…come fly away!
We were up early…really, really early. It was theoretically, just a half night’s sleep when the alarm went off at 3:45 am.
It was dark and cold but thankfully, not snowy….and visions of stepping off a plane into sunshine and warm temperatures in just 12 hours made it all worth while.
By the time we passed Mt. St. Helen in Washington state, the sun was well up and we had a magnificent view of the crater. You’ll remember I’m sure, that Mt. St. Helen is a live volcano and erupted in May, 1980. I was living over 400 miles away at the time and even at that distance, there was a layer of ash covering everything.
Although I do a fair amount of flying, I don’t enjoy it…especially the take-off and landing part…but I love being up high in the sky…really high, where I’m able to get a completely different perspective of the planet. Views like this help me remember that in my day to day life, I actually have a very small and limited perspective of the world and that the world doesn’t revolve around me (shock, gasp!) and my small part in it. Not that I think our individual lives are insignificant, not at all. What I do find is that I can forget to see the big picture and am often tempted to take myself much too seriously.
Views like this one help me to remember that it’s a big, big world and my “mountain” is usually not much more than a small molehill.
Those are very philosophical and coherent thoughts for 6:30 in the morning! I don’t usually make that much sense until at least 9 o’clock. You can tell by the smiles, that we were happy….beyond happy really. We're both susceptible to SAD...seasonal affective disorder...and the one sure cure that we've found for that is sunshine. A serious lack of sleep, combined with an ecstatic glee that we were escaping a month of dreary west coast winter weather, put us more in the range of “giddy” and giddy can end up crashing and burning fairly quickly.
To avoid the crash and burn phase (don’t even think those words while you’re on an airplane!) we decided to settle down and get some work done. Mr I pulled out some important business that needed his immediate attention.
Those of you with iphones may know about Talking Carl…it’s a seriously funny app…and great entertainment for kids, grandkids (and big kids too). Carl mimics your own voice and repeats everything you say in a squeaky, high pitched and yes, annoying voice. He also yells at you if you poke him and laughs if you tickle him. (You have to be there.)
I pulled out my sketch book and doodled. Drawing hundreds of circles was a very zen activity and I couldn’t believe how quickly the time went.
We were soon flying over fields in northern Mexico and landing in PV…as the locals call Puerto Vallarta. Six of us climbed into a van to head north and an hour later we were at our destination.
And now when I go for a walk, I'm seeing these beautiful expression of sunshine…
and I’m also doing a lot of this very important activity.
OK, I have to confess…that pedicure was left over from my Hawaii trip in November. All that was left was a little bit on the tip of each big toe, so I updated it today and even shaved my legs! It’s not just a walk in the park here in the sunshine…it requires a lot of upkeep and the older I get, the more upkeep seems to be required!
And just so you won’t feel too bad about the whole sunshine thing, especially if you’re living in an area that’s been beaten and battered recently by Mother Nature, you’ll be cheered to know that it’s unseasonably cold here too. The temperature last night dipped down to 11 C (51F) and although it did go up to 21C (69F) during the day, the wind coming in off the ocean was decidedly chilly.
It was a fleece day in Guayabitos today.
