Lessons Learned Along the Trail

Nothing like a Monday holiday to start the week. For that matter, every Monday should be a national holiday. All in favor?

With the long weekend behind us, we went for a lovely hike this morning that jump-started our official week. We joined a group of ladies along the Aspen Trail at 7am for a mild upward climb along this singletrack bike trail. The group split–with others heading for the steeper route–while Annika and I joined my French companions along the less strenuous path. They chatted away, rapid-fire in their native tongue mixed with English, while I struggled to just keep my lungs open. Annika was the center of their curious questions about "homeschooling" as we walked, itermittently stopping (gratefully) along the way to enjoy the views of the valley below, the ripe serviceberries, and for Dominique to gather seeds to try and grow back in France.

Dominique, Annika, Simone and Janine

The trail leveled out and the topic soon turned to other subjects–travel, plants, snippets of our histories. I enjoyed talking with them but I enjoyed listening to them even more as they spoke softly with those distinct glottal and nasal stops that make the language sound "romantic" to many.

It certainly had appeal and I hoped that Annika found their company equally enjoyable and reinforcing. They were enamored with her and eagerly praised her choice to learn a language–German nonetheless.  I suspect that she was just as fascinated with them no matter her response when I asked of her thoughts about our French-speaking trail mates.

"After a while, it just started to sound the same!" she said nonchalantly. Maybe she won't be saying that as she gets further into her German lessons.

We parted ways after the hike. Anni promptly took a nap shortly after our return home. Later, I noticed that she was watching Andrew Zimmern in a Bizarre Foods episode featuring, of all places, Paris. So maybe she was paying attention, after all.

I planned on putting this two-hour hike under PE attendance. Maybe I could count this time well spent under her Language Arts class as well.