Up the Sunbeam

-- Hello, Friends! Anyone here? I've been gone so long I'm not sure I even belong here anymore. The demands of school and team assignments have prevented me from being here like I'd like to be, but my heart is still here even when my words are not. May I tiptoe back in and offer a little something? ~~~~~~~~~~ This is what California's Central Valley looked like in June 2010 when we took a family trip to Disneyland and points south. Green, lush, and every available acre growing crops to provide food for millions, maybe even for you. Tomatoes by the truckload were passing us down the length of I-5. As we ticked off the miles, we passed field after field of blackberries, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, grapes, beans, strawberries, melons, lettuce, rice, peppers, spinach, corn, and cotton. Interspersed between the fields we saw orchard upon orchard of almonds, walnuts, pistachios, figs, olives, kiwi, lemons, plums, apples, cherries, peac...

-- O nce again, the high country has filled my heart (and my camera's memory cards) to overflowing. I have just returned from another trip to the mountains with my parents who love them as much as I do! This time they took me on a  lake cruise  that explores the wonders of the 55-mile long, 1,486-foot deep Lake Chelan in North Cascades National Park in the state of Washington. I may have seen more waterfalls on that day trip than I think I've seen the rest of my life put together! The spring melt was at its height and every place along those steep mountain faces where water could gather and run headlong down to that deep, cold lake, it came in a rush of blinding whitewater. There were so many waterfalls I kept having to run from one side of the boat to the other to capture the next and the next and the next (such a fun problem to have)! A t the north end of the lake, after a short bus ride, we reached the p ièce de résistance of the tour , Rainbow Falls, a 312-foot c...

-- Do you ever wake up and find everything you touch falls down,                                                                                       tips over,                                                                                               won't work,                                                                               ...

-- Hero Husband and I have something of a City Mouse-Country Mouse dynamic to our relationship and because of the difference in our backgrounds, we have learned to give each other room for our differing needs and preferences. Several years ago on a trip to Lake Tahoe, what my city boy most needed was quiet relaxation in the hotel, and what I desperately needed was mountain air and unhurried time with my camera. Selfless love enabled us each to give the other what they needed--I happily wished him a good time as he rested and relaxed in the hotel, and he gave me the freedom to go to the mountains for the day. I know he wasn't completely thrilled with the idea of me out traipsing around in the wilderness by myself, but he understood my deep need to replenish my reserves of serenity that can get so depleted by living in the city (well, the suburbs, but it feels like city by comparison to where I grew up). I took my camera and left early, excited to explore some nearby trails and wa...