Into the Woods

Do you know that musical? The one with Little Red, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and all the other fairy tales I forgot? Do you? I didn't either until my dear friends Arwyn and Fenny introduced me to it a month and a half ago. It was spectacular and you must see it--you simply must.

But this post isn't about the musical. Really. It isn't. Rather it's about my own journey into the woods last weekend. The day was rainy and cold, like any other Northwestern day. But that didn't deter us from our outing to Wallace Falls. I picked up my friend old friend Kelsey, and my new friends Caitlyn, Christina and Steve; we packed into my Explorer; and away we went! Flying through the streets of Duvall, Monroe, and down old Highway 2. Our destination was in the middle of nowhere, but that's where the best trails lie.

It's a beautiful hike, if you ever get the chance to go. Here are some pictures of our expedition:

 {The crew at the beginning of the hike...before it started raining}

{Christina and her little dog, Ruby. Ruby was so excited to out hiking...or maybe it was marking her territory}

 {Rivers in Washington wouldn't be the same without driftwood}

{Kelsey artfully carving her name into a dead tree} 

{A view of the river from one of the many hills}

 {I love misty mountains!}

And, I just realized that I don't have a picture of the actual falls. By the time we got up to the lower falls it was pouring rain, and the trail was starting to get slick. Luckily I had my sister's trusty lavender poncho from 15 years ago. Yeah, it was pretty funny. Go ahead and laugh.

Lazy Saturdays

Hooray for lazy weekends, in which I have nothing planned! I rolled out of bed at 7:30 am Saturday morning to teach my very important class of my very important fifth graders. Class went very well, and all of my very important fifth graders actually showed up to my very important class. One even brought me breakfast! So sweet.

Anyways, I normally don't plan anything for the weekend because they generally sneak up on me and by that time I'm typically too tired to do anything incredibly strenuous. But yesterday, I was a bit bummed that I had nothing to do. I've been feeling kind of cooped up and felt like I needed to get out. Luckily, one of my co-workers and friends, Joseph invited me to go to this secret waterfall (well, it's not really secret, but I like to pretend that it is) up in the mountains of a near-by town. I hesitated because I had already laid-out for the day and didn't want to get sunburned like I did the other weekend. But, I did want to get out of the school, because I was getting cabin fever. Thank heavens I did! And thank heavens Joseph was kind enough to invite me to go!

The scooter ride alone was well worth it. As soon as you get out of Feng Yuan and into Taiping, things start opening up a bit more. The buildings are shorter and the streets are wider. You can actually see vegetation, and the air begins to smell a bit fresher. Then it was up, up, up into the mountains. A few times I thought I was going to fall off the back of the scooter due to the steep incline.

After the scooter was securely parked this is the amazing, let me say vista, that I beheld:

{We had to hike down to the river and then go upstream. 

The waterfall is hidden in the picture but would 

be about in the middle of the picture if it could be seen.}

We had to hike down to the river and then walk about 100 yards to get to the waterfall. It was quite fun, and I felt like I was 10 again jumping back and forth along the drift wood found on the beaches of the Washington Peninsula. I unfortunately made the very poor choice of wearing flip flops instead of my Chacos. Note to self-- NEVER pick flip flops over Chacos.

When we got to the actual waterfall I noticed that there were an awful lot of white people--aka Westerners. After being in a somewhat secluded area for so long, it's strange to see a whole group of my fellow countrymen, or rather fellow continent dwellers. One of the guys I talked to was from Nova Scotia, and he had only been on island a week. Crazy! But pretty spectacular that he got to spend his first weekend at a tropical waterfall.

Joseph told me that the water was pretty low, and normally there is a lot more water in the actual falls. Still, I was pretty impressed. The waterfall empties into a very deep swimming hole which is surrounded by cliffs--yup, you got that right cliffs. So ti's definitely an ideal place for cliff jumping. This video is of Joseph jumping from one of the shorter rocks. He was seriously like a spider monkey and was climbing all over the place!

 {Above: The actual waterfall, and Joseph. Normally the water goes the entire width of the rock. Right: Joseph about to jump off part of a cliff that know one else could climb to. He somehow found hand and foot holds.}

By the time we left the sun was starting to get low in the sky. So traced our footsteps back to the scooter. I was soaking wet, and as a result my flip flops started to get muddy and very slippery. I ended up walking most of the way back to the scooter bare foot. Luckily there was no broken glass, nor thorns for me to step on. At one point I thought it was safe to put them back on, and the toe hold came out of the shoe. So at that point I didn't have any shoes I could wear. It was all good though. :)

Jospeh wanted to try a different way home that went along the mountains, and it was absolutely beautiful. At one point we weren't sure if we were still on the same road because it was taking quite a bit longer than the intial ride to the waterfall...an hour and a half longer. But I did see more of the surrounding area in that one scooter ride than in the entire first six months I lived in Feng Yuan.  So worth it!

I love lazy Saturdays and impromptu outings, even if I have to suffer through numb bum on the scoot-scoot root-a-toot!

Days in Utah...

So this is kind of a flash back to the last week in the States. Many of you may know that I spent a week in Utah visiting friends and family. One of my most favorite things was going on a hike with this lovely lady:Miss Linds, my amazing little sis. We had a spectacular time enjoying the view. Here's a look:

It was week of many firsts, including a trip to Spoon Me. It was fabulous to catch up with old Taiwan friends, and to celebrate Russia's B-day, even though it was a day late!
It was a great week! I'll miss you guys much!