Rainier!

I was talking to my Mom on the phone this afternoon as I drove home. It was a picture perfect sunny autumn day. The sky was cloudless and the temperature had just touched 70 degrees in the afternoon. The deciduous trees are starting to turn, dotting the hillsides along the I 205 corridor with the colors of pumpkin, newly-pressed bricks and latte cremas.As I talked to Mom, I crested the hill and rounded the curve near Johnson Creek. Locals will know the one I mean. I interrupted a　thougｈt I was sharing with her to point oug that Mt St Helens was beautiful in front of me. "Hey Mom, I said, "you won't believe how beautiful Mt St Helens is today. There's a fall moisture in the air that works like a magnifying glass, you know -- the same way the autumn moon gets so huge? Well it's making Mt St Helens look ..." And thats when I saw it. I couldn't believe it. Poking out from behind Mt St Helens, like a class clown making funny faces behind the teacher, was the summit of Mt Rainier.

"Mom! I can't believe it. I can see Rainier!"

I truly cannot recall a time when I could see Mt Rainier from the Portland metro area. Not while on the ground, anyway. It was one of those subtle, sublime moments. I'm glad I noticed it. I could so easily just have missed it altogether.

But I didn't!!