Summer's End

Well, I needed one more photo to conclude my reflections on my trip to the Pacific Northwest. It took a while to get the final shot, and I had to drive to New Orleans to obtain it, but I guess it means I’m officially back in the land of hurricanes and safely out of danger with respect to volcanoes or tsunamis!

If you can't read the signs, try clicking on the image.

The following was on my sidebar while I was posting entries about my trip, and it’s time to move it to a more appropriate spot:

How I came to find myself so far away from home and in such grand company is a tale to tell, but I will try to tell most of it in photos. Since the fall of 2007, my husband and I had been trying to plan something special in celebration of our 20th anniversary. More than a year later, we were on our way to the PNW to visit SHH, Triple T, and their beautiful corner of the country. Unmatched hospitality awaited us, and though this was billed as an anniversary trip, it was so much more.

When I first read about letterboxing, I never dreamed that a simple interest would eventually bring me to this lovely area – but that’s not really the thing that is most significant or fascinating to me. The big surprises have been the sincere friendships that have emerged from that shared interest. Liz and Lisa, you gave us the welcome of a lifetime and made us feel absolutely at home. There is no way to thank you enough.

For friends and family who missed the earlier posts, here are the links to the plethora of pics and anecdotes:

Buckle Up!
Making My Day
Perilous Beauty
I Luv Foxglove
Shore of Discovery
Walking on a Mirror
Bedtime Story: Once upon a Murphy Bed . . .
Zora and the Tide Pool

I could have shared so many other special things, but I have run out of summer, and you may have run out of interest in this altogether. ;-) If I can ever figure out how to describe my “stamp fest” in SHH’s craft room, I’ll write again. That was more special than I can say.

There is one little item that I thought I could include, though . . .

Last spring when the SHH/Triple T crew drove through on their “Biggest Field Trip Ever,” they were without one of their number on the stop here; Cowgirl was spending some special time with her grandmother that day. I was genuinely thrilled for her grandmother, but I was sad for me. Consequently, when we began to plan our trip to the PNW, I consoled myself by thinking I would have another chance to meet her. I was pretty satisfied with that until I realized that our trip coincided with the time she was not going to be at home this summer! *gulp* What a disappointment! Imagine my surprise when we drove back to Washington State to find that she was coming home for the weekend! See that shoe? I’ve got proof! I met Cowgirl after all. What a sweetie!

I need to change my AQ profile interview now. For months is has read:

Time to close, I guess. I’ll conclude with a little slideshow of the flight home and some thoughts on long-distance friendships. I'll spare you the ". . . priceless" commercial.

[Click here for a better look . . . from the Cascades to the Rockies!]

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?
~ Kahlil Gibran

I am learning to live close to the lives of my friends without ever seeing them. No miles of any measurement can separate your soul from mine.
~ John Muir

No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.
~ Robert Southey (my favorite of the four)

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
~ Henry David Thoreau

I am so thankful for you all!