Beautiful Mountain

We haven't been able to get away for a real vacation this year so we have enjoyed a few day trips instead. We have such beauty surrounding us - what a privilege to live in Washington!

Last Saturday, we drove up to Mount Rainier National Park. Once in the park, we still had a long drive to Paradise (that's really the name) where we hiked and had lunch.

 This is the top of the mountain, what we saw as we hiked.

 Here is one of the viewpoints. Gorgeous!

 The Lodge where we had lunch, nestled in the mountains and trees.

Gorgeous wildflowers dotted the mountain base.

On the way home, T snapped this photo, one of our favorite spots.

We ended our day in our own backyard. Perfect.

8-8-88

The day we arrived in Haiti - 8.8.88 - we had few expectations. We had already lived in France for a year and served six years in Martinique. We were pretty fluent in French but spoke no Creole. I never did learn it. My husband and sons picked it up quickly but I never even tried. Part of that was because I was still doing French translation work for Martinique, something that continued for many years. A lot of Creole comes from French, without verb conjugations. That would be disastrous for French which prides itself on all the special verbs for special situations. The other reason was I didn't want to; I was afraid it would compromise my French. Oh well... We lived in Haiti for twelve years, were 'evacuated' twice (unnecessary but unavoidable), and then moved to Miami while continuing to work (off and on) in Haiti for six more years. Both of our sons graduated from high school while living in Haiti, making lifelong friends who continue to shape them as humans on this planet. There is nothing quite like friendships forged in a place like this country. Many people move to Haiti with the thought of doing something great for the Haitian people. I've always been of the opinion that people moving to Haiti were about to learn something very important about themselves and would grow in ways previously unimaginable, or quickly leave the country, unable to handle the pressure of this extraordinary place. I learned some of the most important lessons in life from relatively poor, uneducated Haitian people of faith. And I am quite grateful.