Finding Refuge

Know what it is about going to the North Shore that can fix me like nothing else can? I'm sure it's the same for everyone else. It's the lake that's bigger than me, it's the untouched trees, the untouched life that carries on the way it should. It's pure life. As soon as we come over the hill in Duluth, everything else falls away. Gone. Nothing else matters.
Guess what? I'm a mile away from a wildlife refuge. I've "known" this, of course. Cullen told me, even showed me where it is. Isn't it funny that I didn't "get it?" I totally didn't, even having been to and craving refuges. He was so calm about it's magnificence that I missed the urgency. Until yesterday.
3 steps in, and Cullen, Julia and Jordan got in the sled. I pushed them til they took off on their own down the long, long, winding hill, CJ and Josh running behind them and all that reached me was their laughter as they got further and further away. I stopped to find the woodpecker and just listen to all of them laughing so hard.
It's ASTOUNDING down there. We will easily put in many, many, many hours there. It's worth taking PTO to go there. I love it. The kids are total troopers and didn't complain at all about the hike. When Cullen turned around (to run back and get the van to come pick us up) when we were getting close to the end part where we come up Old Cedar, CJ tied the sled rope around his waist and ran/pulled Julia and Jordan, who were facing one another on the sled, and they were laughing so hard that Julia peed a little. If that isn't the best thing in the whole entire universe, I don't know what is. It was warm, bright, birds everywhere, and the kids were just happy. Best EVER. Next time, you're going to have to tell me in Nickispeak when something is so good that I need to go NOW. :) I felt all full again after that, almost like hitting the North Shore. Minus the yummy real wave noise all night long.
How was that for leaping a mental exercise hurdle?????