My appointment at the print studio in Baltimore was at 6 PM, which is the traffic witching hour in any major city. Google Maps told me the usual 30-minute drive would take an hour and that the fastest route was to take US-1 north.

As I approached the Baltimore County line, I noticed a small building with a red roof and the words soft serve in bright white letters. I don’t often drive that far up US-1. The post office and the library are my only US-1 destinations, and the side streets leading to both were behind me.

Truthfully? I was barreling down the road at 65. Places to be! That I noticed the structure at all was due to my decades-long obsession with the Red Rule. When I got to the print studio, I quickly found Cindy’s Soft Serve on the map and bookmarked it before heading inside.

Ice cream is never one of my first dessert choices. It’s like, 17th on the list. Soft serve, though? Love it. I’m a Dairy Queen girl. Soft serve topped with rainbow sprinkles or crushed Oreos? Um, yes, please.

So that’s what I set out to do a couple of weekends ago. It was a treat!

The solstice is an astronomical permission slip. Take it. Soft serve on a Tuesday. The in-between-Teams-calls lunchtime walk you keep meaning to take. The linen dress you’ve still not worn. Whatever your version of driving back to the red roof is—go.

Happy Solstice, have a fantastic summer!

Vanilla in a sugar cone + rainbow sprinkles

This is Come, we fly! letter no. 1. The next note arrives in time for the autumnal equinox.