It Beckons

I have been a world traveler since birth - a military brat, I was born in Germany and took my first transatlantic flight a couple months old. I've seen much of Europe, backpacked with friends and had a few adventures. From childhood trips, I've traveled across the southeastern United States extensively. Then I made a trek between Virginia and Alabama for several summers to work at Space Camp. This summer my family is going north for a trip to do some Revolutionary War sightseeing (I'm a history geek, which is a trait shared with my dad and husband). I lived in Kansas - my husband is from Michigan - I have family in Pennsylvania...  But I've never quite made it West.

There is a place along the West Coast that calls to me. I see pictures, and my heart skips a beat - like I'm seeing a lost love. Now, the mountains tend to do this to me - whether it's the foothills of the Alps in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) of Germany or the Appalachian Mountains and Smoky Mountains. I have yet to see the Rocky Mountains, but I'm sure I will one day. However, the place that beckons me is not so mountainous... instead it is the forest. And when I think about it, it's the forest of the mountains that really makes my heart soar.

What beckons me is the temperate rainforest in the northwest of the north American continent. The Tongass National Forest includes part of this.

I long to walk among the moss covered trunks of the giants of the forest. I want to smell it and close my eyes and listen to it and feel the wind whip up goosebumps on my skin. I imagine a smell of must and mold and earth. I imagine putting my fingers on piece of fallen tree, and watching as it the mass of once living pulp disintegrates in my hand and falls to the forest floor, where a multitude of iridescent insects await it - the cycle continuing.

So I've determined I'm going to go there. Even though I'm a little concerned about the bears - I'm going to figure out how my husband I can make a pilgrimage there one year - maybe next summer or the summer after (since I'll be also saving to go visit my sister in Prague too). So, I guess I've started my bucket list - and it begins with the Earth and nature and the rush of water and the whisper of wind through the trees.