Hiking and Hangin'

A wonderfully, full day! And a great way to say goodbye for now to one of my dearest friends (met when we were six or seven years old). Chaya and I decided to go for a hike, so I thought Twin Falls would be a descent one, not far off I-90 past North Bend. It was four miles round trip, with a 1,200 ft. elevation gain. She was dog-sitting, so we had three dogs with us... and it made it even more fun! :) Being Labor Day weekend, the small parking lot was rather crowded, even though we got there rather early a little after 10 am (when we left after noon, the cars lined the road out to the highway). There were lots of families with kids and dogs, so the trail had to be shared.














This is the upper (smaller) part of the double falls... and just a patch of the bright green we saw everywhere. I suppose I should show you the big, lower one as well...










And then a nice stranger took our picture at the same viewpoint as the pic on the left. After the hike, the owner of two of the dogs returned early, so we went and dropped them off. That was pretty close to home, so we stopped by so I could change my sweaty clothes, and grab a bite to eat at our neighborhood Subway. But this wasn't the end! We went back to the apartment by Green Lake to look through our respective trip pictures before heading off to her church in Ballard.

And although thinking mostly about the pastor's speaking style to begin (I was still feeling it from public speaking the day before), I was duly impressed with the message. It was on the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke (there's Luke again... that's what Dad's breakfast group is reading. I think I should read Luke again.) and I hadn't paid much attention to it before because I knew the story so well. I hadn't realized how Jesus turned the Lawyer's question around in the end. It was a wonderful thing to point out: how we are supposed to be good "neighbors" ourselves.

Chaya drove me home afterwords, prayed over my joining the Navy and hugged me goodbye. Gosh, I will miss you, dear!

Jp