Bittersweet

A. has just left for the field again, but he won't be home until June 7 at the earliest. I am really sad right now.

I remember when I CHERISHED time away from whomever was my current flame. Boy, I must really have something for A.!

Since Highway 130 is open for the summer, we drove through the Snowy Mountains and Medicine Bow National Forest to get to Saratoga. At the peak, near Lake Marie, there were still ten foot snow drifts at the side of the road. Folks were camping at the base of the mountains and snow shoeing and cross country skiing at the top! There is just over a 3,000 foot rise in elevation in the Snowies (6,000 foot rise to the top of Lake Marie.)

We went to the Saratoga hot springs and it was a wonderful way to spend what was to be our last day together for a while. The community hot springs were especially hot today. I don't know why. Even the "regulars" couldn't completely submerge themselves.

So, A. and I decided to cross the river (cold!) to a secret little hot spring that gathers next to the river, behind a lot of tall grasses. Most people don't know about that pool, and it is always a bit cooler. It is awesome; it is private and comfortable enough you can stay in it for much longer. (The only bummer is you have to cross the VERY COLD RIVER to get there and get back.) It was hot, too, more like what the community hot springs usually feels like. We hung out in there for a while until some kids found us. Everything was begrudgingly G-rated, I promise!

Then, after we re-crossed the FREAKIN' COLD river, we decided we really wanted to be submerged in the hot pool. I really feel like all those minerals from the hot spring are energizing and centering, and I really wanted to experience that for a while. So, A. and I both went right in. What a strange sensation to jump into water that is too hot, rather than too cold. Anyway, if A. and I sat perfectly still it was awesome. It was when I moved around and worked up my own energy that it was too hot to bear.

On our way back through Saratoga before we headed back through the Snowies, we stopped at a little cafe called Warm Springs Cafe. They have awesome pies. A. got blueberry, his favorite, and I got cherry, my favorite. I think A.'s blueberry pie was really a mixed berry pie because there were a lot of raspberries and blackberries in there -- and a lot of seeds. It wasn't quite the treat A. was looking forward to.

However, we had a view of the window from our table. There is this darling little house that sits on the opposite bank of the river. I WANT TO LIVE IN THAT HOUSE SOMEDAY. So, I sat and daydreamed about how fabulous my life would be in that house, sitting on the front porch after dinner with a cup of tea and a good book, looking out over the river. Awwww...

As a wonderful transition from my imaginary world to the real one, a couple on a small boat drifted by on the river. They both had fishing poles, and their Golden Retreiver was wonderfully well behaved. The woman caught a fish! From our seats, it looked like a 10 - 12 inche trout of some sort.

The little escape together, away from town, was a wonderful little gift. A.'s departure was bittersweet: we are delighted in all that we are to and for one other but disappointed we have to be these things separated from each other. Thankfully, he'll be back home in the fall.