I feel like last year all we did was explore. Ok, there was some teaching involved in our lives, but looking back, we spent so many weekends just exploring. First we began to explore the neighorhood in which we live. We then branched out to the neighborhoods surrounding ours, and eventually we decided to explore the rest of the country. We haven’t seen it all, but last year we definitely hit the highlights.
This year we haven’t done a whole lot of that. I’m not sure why exactly. Lack of motor vehicles is a big factor, but maybe we are just tired. A couple weekends ago though, we got out. The city was just too much for too long. Too much smog. Too much trash. Too much burning trash. Too much dirt and dust and heat. Too much noise. Too much! The school van was working and we wanted to get away. A good friend and fellow teacher offered to let us use her family’s cabin up in the mountains. She said it wasn’t much and, if we were planning on camping, it would be perfect. She definitely downplayed how nice the cabin was. It definitely wasn’t your fancy Colorado style cabins, but it was more than a shack in the woods.
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| The cute cabin! |
After driving up the mountains and out of the city (and calling our friend several times to clarify directions) we pulled into a cute drive and say a rustic green and white wooden cabin. The caretaker opened the windows for us, brought us some semi-dry wood (it had been raining all afternoon) and then left us to our weekend. We explored and marveled in the cool, damp air. There was greenery….everywhere! And it was cold!! I can’t express the sheer joy of feeling cold. It’s a beautiful feeling. We set up our hammocks in the trees behind the cabin and begin to work on a fire (ok, the boys worked on the fire. Jill and I cut vegetables).
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| Fire attempt....Fail. |
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| Tasty dinner even without a campfire. |
After several hours, we realized the wood was just too wet to get a fire going (we had an Eagle scout working on the fire, so we gave it a good try) and used the camp stove instead. After a delicious dinner we sat around talking, resting, and soaking in the cold mountain air. We fell asleep wearing layers of clothing to keep us warm and listened to the sweet sound of silence instead of the car horns and radios we are so used to drowning out in the city.
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| View from the cabin early in the morning. |
The next morning we were able to get a pretty nice fire going. We had a breakfast of smores and eggs; good fuel for our afternoon hike.
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| Boy Scout. |
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| S'more. (A box of Graham crackers was $10 USD. We went with the $2 sugar cookie things) |
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| Our chefs! |
As we hiked we marveled at the beauty of this country. Why doesn’t CNN show this? Yes there is destruction and unimaginable poverty, but every once in a while take a second and show what Haiti does have! Beautiful land all around. Green lush mountains covered with a patchwork of terraced farms. The late morning fog rolling in was icing on the beautiful landscape. We walked around a bit and, eventually, returned to the house to rest before driving back down into the city.
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| The boys contemplating life's meaning. |
What a restful, rejuvenating 24 hours to get away from the noise of the city and breathe the fresh, clean, cool air of the mountains.
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