the yard, you will enjoy reduced sleep latency, that is, you will fall asleep faster, greater sleeping time, and greater wakefulness when you choose to end your snooze. Here's what you need to know about enjoying your hammock. Get a hammock without the spreader bar. The modern addition of spreader bars to hammocks makes them easier to draw and photograph, but also makes them more likely to flip you over and toss you out. Avoid the human waffle effect, also known as the rope tattoo. Buy a hammock made of cloth, not of rope. And if you need to sleep on your side, try this: Stretch out in the middle of the hammock. Then move your feet about 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) to one...

For some us, our favorite sport is taking naps. Short rest periods are particularly important for people who work on the night shift. And getting your nap in a hammock in the shade is especially beneficial. Why? The more social support we have, the less time it takes for us to fall asleep. If you are secure enough about your surroundings to take a nap in a hammock under a couple of trees in the yard, you will enjoy reduced sleep latency, that is, you will fall asleep faster, greater sleeping time, and greater wakefulness when you choose to end your snooze. Here's what you need to know about enjoying your hammock. Get a hammock without the spreader bar. The modern addition of spreader bars to hammocks makes them easier to draw and photograph, but also makes them more likely to flip you over and toss you out. Avoid the human waffle effect, also known as the rope tattoo. Buy a hammock made of cloth, not of rope. And if you need to sleep on your side, try this: Stretch out in the middle of the hammock. Then move your feet about 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) to one side. Move your head and shoulders 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) to the other side. You should then by lying flat in a curved hammock comfortably on your side.

Attend Outdoor Concerts

What is it about outdoor concerts that makes them special? Well, for many, it's that herbal aroma wafting in the air when the lights go down (or maybe before the lights go down if you live in Colorado or Washington). Interestingly, Loma Linda University emergency room physicians doing studies of admissions from outdoor concerts found that Christian music concerts resulted in 9 times as many ER admissions per 1,000 attendees as rhythm and blues concerts, and heart attacks seem to be more common when classical music is played. The most common medical complaint at outdoor musical concerts is headache, followed by facial lacerations and sunburn. Serious health problems at outdoor musical concerts in America, Canada, and Europe are quite rare.

Go On The Beach And Watch Sunset

There are few things more romantic than watching a sunset on the beach. And that's what the sand fleas think, too. A just-impregnated female sand flea will head straight for the soft tissue between human toes to insert herself for the next 10 days, feeding on blood, dropping off her eggs, and eventually dying inside human skin to leave an allergy-inducing corpse behind. If you want to avoid becoming some sand creature's dinner as you watch sunset on the beach, wear shoes. If you choose to engage in amorous interaction on a secluded stretch of sandy beach, put down a blanket first. You really don't want insects that live in beach sand to find their way to some of the parts that might get exposed. And don't forget about tides. If you choose to sleep on the beach, leave yourself enough room to stay on high ground when the tides come in.

Go Camping

Camping is a favorite pastime in Europe, in North America, in parts of Australia and New Zealand, and in many other parts of the world. Certain simple precautions can prevent a camp out from becoming the source of a health issue. Avoid ticks and fleas by wearing boots and making sure legs are covered when hiking through high grass or ferns. Carry more than enough water. You don't really have to drink before you are thirsty, but you are highly unlikely to drink too much if you do. If you are camping at high altitude, eat high-calorie foods. You'll burn more calories, exhale more carbon dioxide, and inhale more oxygen if you do. Be careful where you toilet in the woods. It's important to be considerate of other campers, of course, but it is also important not to put tender parts of your body on poison ivy and poison oak. And make a point of watching wild animals rather than feeding them. Bears, in particular, develop a taste for human food and for humans.

Try Water Sports: Kayaking, Canoeing and Rafting

Water sports such as canoeing, rafting, and kayaking are a great way to get in touch with nature and in touch with yourself. Kayaking and canoeing through rapids is a great way to test your physical strength and to build relationships that last the rest of your life. What you don't want to do when you indulge in water sports, of course, is to drown. There's nothing sissy about wearing a life preserver. It may help you conserve your energy long enough to be a hero to someone else. And it's just plain good planning to make sure that you know how to float and to swim, whether you swim very well or not, before you engage in water sports. You'll be less likely to suffer drowning, and more likely to be able to be the person who helps in a critical situation rather than the one who requires rescue.

Walk Barefoot

For most of American history (not so much in Canada, of course) summer was the season when almost all children ran around barefoot almost all the time. It's a little trickier now in the era of asphalt and super-germs, but walking barefoot is still a great way to get back in touch with the earth. The secret to comfortably walking barefoot is to make a habit of putting more weight down to the ground with each step on the front of the foot, not on the back of the foot. Most people suffer heel pain first if they have pain from walking barefoot. If you have diabetes, unfortunately, it is just not a good idea to walk around barefoot. Diabetics are just too prone to infections through tiny nicks and scratches on the surface of the foot.