Monday, September 28, 2009

Fall Retreat

This past weekend was the annual fall retreat for our school. It was out in the mountains, about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from here. It was a beautiful drive, that is, if you could actually take your eyes off the road. I had my eyes glued to the narrow winding road in a desperate attempt to not get sick. I am such a prairie girl when it comes to mountain roads. But once we were up at the camp, I enjoyed the trees, mountains, and silence.

My favorite part of the weekend was when I hiked up to "Inspiration Point". It's about a 10 minute hike up from the camp to a lookout where you can see mountains all the way around you.

I went up there Sunday morning while everyone else was having breakfast. I was the only one up there, so I spent an hour taking some pictures and just sitting there soaking it all in. I sang a bit and prayed a bit and left so very re-charged. Being in nature and silence (without sirens and tires squealing and bass and general traffic noise) is something that I love and need. If only driving through the mountains to get there wasn't such an ordeal!

The cabins were quite a shock, though. I knew that I shouldn't have been expecting much, but I don't remember the last time I could see daylight through the walls of the place I was going to sleep. It wasn't a question of if there were mice and spiders in our room...it was how many mice and spiders there were. Neither Nathan nor I wanted to sleep across the room from each other, so we ended up sleeping together on one of the twin beds. I can't say that we'd ever done that before. But it actually worked well, and we both got a decent night's sleep!

Oh, and there were lizards all over the rocks while I was up at the point. When I sat still for a few minutes, they came out all around me and were sunning themselves on the rocks. So cool.

3 comments:

Kelsie-Lynn said...

Sounds beautiful and relaxing (minus the sleeping arrangements). Tim and I tried to sleep on a twin bed once, glad your experience was better than our :)

Alicia Buhler said...

Beautiful (well, except for the sleeping accommodations). I love mountain scenery!

Marsha said...

yeah i agree with alicia....it looks gorgeous and refreshing...but the "cabins" (if you can even call them that) would have done me in.