My Heart likes Hiking

Fresh Air. Rippling Water. Wildflowers. Excercise for my healing body. My heart likes hiking.

This weekend my children came south to visit. As is our tradition, we got up early on Saturday and headed out to Zion. Zion is gorgeous year-round but hiking her this time of year means getting in and back out before noon. Temperatures pass 100 by early afternoon. It's also peak tourist season in the park so we pulled out our handy-dandy southern Utah hiking guide and found a hike in the park that is lesser known - Lower Pine Creek. We didn't quite have it to ourselves... but close enough!

Unfortunately (sad sigh) we had to leave Katie at home this trip. Her allergies are bullying her something fierce. So our little party consisted of four: Mike, Stephanie, Steve and I.

This was not a stroll up the trail hike. It was a scramble over boulders and balance on rocks across the river hike. In short - the fun kind.Stephanie and I had our cameras (of course) and drove the guys crazy (as usual) stopping to take pictures of anything that moved and most things that didn't.

The trail ends at a waterfall. Here in southern Utah waterfalls are a rarity and so, for us, it was a refreshing treat. For Mike it was an excuse to be 12 years old again and clamber up the little fall in order to slide back down it. Which he did and managed to come out unscathed. Which is more than Steve can say... he did not ascend the falls but somewhere along the way he managed to bloody both knees. Which seems to be a hiking 'must' with him latelyMike wears a non-stop smile when we are out hiking. Stephanie, with her amazing artist's "eye", always finds the perfect picture. The two of them are a delight to watch, together. Steve blazes a trail with his special, hand-carved, walking stick then relaxes in the shade and becomes one with the beauty of Zion. Yes, oh yes, my heart likes hiking.

How Flat Tires Become Flat Screen TV's

Saturday is errand day. A Costco run. Gas in the car. Maybe a little window shopping at the furniture store. (Why I find this so appealing is beyond me, but alas, I do). This Saturday we were out and about doing the usual stuff and as we left Costco we noticed that the left front tire was low. Quite low. No problem. Air is free right? Well, actually, at Costco, Air costs 50 cents but I digress. Steve grabbed the pressure guage, bent to add the air and said the one thing you hate to hear when cars are involved. Yup, the dreaded "uh oh".

Nail in the tire. Now you know you can't pull that thing out right? And you know it's not a good idea to drive around with it so we have no choice but to head straight to the tire store for a repair. Free repair because that's where Steve always buys his tires. Well, it would have been a free repair if the tire guy hadn't said, you guessed it, "uh oh". Seems the tread was way too worn to repair the tire. So we have no choice but to buy 2 new tires and agree to wait the hour it will take to have them mounted.

It's hot and humid outside. Every seat in the tire shop is taken so we trundle off across the parking lot to the nearby stores, all with AC's merrily humming, to kill some time. We escape Kohl's without spending a cent. Wander through Office Max and get out FREE. Then we wander in to Best Buy. I can just hear you thinking it... "uh oh"

We look at camera lenses. Drool on a few Ipods. And end up in the TV department. We are not 'really' in the market for a TV just yet. Our Old Monster of a tube TV still works. We want a Flat Screen - one day. But they aren't cheap and we don't want a dinky one. And I am picky and I like Sony because the picture is so bright and shiny. The price tag that comes with a Sony is often bigger than the screen size. Until today. The one I want is discounted by over $500. I don't know why it is. The clerk can't .. or won't.. say how long it will be. We debate. We leave the store. Pick up the car. End up back at Best Buy. Somehow we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave that big black box with the shiny screen in that store. We hauled it home ... bouncing merrily along on the new tread.

And that is how Flat Tires become Flat Screen TV's.

4th of July Nostalgia

I miss Cherry Days.

I miss the dorky parade. I miss seeing my nephew, David, ride his unicycle down Washington Blvd in his Raggedy Ann costume. I miss seeing LouAnn, in her Cherry Days t-shirt, without fail, every year. I can almost, now, taste the tootsie rolls picked up off the sidewalk, having been flung by Gordon riding in the big fire truck.

I miss our North Ogden Carnival at the park. The kiddie rides. The burnt hamburgers. The Shupes selling Creamies. I can't even tell you how much I miss the home-town talent shows. I can almost hear Stephanie yodeling from here. The passage of years is trying to silence that song, but I hear it still. And I smile.

I miss the Pleasant View fireworks. I've seen bigger. I've seen flashier. None instill that same sense of allegiance to home and country as those displays at good old Weber High. Some years so hot the air crackled; others with umbrellas; one wearing parkas. Every one of them a bright burst of light in my heart.

Here in Saint George many of the same events take place. Somebody selling Creamies at the carnival. The kiddie train chugging around the park. The Dixie Sunbowl, peopled with grandma's and teenagers and children with bright eyes and flushed cheeks painted with flags and stars. Sweet, sticky snowcone faces, drinking in the moment. The talent competition. I watch Mikalene sing, yodel in fact, and it almost, almost, carries me back again.

I look at my husband, relaxed, listening to the music. I am so happy to be here with him this night. To know that in him I have found the other half of me. Together we are making a life of joy here in Saint George. But I miss Cherry Days.