We had a great time with our friend who visited. Luckily the weather turned out great and the fire smoke cleared out of the air. She got in at 11pm on Saturday and we got back to our house about 11:45. I think we all sat up and talked until almost 2am. We kept busy every day. Sunday afternoon we drove out to this historical forest service site and walked around. We hadn't been there before. It wasn't anything too exciting. Then we went and had an early dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Monday we got up and took a drive up logging roads to a trail head. It was almost an hour drive just getting up there. We assured her we would take our time with the hike and if we can do it, she can too, haha. You start out at one small mountain lake and hike up a mile to another one. The one time dh and I had done this hike was over 5 years ago and it was June and the hike was still pretty much covered in snow, so it looked a lot different than now - where there's an actual trail to follow, rather than someone else's foot prints in the snow - haha!
This is one of my favorite places and I have been wanting to go back. The first lake is just on a little trail past the trees from where you park. See that cliff over past the trees? The other lake is up there, at the base of the cliff.
When you get about 2/3 of the way up you can look back down over the lower lake. Then you get through the heavy trees and walk out to this amazing view
It's breathtaking and couldn't be more peaceful and not another human around. There is a big flat rock and we sat on that and ate the lunch we brought and just enjoyed the view for quite awhile and took lots of pictures. The hike down much easier, of course, LOL. I have to say I was surprised that I didn't find this 2 mile hike too challenging. I didn't get as out of breath as I used to, and it's been a long time since we hiked anything. But, I have been trying to walk more this year and maybe those vitamins I've been taking for a few months have helped my health some. Of course we were all very tired but a good happy tired. We got back to our house in the afternoon and decided to go out to eat but the nearby restaurant isn't open on Mondays, so we drove into the city and went to that nice steakhouse we took our friends to a few weeks ago. Then we drove around a bit and showed her the city before it started getting dark and we headed home. Another late evening sitting around visiting. Though I think finally at 11:30 I said I am going to bed!
That is the hardest part for me, I think to have guests, is staying up later than I normally do. It just quickly wears me down. I am usually in bed by 9:30, sometimes 9pm and no matter what time I go to bed, my internal alarm clock wakes me up around 7am, so it's not like I can sleep in to make up for going to bed later. Apparently I am the only person (other than Mr. Neighbor, haha) who goes to bed early and it would be rude to go off to bed so early, but it's so hard for me to stay up late. I can do it ok one night, but not 4 in a row. I don't know how Mr. Neighbor does it when they have house guests. He goes to bed at 6:30 or 7pm and always gets up at 3:30am.
I will write more tomorrow. This morning is back to work and already dealing with something. There was a change made that no one thought to ask how it was going to affect my job process, so now I am dealing with that, telling my boss, umm, no...that is not going to work! Plus, it's just totally stupid that it needed to be changed (it wasn't her who wanted it changed, it was another department).
( Anne Brew )
ReplyDeleteWe had a dear friend - sadly no longer with us - who, when we stayed with her and her partner would sit and chat till 9pm then kiss us all goodnight and head to bed. We never thought any less of her - it was just how her internal clock worked. Best of all she would be up with the lark and have breakfast all ready for us when we got up!
I was worried about you when you had such a prolonged silence. Glad you had fun. What gorgeous pictures! I am also one who prefers to go to bed early. Two of my kids are night owls, which was a source of tension in our old house, as we were all on the same floor, and, well, there were a few nights when they were less than quiet. I too, though, stay up with houseguests if they prefer a later evening, and, yes, it's hard after a few days! I had a beloved friend from college visit me in our Florida place--she has lots of kids too, so she wanted to milk every. second. of her time, which had us walking the beach at midnight, only to get up in time to see the sun rise on our dock!
ReplyDeleteIt's all good :) It was just a busy time and no time to sit and write and pull pictures for the posts, etc. And it was a nice break from being on the computer every day, too. Sometimes I think we all need to do that once in a while.
DeleteCrikey, does your neighbour have to get up that early for work or is that just his preference? If I go to bed before midnight there's no way I would fall asleep (I get up around 8 a.m.) Strange creatures aren't we! And that trail looks beautiful - especially that last picture! I'm sure your friend loved it!
ReplyDeleteCrikey is right! He used to work in television and had a morning local show in the city so he got up early for that for years and years. He just never changed after getting out of broadcasting (like 12 or so years ago). Now he's semi retired and still gets up and goes to bed like that.
DeleteI have a question. When you have guests and you go out to a restaurant for dinner- do you and your dh automatically pick up the tab for everyone? As a guest, I wouldn’t want my hosts to do so all the time, in fact I think the guest should buy for their hosts at least once for all the hospitality provided. Curious how it works for you as you seem to have frequent guests.
ReplyDeleteWe pick up the tab. Our friends a few weeks ago tried several times but dh grabbed it first (they did the same to us when we went there the previous summer). With this friend I especially wanted to make sure we got the tab because I know money is tight for her and she spent quite a bit on the airfare to get here. We looked at it as we are kind of "on vacation" (albeit at home) too and this is our cost for our entertainment/staycation.
DeleteI 100% agree. DH here is also a check picker upper, and I am glad. We’ve received hospitality from others and love to provide it for our guests.
DeletePlus I don't have to cook dinner - it's a complete win for me, LOL.
DeleteI was hoping everything was okay with you. Those are lovely pictures. I could stay up late with guests, but would hate cooking breakfast. It is good you treated her to a little vacation.
ReplyDeleteI thought I mentioned I'd be off for several days during her visit. There just never seems time to get on my computer when we have guests.
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