A wonderful birthday

For about the past decade my birthday has fallen in the middle of finals exams during college and grad school.  People would ask what I was doing to celebrate and my response was usually taking a chemistry final, finishing writing a philosophy paper, or studying specimens for an organismic biology class.  Finally I am finished with school and finals week no longer looms over my head.  This year for my birthday my husband took me hiking.  It is extremely rare—as in never has happened before, or possibly again—to go hiking on my birthday.  December isn’t prime hiking weather and since it gets dark early a good hike is only possible on the weekend. 

We got our chores done early on Saturday morning.  After lunch and a quick nap (another of my favorite activities) we headed to the River Trail in Junction City.  We were blessed with a great afternoon of about 45F weather making hiking comfortable in the right clothing.  Hiking in the winter is a little bit different from other times of the year.  Everything is shades of brown and beige.  However without leaves on the trees it is easier to see wildlife.  We stood on the edge of the river and watched two bald eagles in a tree on the opposite bank.  Later there was a flock of geese that settled onto the river for the evening.  They broke the silence of the late afternoon with a cacophony on honking. 

The three hours of the hike also gave us a lot of quality time together.  We have been missing our evening walks since it has gotten cold since this rituals allows us to catch on the day.  While we do talk over dinner or doing the dishes we can add distractions such as music or something on YouTube.  We have great conversations in the car too but you can always turn on the radio.  With hiking you are stuck with the other person.  For several hours.  We can run the gamut of topics.  I will even listen to Arthur talk about topics that don’t interest me at all in normal situations but while hiking even Excel graphs predicting economic principles fills some of the time. 

It was dusk towards the end of our walk and it was a brilliant sunset reflecting on the surface of the river—the pinks, purples, and oranges of a winter sunset.  Over the last few miles of the walk we discussed what we were going to order at Cracker Barrel for dinner.  A benefit of a ten mile hike is that you can eat whatever you want at the end.  You have also thought about dinner and how delicious it will be for several miles and the anticipation builds which increases the enjoyment of eating even more.  It was almost dark as we reached the car and starting to get colder.  But at Cracker Barrel there was a roaring fire in the fireplace and it was decked out with candles and old-fashioned lamps for the holidays.  We had both been salivating over the prospect of fried cinnamon apples and chicken and dumplings.   Dinner was just as wonderful as we had imagined.  Hunger after a hike is a sauce that makes all food scrumptious.  Once we got home we settled in for a cozy evening of watching White Christmas.