Mundane can also mean of the earth

Saturday in our attempts to get to one place, we found another. And it was sweet. I was so grumpy on the way because I don't think I communicated to Josh well enough that I NEEDED to be in the woods, asap. That meant that when I found out he intended to follow road signs and couldn't find the first one, I was not happy on the back of the scooter. I don't get out of work until 1, and the sun sets between 4 and 5, so we didn't have much daylight to work with. It turned out neither of us anticipated how far we had to drive. We found some neat places to stop along the way, and then we found the first natural river bed we had seen in Taiwan. So we climbed and spent the sunset climbing on the rocks. It was excellent. I felt physically challenged, a little nervous, a little brave, and each rock I summited was an accomplishment. We ended up finding a beautiful waterfall and little pool, and climbed back to the scooter just in time for night fall. We watched the moon rise as we were on the last stretches of path, and then zoomed through the cold mountains back home to actually sleep in our apartment on a weekend night. Day trips, how novel!

Sunday was excellent. I woke up happy and we set off for our adventure. We wanted to find a forest recreation area, so we followed signs to the forest station. We found out once we had entered what we thought was the forest station, that it was indeed a tree farm. The Chinese characters were the same when the english was different. Whatever. Josh overcame initial disappointment when we found an awesome trail that led us to a maple grove. Lots of birding (which he willingly participated in!) We even saw what we thought was an eagle. Then we discovered some enormous (3 in. with legs) spiders that Josh then stole my binoculars to examine. every three steps. It was excellent exercise, with some mountain views, and fall weather. The maples were exactly what I needed. I've been missing home (I had a dream we came home last night) so the fall weather and changing leaves were what I needed.

On our way out of the tree farm, I bought some presumably homemade jam (yes!) and then we entered a rope course I had spotted when we came in. It was awesome! Lots of rope tubes and ladders, several zip line swings (yes!) and a slide. Some crazy bridges (protected underneath with rope nets). Lots of positive energy, and challenges, and climbing, and laughing, and high fives. Excellent.

On the way home we tried to find the thing we had originally looked for. Picked up some Dominos tater tots (I know...) and headed into the mountains again. Looking for a spot to eat our snack, I found a cement guard rail on the side of the cliff, so we perched atop the edge, watched the moon rise over the mountain, ate tater tots, and reflected on the bizzare situation we were currently in.

Overall a good weekend, I am exhausted, happy, super stressed, etc. I need those trips outside. I can't live in this polluted city for more than three days without getting the heck out. But at the same time, the more I play, the more the work builds up. Balance balance balance. Which means back to work :0).