Laura was a runner, hiker, kayaker, and all-around nature enthusiast. Her upbringing in Tucson instilled in her a great love of the desert and the mountains, and her passion for running emerged from her Cross Country Team in high school and she shared that passion with her father and brother. She ran 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons, and never let more than a day or two go by without running at least four or five miles. She even convinced our son Marcus to join her on a 5K run, and her smile shows just how happy that made her.
By the time I met Laura, she’d already spent time at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and various other places out west. She’d hike up Mt. Lemon or Sabino Canyon with her friends and family, or explore the Saguaro National Park where the Saguaro Cactuses can be over 100 years old. After moving to New England, she’d often lament the fact that she couldn’t see mountains or even the horizon with all the trees in the way. One year she went to an academic conference in Boulder Colorado. She came back with a postcard of the scenery there. She stuck it on the fridge and said, “If you ever come home and I’m gone, you can find me here.” That postcard lived on our fridge for over a decade.
But eventually she developed an appreciation for the woods, we explored Old Growth Forests of CT, the wooded mountains of the Berkshires in MA, and hiked up wooded mountains in ME. She and the kids joined other families for annual hikes up Mt. Monadnock in NH, and routinely trekked through the local trails and parks across New England. Each adventure brought with it an exploration of the biology, ecology, geology, and history of the area. Whether it was Torrey Pines growing the way they do because of their unique environment, glacier activity sculpting parts of New England, the effects of volcanic activity in Sunset Crater National Park, the erosion in canyons and the shoreline, or animal habitat affected by human activity, Laura was always able to sus out the educational opportunities wherever the path lead.
And then there was the ocean. Trips to Block Island, Cape Cod, San Diego, Newport, Florida, and Maine fostered in her a deep reverence for the ocean. Boogie boarding, sailing, beachcombing, walking in the surf, exploring tide pools, and relaxing on the beach were staples of her coastal experience. Multiple trips to San Diego ended with the two of us sitting on a bench by the boardwalk on the final night of our stay, watching the sunset over the ocean and listening to the waves roll in, simultaneously saying goodbye to the Pacific for another year, and reflecting on our life together—the year behind us, and the one ahead.
On her bookshelf at home, alongside a memento of motherhood and our wedding candles, Laura kept a jar of Coronado sand.