It's been awhile...

(Flowers from Colorado this June)

Paris Magic

A list of Paris magic:
1) Waking up early one morning, putting on my best Parisian outfit to walk the neighborhood and buy crossaints for breakfast
2) My favorite neighborhoods are Montmartre and Le Marais (18th, 3rd & 4th arrondissement)
3) The plants are lush.  The buildings, beautiful.  The people are stylish.  A hint of je ne sais quoi in the air.
4) There is no such thing as a sophomore slump when visiting Paris.  It delivered an even deeper, richer experience the second time around.  
5) Late dinner culture- sipping wine, eating a salad of frisee, and perhaps a savory crepe.  Perhaps this overall ties into my love of defined mornings and evenings.   



Thoughts from my journal 7/15/16:
"Sad to have left Paris.  Its charm and beauty is a hard thing to capture in one's mind permanently.  You think you've had enough time to take it all in, study it, to keep its legacy going when you return home- only to find it quickly slips through your fingers".  

Paris has remained my quintessential favorite city.  The fresh breath of air.  This time around we stayed in an apartment with a view of the Eiffel tower.  Since we've done the tourist stuff, we watched around neighborhoods, took the metro, lounged in parks and indulged in long meals. My favorite time of the entire trip- it really is unfair to all the other cities that I play favorites this badly. 

Barcelona

Barcelona had a different spirit to it then Madrid.  If Madrid was polished, Barcelona was bohemian.

Doors of Morocco

Up to Pioneer Cabin

***** *****

The hike up was brutal, but beautiful.  Pioneer Cabin is a long day hike known to the locals of Idaho consisting of switchbacks through forests, epic mountain ridge views, and a beloved cabin that hosts weary hikers in the summer and cold skiers in the winter.  The cabin is completely supported by the community, the people that love the cabin and what it stands for.  After hours of steep trails with packs we giddily smiled when we finally glimpsed the cabin, "The higher you get, the higher you get".  Yes, ma'am.

We were spoiled that we were the only ones up there.  We camped where we wanted, we dragged chairs out of the cabin down by the ridge to enjoy a dinner with views, and we watched the sunset steep the mountain in color, then in grays and blues.  There is a wildness, unregulated about Idaho that is mirrored in this trip.  The experience of the land at times more supported by the people than government.  I believe that being alone in the breathtaking wilderness is one of the most reflective, reverential, soul satisfying things in this world.

The hike down was just as rigorous.  Alicia and I joked that we were experiencing "the seven plagues" as after completing one challenge (sliding down a steep boulder field) another one smacked us in the face (non-stop bugs that made you pray for wind). But at you reach your car, you feel this self-satisfied high.  You did that, you felt that, and it was incredible. 

McCall and more

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I love that deep hitting feeling of seeing the mountains for the first time.   You’ve been in a car for 12 hours straight and you’re sill weaving in and out of the hills as the sun starts to set.  In the distance the mighty snow capped mountain bellows its first hello.   My heart always starts to flutter.  Going back to the mountains is all encompassing: its aesthetic, its spiritual, it’s a companionship, its seeking and its completing. 

Alicia and I arrive late at night.  We can see anything but we can smell everything.  The first sniff of mountain fresh pine.  We drive though 100 miles of those pines on a twisty river road through Lolo National Forrest the next day.  We arrive in McCall with excited hearts and this is when the trip truly feels like it begins.  I make a giant pot of asparagus, sun dried tomato pasta.  Alicia carries it through the woods and we sit watching the lake surrounded by pines eating pasta and drinking our boxed wine. 

The next day, we are on the road again.  Stopping for a few hours in Boise to fill up on coffee and to dance around in the hills.