*This post has nothing at all to do with animals, so if that’s what you’re here for, you’ll be disappointed. If however, you like happy travel anecdotes, this is probably for you. I did say the blog was *mostly* about animals, after all.
We have a trip coming up, and I am so excited to go that it’s borderline ridiculous. Sometimes, we have brought dogs on vacation with us, but they are not coming this time, as we are flying to Montana to visit Glacier National Park. The hiking we hope to do covers mostly dog-free areas. (For those unaware, dogs are not welcome in most National Park lands for the protection of the wilderness. Additionally, I would not fly my dogs anywhere unless it was literally my only option for whatever life change was happening in that moment.)
We were supposed to take this trip last year, but COVID killed those plans (as it did so many of our collective plans for 2020). Glacier NP has been on my list of places to visit for what seems like forever now. Thoughts of this trip are sustaining me through each and every work week until it gets here. This past week in particular, I kept feeling giddy about it, recalling some of our previous trips and special moments on those trips, and I hope to find at least one such moment during this trip.
The snapshots in time of which I speak are not anything you can plan or force to happen. They happen when every aspect of your life simply aligns just so and comes together in nothing short of perfection. Not to say that I don’t have moments of contentment in my everyday life, but since becoming an adult, they’re easier to find on vacation. (If you don’t understand that because your life is perfect all the time, please, let’s talk about how you’re living your life because I’d like some pointers.)
There are two afternoons in particular that jump to the forefront of my mind when I think about the times that I just could not be happier in my life. Neither of these moments occurred on trips that I would consider my overall favorite trips. Both involved perfect weather, including beautiful, blue skies, gorgeous scenery that’s nothing like Southeastern PA, and an extreme lack of other people (aside from Justin). Sometimes, when life has me down, I go to one of these afternoons in my memories and take a deep breath, pretending I’m still there.
The first of these was April 5, 2016 in Johnson City, Texas. Justin’s cousin, who has family in Austin, recommended that we check out Pedernales Falls State Park, and it did not disappoint. After spending the morning checking out the area of the falls, we wanted to see what the portion of the river that people go to swim offered. We hiked down from the parking area to the river and along a trail until we came to a sandy bank, a little ways down from a rope swing. I don’t recall seeing a single other person anywhere near this spot. We spread out our towels and just enjoyed the sun for a bit. We were scheduled to fly home the next day, and both of us had experienced some kind of stomach bug for the majority of our trip. On this day, we were both back to good health.
When we grew tired of lounging at the river’s edge, we hiked back upriver a ways and floated down on our backs to the rope swing. We each took a couple of runs with that, reliving carefree, childhood times. It was hard to decide when to leave because we both felt so good- calm and peaceful, without a care in the world. Eventually, our stomachs declared it lunchtime. We floated the rest of the way back to our set-up on the water’s edge and reluctantly packed it in to head back to the car and find food.
The second perfect vacation afternoon was on August 27, 2019 in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, overlooking Lake Superior, in Munising, Michigan. On this trip, we underestimated the size of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and were overly ambitious in the number of sites we could cram into a week’s vacation. Easily, we could have spent three days at the National Lakeshore alone, but we only had one and had to be selective about the trails we chose to hike.
At lunch time, we chose a fairly short hike, Mosquito Falls Trail, to take us out to the shoreline. The hike ended on a large, relatively flat gray rock jutting out into the lake underneath a gorgeous sky filled with a mix of clouds and sunshine. We pulled our camping chairs out of Justin’s pack and sandwiches and water from mine. During lunch, we relaxed in the warmth and watched kayakers moving slowly along the shore. Only one younger boy came anywhere close to our set-up; any other people we could see were too far away to make out anything specific about them or their conversations. Much like in Texas, the setting was just so peaceful that is was easy to drop any worry or care you might otherwise have had.
For me, I can have a very difficult time living truly in the moment. My mind is constantly going over things I could have or should have or would have done better or fretting about what’s to come in the future. These two afternoons, I was just there, with everything else that I normally stress about so far removed from me that it was impossible to think about anything except how gorgeous my surroundings were, how perfect the weather was, how light I felt. As I said before, I’m really hoping to get another such moment on this upcoming trip because life has been stressful this past year or so, and I’d love to leave it all behind for an hour or two.
I hope, for anyone reading today’s post, that you can relate to such moments, and if you haven’t had one yet, may you stumble across it in your upcoming adventures, be they in your backyard or miles from your home.
“Travel opens your heart, broadens your mind and fills your life with stories to tell.” ~ Paula Bendfeldt
