Saying Goodbye, Part 1

Over the past year, we have spent 1/4 of our lives up here at the cabin -- in Blairsden, CA, in the Northeastern Sierras.  It is not Home, but a place we call home sometimes.   I sit here on the deck now, gazing out over the pine- and fir- and cedar-covered mountains, under a Sierra sky (something you just have to see to understand -- a magical thing), saying "goodbye" to this place.  Seven months will pass before we are back here.  

I have been through the closets and drawers three times to be sure nothing we'll need or want in the coming months is left behind.  Gregg and I have cleaned the garage to park the truck up here for the winter.  Tomorrow before we leave we will winterize and shut down.  Hard to think of "winterizing" while the sun beats on my legs and the thermometer reads 89!

We spent Christmas here last year (and Alex's birthday, our anniversary, and New Year's Eve, oh and Thanksgiving too!). 

Thanksgiving this year will be spent in Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica.

http://centralamerica.com/cr/gallery/graphics/ahmanuelantonio.jpg

Alex's birthday and Christmas will be spent in Bocas del Toro, Panama.

http://ifmsapanama.org/int/images/stories/imagenes/general/picture6.jpg

For our 3rd wedding anniversary we will be in Cahuita, Costa Rica.  And we'll welcome the New Year in a Costa Rican rainforest.  

For now, I watch the evening sun illuminate the wings of the myriad birds and insects that make a home in these gorgeous, forested mountains.  

And me here with no camera!