Once again you've done it Peter.

I drove up north this weekend to help with a museum fund-raiser gig in Wenatchee. It was all smiles and handshaking as usual, nothing extrordinary. The following morning, instead of going home, the fella decides it would be nice to 'take a drive' up into one of the passes.

For those of you who don't know, Dan is blind. So the drives always consist of him begging my explanations of the world around us. 'Why IS the air colder down by the river?' 'What makes the wind come in gusts like that around the hills?' 'What IS a tumbleweed, really?'

There were a few cotton-candy clouds in the sky, but other than that, the sun reigned in the sky. We stopped at a place call the 59'er diner, and actually met a red-headed waitress named 'Flo'. A handfull of quarters in the jukebox, and we managed to get the whole place singing along with Roy Orbison 'I got a Woman'.

The hiking was magnificent. Snowdrops and wild crocus peeking out of the rocks and ice, and all the birds deciding that today was the day to sing. We hiked in to the HomeFires bakery, a tiny little log cabin with a great big oven, and had coffee and a nosh. Sun was still out, light breeze, and Dan had by then forgiven me for telling him every plant I held for him to touch was poison ivy. The bakery sat in the little valley surrounded by sunshine, and I learned that Dan had taken an ornithology class years ago, and he knew the birds by sound. 'There's a starling, ...a magpie,....a flicker.'

The next lazy stop was the tourist trap know as Leavenworth. It is dolled up to look like a Bavarian Village, and is usually full of Seattlites (big of wallet, teensy of brain). I found it amazing that in the 15+ years that Dan had been playing up near Wenatchee, that no one had taken him around on the town. To him, the little shop that sold Grandfather Clocks was a treasure trove. We stayed long enough to hear the chimes turn over, and he felt the dancers and cuckoos on nearly every clock with the greedy fascination I've come to admire him for. Then on to the tiny little hat shop that contains every imaginable kind of hat. Dan mentioned he'd been looking for a hat, so we went in. I knew he wanted some Indiana-Jonesey work hat, but kept handing him these ridiculous things. Viking helmets, princess cones, a big felt chicken (I told him it was for the rare times when his head wasn't up his own @$$) and finally one of those beanies with a propeller on it. Of course, the second he takes to humor me and put the hat on, someone recognizes us! "Why HELLO!!!!"

We left Leavenworth with some wine, cheese, and aching sides. The river was calling again, and we basked in the sunlight. Dan basked really, and I fielded such questions as 'What IS an alpaca then?' 'Who ARE the Army Corps of Engineers and what makes them think they are so smart?' and 'D'ya remember that one Hoyt Axton song...?'

Springtime is BLISS, Peter. Laying in the warm grass with a breeze across your face, braiding daisy chains, and feeding homemade bread to the dog. Not only does the earth feel re-born, but you do too. Smiles warm you like the sun, laughter cools you like the breeze, and your mind and your heart bud with new possibility. Nothing finer than that. ~Elle