An Infiniti of Summer Days

I’m missing summer. Hard.

What with the back-to-school and the back-to-work and omigod the tired – I’m looking back on the lazy, hazy days with some serious summer-envy.

It seemed to me then like an infinity of days filled with nothing more (or less) than this:

sway. read book. sway. snooze. sway. repeat.

This:

whiling away the bluebird days

And:

family. good food. good conversation. THIS.

It doesn’t get much better, friends.

The last few summers, my girls and I have been privileged to visit our family in Toronto, spending time in the city and enjoying the awesome that it has to offer, and then piling six or seven bodies into the car and hightailing it out to the cottage for a week of bliss that is, quite frankly, beyond words (or at least beyond any I can muster).

And to be honest, although the destination is a balm to the soul for all of us, I gotta say that this is one of those times when it most certainly is not about the journey. Nobody likes facing the city traffic on a straight flat road for hours, and especially not when seven people (most of whom are grown or nearly-so) are crammed into one vehicle along with all their gear. We’ve made this drive with duffel bags as footrests, grocery bags on our laps and pillows obscuring the rear window. It’s not fun.

But not this summer. No sir! This summer we cruised in style (the decidedly good kind), in the roomy and very well-appointed Infiniti JX35 crossover. This vehicle is so jam-packed full of features I hardly know where to begin. The main console boasts one of the best and most intuitive satellite navigation/radio/vehicle information systems I’ve seen – increasing safety by minimizing time staring at a screen trying to figure out the commands. Of course, you can always operate many of the functions using voice commands, which I did when we realized (oh, snap) that we hadn’t made reservations for a family dinner – with all of us together, we’re a rather large party of twelve, and it was a birthday celebration. Oh, and we’ll need a high chair and some kids’ menus. But I didn’t even bat an eyelash or pull out my phone to google the restaurant. I simply activated the Infiniti Personal Assistant, was connected to the lovely and helpful Paula, and asked her to take care of the reservations. Wow.

“hello, Jeeves? Dinner for twelve, please.”

One would expect a luxury vehicle to deliver on technology and safety, and the JX35 doesn’t disappoint: features like intelligent cruise control (which automatically adjusts speed to adapt to traffic flow), blind spot warning and lane departure warning/prevention (warns you if you drift out of your lane, and actively prevents you from drifting if you ignore the warning), highway driving just got a whole lot safer. When you’re in the city, distance control assist (helping the driver brake in stop-and-go driving conditions) and backup collision warning/prevention are there for you. Imagine a vehicle that will warn you if there’s an object behind your car as you back up (that is, if you don’t see it in the backup camera), then actually brakes itself if you ignore the warning. That’s the JX35.

Beyond the impressive technology, though, the JX35 delivers beautiful design and luxury appointments. The instrumentation is sleek, classic and intuitive. The stereo? A Bose wave system, of course. With dual seat-mounted screens and wireless headsets, the kids can be entertained by movies or video games while the adults rock out to the all 80s station on the XM satellite radio (who, me?). And the third row of seats was pronounced “actually comfortable” by the kids, even on a three-hour trip.

the backseat passengers approve.

Summer sun shining through the window making one side of the car a little hot? That’s no problem! The JX35 has driver and passenger environmental controls and yes: rear-seat controls too so the kiddies don’t have to roast or freeze to suit the front-dwellers. And if you still need to fine-tune it a little bit, the front seats are equipped with adjustable seat heaters/coolers. Yes. I did say coolers. And yes, it is a thing. A beautiful, beautiful thing.

When all is said and done, I’m missing the awesome, carefree summer days. A lot. But I’m also definitely missing the Infiniti JX35. Thanks for getting us around the city and to and from the cottage in such comfort and style.