On a recent sunny day I ventured out to a place back in time.  Fifty years ago (FIFTY?) I was a new teacher in the small logging town of Snoqualmie and today seemed like a perfect day to visit the famous Snoqualmie falls.  Yes, a perfect trip back in time.  Except I quickly remembered that the entire school year and even though my little school was less than a mile from the falls, I had never actually gone to see the falls when I was teaching.  Too busy.  Too concerned about  learning a new job.  Too sick from all the new bugs you get when working with children.  So yes, I was going to take a trip back in time to a place I didn’t visit when I was there.

Oh I have been to the falls over the years.  The first time was a birthday brunch at the famous Snoqualmie Falls Lodge where I was given a t shirt that something like “40 isn’t old if you’re a tree”.  Funny to think at the time we thought forty was old.  Oh you young things.  I also went to the falls a last year with my grandson.  We even found the school and I could point out the room where the young Mrs. Quirk taught.

Rather than take the freeway, I decided to follow the road that I drove those many years ago.  It looked much the same.  Trees, mountains and lakes don’t change a lot — even in fifty years.  A good reminder.  Most of the houses even looked the same with an interspersing of new development.  The traffic circles where new, however and shot me off in the wrong direction but otherwise the trip was pretty much the same.  Twenty miles to another place in time.

The falls are spectacular.  The old lodge has been replaced by a more luxurious hotel and spa but the scenery remains.  I took what was supposed to be a half mile walk that was really a mile and a half and a steep elevation change.  (39 stories according to my fitbit)

Along the walk, I wondered why I had never been on this trail.  Why had I not enjoyed this spectacular scenery and been refreshed by the mist from the falls.  Then I wondered how many other times I had missed enjoying my surroundings because I was too busy, too concerned, too everything.  What adventures were right there for the partaking.

I returned from my adventure with sore knees, a refreshed spirit, and a renewed sense of awe. Can I live my days now enjoying the sights, sounds and smells that are right there?  I hope so.