And he's off ... again

It's been a fall of travel for Coty. Three weeks in India back in October, and today he heads to China! We got in a last ride before his trip yesterday afternoon. It's been so rainy this week, it was nice to see a bit of blue sky and feel the sun on our backs before it clouded up again.

We ride out on the country roads and pass corn, soybean, canola, and cotton fields. This time of year the cotton is in full fruit. Think of it this way: earlier in the summer the cotton flowered and over the last couple of months that flower has developed into the "fruit", just the way an apple flower that blooms in the spring develops into and apple in the fall. Now, I don't know if it is botanically correct to call the white, fluffly bolls a fruit, but I'm going to go with it this morning!

Here my non-southern friends who may have never seen this, is a field of cotton ...

and here are some cotton bolls ...

and here are two sweaty riders wearing no cotton because it isn't good cycling fabric, one with a squinty left eye and the other with misty glasses standing in front of a cotton field along a country road with, of course, a pick-up truck about to drive by ...

 

We had a good and happy ride. I had a personal best time on one of the hills I really dislike, so I like it a tiny bit better now. Coty won't be doing any cycling for a couple of weeks so when I pack up to go to Virginia, where we will reunite just before Thanksgiving, guess what I'll be taking with me. Yep ... bikes.

Seattle, Portland and the gift of friends

After San Diego, Coty and I went to Seattle.  Ah, Seattle - this city and its environs and so beautiful.  All the water - the Puget Sound, the lakes, the rivers - and of course, the mountains - the Olympic range to the east and Mt. Ranier, such a majestic backdrop to the city (when you can see it ; )

We visited the Arboretum and, upon the strong recommendation of a friend here, the Japanese Gardens (thanks, Joy).  We went to the Ballard Locks and Gas Works Park and later in the visit, I got to go to the Museum of History and Industry.  We went to the top of Mt. Erie for the views and hiked near Deception Pass and Rosario Beach.  We spent a lovely day in La Conner and watched boats and seals in the Skagit River from our lunch restaurant deck.

Coty left after a couple of days to fly to Indonesia but I stayed for a nice long visit ...

As much as there is to see and do in Seattle, though, this trip was not mostly about seeing the sights.  It was about seeing my friends.  My oldest friend and one of my newest.

In the ninth grade, we were the new girls.  I had moved from Atlanta and she from Philadelphia. We went to a play with our English class and hit it off.  Then we were in the school play together, she the sophisticated northern girl, me the hillbilly hick.  Fitting.  The other morning when I came downstairs to her beautiful kitchen that looks out across the fields to a snow capped mountain, I told her I'd done the math.  We've been friends for 43 years.

I know how rare it is in this day and age to have a friend who's known you for so long.  One who knows your history and your family, who you love even more now than ever, a friend that you laugh with just as much as you did when you were teenagers, a friend that prays for you, and remembers birthdays and significant dates.  Such a friendship is a gift. A treasure.

And then, I got on a bus and rode for three and a half hours to Portland where I finally met, face to face, a friend that I've known via the internet for a long time.  A few people that I told about my trip thought it was a bit odd that I was going to meet and stay in the home of a person I had only known online and through a few handwritten cards.  Someone told me I was brave.  Others were curious.  It didn't feel odd or scary to me.  It was more like a Julia and Avis moment, I told someone.  We've corresponded at length and deeply for a long time and it was time to meet in person.  I was going to the Pacific Northwest anyway.  Why not take a trip to Portland and sit face to face with this dear friend, to fill in the colors of the line drawing of our friendship.

And so we met - on a city street, as I got off the bus.  There she was with her youngest son and we hugged and went to breakfast and shopped for books. A street poet wrote a poem for us. Then we drove the 45 minutes or so to her home among the trees and it felt just. right.

We talked and talked over coffee and tea, we cooked together knowing that we share such similar thoughts and tastes about food, we walked in the woods and along a trail that was familiar to me because I've seen pictures from this place for years.  The rain came in the night, the pellet stove warmed, the ducks quacked, the cat crawled on my lap.  This friendship, too, is such a gift.  This woman, a treasure to me.

Sitting here, thinking about these friends who are physically far away but oh, so near in my heart makes me miss them, makes me wish they were closer, makes me wish we could just drop over for coffee or share a meal together, but, dadgummit, there's a whole, big country in between.  Why do we have to be so far apart!  Ah, well - let me be glad this morning.  I'll not bemoan the distance, but give thanks that I've been given the sweet gift of deep friendship, two times over out there in the Pacific Northwest.  Looking forward to my next trip some future day and urging them both to come soon to North Carolina!

About time

It's about time for me to stick my head in the door and say hello.  Really, it's way past time - poor neglected blog.  I do wonder if anyone is still out there reading.  If you are, thanks for bearing with me and checking back in from time to time.  I'm still here but my energies are spent in other places and ways than writing here.  Gone are the days, it seems, when I wanted to post a few times a week. The words come less easily these days, but who knows, maybe a change in the season will signal a change in my proclivity to write.

It has been, so far, a rather busy, eventful fall.  Erin, Clara, and Levi were here for three glorious weeks.  There was no rushing about to fit everything in.  We celebrated birthdays and swam every day til it got too chilly.  We went to the library and the playground.  We had family company two of the weekends. Clara practiced riding her bike, discovered Tinker Toys and Legos, and dressed up in her mom's old "ball gowns."  Levi clapped and waved and smiled and ate and ate and ate.  We read books and sewed, colored and cooked.  We went to the Raptor Center and the shoe store and ate frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog.

Three short days after Erin and the kids left, Coty and I hopped on a plane and headed to San Diego, where we attended a meeting/retreat of the Treasuring Christ Together network of church planters.  It was a sweet time of hearing stories of God's work, and getting to know these folks of whom I've heard so much.  In addition, we got to visit with our old friends, John and Helen, and meet their new baby girl, Ariel.  What a treat!

The second morning we were in San Diego, John picked Coty and me up before dawn and took us to La Jolla Cove for an open water swim.  I almost chickened out. The prospect of cold water on a chilly morning and swimming in the open water with seaweed and seals (!) gave me pause.  But thankfully, my adventurous side won out.  We arrived at the cove to the not so fragrant stench of seal and seabird excrement (sorry), walked the long flight of steps down to the gravelly beach, and stepped into the chilly waves.  There was nothing for it but to dive in and start swimming.  We couldn't see the quarter mile buoy when we started swimming, but after a few yards, the slight panic left and was replaced with wonder and excitement.  I'm actually doing this.  Wow!  I loved it the rest of the way and am so glad we went.  It's an experience I won't forget.  Thrilling, really.

This is where we started.  Right where that little person is standing ...

We swam out toward a buoy a quarter mile away, which we could barely see ...

 partway across the cove,

while seals and seabirds watched.

So very glad to have done this swim!

 Then after our breakfast meeting, we headed to the bay and the beach with a very fun group of TCT folks,

 for a paddleboard race between the San Diego and Charlotte pastors.

The old guys won in a photo finish! Yay for Coty and Fred!

And then a few of us women gave the paddleboards a try.

Then a block's walk to the beach for games and swimming and more refreshing conversation and fun.

What a sweet time with our TCT family.

On Thursday, Coty and I headed to Seattle ... but I'll save that for another day!

We climbed a mountain

Our last afternoon in Bolivia, we climbed the Devil's Molar.  Yes, it does look like a big, black tooth.  After we left the cobblestone roads in the city outskirts, we drove in 4-wheel drive up very twisty, one lane roads.  Our hike started at a little settlement ... a few small farms, a school ... and wound up a dirt road til we reached the base of the Molar.   It was a scramble, finding handholds in the jutting rocks, up the scree to reach the highest spot we could reach without technical gear.  And then, oh. my!  The views!  360 degrees of views of La Paz and the El Alto plateau and mountains all around and away in the distance, snow-capped Illimani.  Simply breathtaking!