It happens every time I go on vacation. Somewhere between the joy of leaving home and the invigoration that comes with investigating all the possibilities of what lies ahead that I realize, yet again, what a vast, wide, and amazing world we live in.
It's enough to say that I haven't even explored all the pockets of my own city and state. That fact alone is daunting and wonderful all at the same time. 44 years of living on the Wasatch Front and I haven't been to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge since I was a child, never visited the Spiral Jetty, and I've never gone to Promontory Point where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were joined with the driving of a golden spike in 1869. I haven't hiked in American Fork Canyon much (which is relatively near my home), haven't camped in most of the drainages in the Uintas, and I haven't been to Rainbow Bridge in southern Utah. And that doesn't even begin to explore all the places I haven't been in Salt Lake City, to say nothing of all the places I haven't even been in my own little town.
So when I go someplace new like Stanley, Idaho from Sun Valley as I did yesterday, and I see all these new, amazing things, it kind of whacks me upside the head as I'm looking at the map of the Sawtooth Mountains at the overlook naming all their jagged shark-tooth peaks and the thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of sage and pine and aspen and water down below and I say to Mark, "Man, it's a big, wide, amazing, wonderful world, isn't it?"
There's just so much to explore in every little corner. The locals say try this, go here, you can't miss this, and be sure to try this--and that's just one person's take on a tiny little portion of a city in a county in a region in a geographical area in a state that's part of a country that belongs to a continent that is part of a planet...well, you get the drift.
So, you play tour guide. If you knew someone who had just one day to spend in your town, where would you take them? What is big, wide, amazing, and wonderful about your little corner of the world?
If I knew someone who had just one day to spend in my town, I would take them to Mill Creek Canyon where the water runs crystal clear, the maples are thick, and the pine scent is heavy; and where at the top of every tree and at brim of every trail and on the edge of every horizon there are ribbons and ribbons of blue sky streaming into the edge of whatever it is I'm dreaming of at the time.
So this is funny. I'm going to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge this afternoon for a work field trip. We are having our annual conference there and we are working that all out today. I've never been there before so I am very excited!
Posted by: Nicole | August 14, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Hope you had an awesome time away! How were the books?
Posted by: Alice | August 17, 2008 at 11:50 AM