Touching the Water

Three years ago over Labor Day weekend I took the children on one last day trip to Snoqualmie Falls before the school year started. It's one of our favorite places to take out of town friends or just for a quick adventure to see the beautiful falls and play outdoors. Just beyond the parking lot is a viewpoint with a rail overlooking the falls and the Snoqualmie river. You travel down the viewpoint through a series of shallow stairs and landings until you reach the final landing where you can take the perfect selfie with the falls if the mist rising from the river isn't too high. Most people who visit Snoqualmie Falls walk the stairs, take their pictures, and then visit the gift shop and head home. We've done this many times. Just behind the gift shop is a trail about 1.3 miles down to the river. Along the way you see little placards naming the types of trees and other plants you see on the trail. The walk down to the river is a treat. You're walking under some pretty stunning trees, the air is fragrant and clean, and it's a fairly easy stroll downhill.

Three years ago, I had a 4 year old and 7 year old and decided to walk the trail with them to the river by myself as Paul was out of town. It started off well enough. Our plan was to find some fantastic puddles to test out their new rain boots. It ended up being a hotter day than any of us expected so by the time we got to the bottom of the trail we kicked off our boots and socks to go splashing barefoot in the river. We all had a fun time climbing over rocks and getting wetter than we meant to. I remember looking up to the viewpoint and seeing the many people watching us from above. I couldn't help thinking that they should also walk down to the river because they were missing all the fun.

After a little while the kids got hungry so we decided to make the journey back up the hill. I failed to mention earlier that in favor of traveling light, I didn't bring a backpack of snacks or water since it was just a 1.3 mile stroll. We could have snacks when we got back to the car. What I failed to consider was that an easy 1.3 mile stroll downhill becomes a strenuous (UPHILL) hike when you are just 4 and 7 and had already walked that length and spent the afternoon climbing over big rocks in a river and your mom didn't pack snacks or water. I saw the flaw in my plan as soon as we began our climb. With no other recourse but acceptance and perseverance, I decided that we would take the climb as slowly as needed and to magically manifest the energy from my body that the kids would need to get them up that trail. We sang songs. We played 20 questions. We took many breaks.

At some point on the long journey upward, one of the kids in their fatigue said something like, "maybe we should have just looked at the falls from the top and gone home." I knew they were tired, thirsty, and hungry. I understood the sentiment but I heartily disagreed with the conclusion. I told the kids that in life there are many ways to learn things. You could read facts about waterfalls and look at pictures in a book or on the internet. You could drive to a scenic viewpoint and gaze upon its beauty and hear it crashing into the river below. And/or, you could walk down the path amidst the trees to the river's edge and take off your boots and socks to feel the cold cold water against your skin and the smooth slippery rocks underneath your feet. For me, the long walk back up was well worth the learning that only the experience of going there can teach. We made it up the hill and celebrated not with the snacks I packed from home but with every kid's favorite - treats purchased from the gift shop!

Here we are 3 years later and I am taking my own words to heart. In the spirit of going there, we have decided to take a great big ginormous fantastically huge adventure! We are not only going there. We are going there and there and there and there and even there! I have felt for a while that we need a fresh perspective. I need to show our kids the world is bigger than our house, their school, our town, our experience. I want to fall in love with my country all over again -- even if it means fresh heartache. We need to hear the stories of those who came before us and walk where they walked and see the world the way they lived it so that we can better understand how we got to where we are today. We need to see the changing landscape with our own eyes and learn what it means to be good stewards of the earth. We need our hearts as well as our heads to grow if we are truly going to grow into people of wisdom, knowledge, compassion, and action.

For all of this and more, we have taken a detour from our regularly scheduled lives to take a home school travel year with the kids: 2 months around the United States by van this Fall, 1 month in Europe this Spring, and the rest of the time at home expanding on the themes we come across on our travels. I hope to capture what I am learning in this blog as a keepsake for myself and the children. The kids will be keeping their own record of our trips and home school life on their own blog: Cabbies on the Road. Follow us as we travel all the roads.