About this time last year, as Daniel's spring break approached, a wild-hair sprouted. We couldn't let that week go by without a road trip. That's just the kind of people we are. But where? Our wheels began to turn and our nights were spent googling hotel prices, (free) things to do and the best coffee shops (I have to be prepared wherever I go) in some of the nations biggest, most touristy cities. After much careful research, we settled on the Windy City. Before I knew it, Daniel had worked up a full itinerary for a week in Chicago, including a detour to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Needless to say, we were pumped. I had even made Daniel agree to ride ONE roller coaster with me in the MOA. We booked a hotel in Chicago, and waited. But, something happened as March 16th drew closer. To this day, I'm still not sure what it was. Nonetheless, our full itinerary for Chicago suspiciously transformed into a full itinerary for Niagara Falls/New York City. I had no complaints, I'd never been to either city and wanted to see both. What's life without a little spontaneity anyway?
Well, Friday (March 15) finally came around and we were to leave bright and freakin' early the next morning. When I called Daniel on my way home from work (like I always do) he had a proposition. When I got home around 7pm, we threw some clothes in a suitcase and hit the road (after the inevitable preliminary pit stop at Chick-fil-A). We checked into our FREE (thank you Marriott rewards!), 4 Star hotel in Louisville, Ky sometime around 2am. Just seven short hours later, we were back on the road. We had places to be, and they weren't in Kentucky. We drove through some pretty cool cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Eerie. But still, we had places to be.
We finally made it to Buffalo around 7ish pm that night, which left us just enough time check into our somewhat sketchy hotel, grab a delicious slice of local pizza at LaNova's, and try to make it to Niagara Falls before all of the sunlight was gone. We did not entirely make it. Unfortunately, by the time we found our way to the Falls, parked and walked up to it, we had just missed the sunset. Since it was then dark, the temperature was beginning to plummet. Dramatically. The entire river below the Falls was frozen solid, as was the platform and walkways on the lower level. We stood at the top and looked at as much of it as we could see with the little amount of light that was available. It was really pretty, even in the dark, but we couldn't stand it very long. Literally. We could not. I don't know if it was actually snowing or if it was the mist from the Falls freezing just before it slapped us in the face, but we were pretty much miserable. From the time we got out of the car in the parking lot to the time we dove back in, our south Alabama bodies could only survive maybe 15 mins, max. I was actually a little bit disappointed when we got back to the car.
I thought that maybe it was just the fact that my body was physically surrendering to the frigid air, rendering my mind incapable of comprehending the vastness of it all, but it seemed kinda small to me compared to what I had envisioned. We couldn't leave Buffalo on that note, so we decided to try again in the morning. And, come to find out, the falls that we had caught a glimpse of the night before were just a snippet of the real thing. I was not disappointed in it at all in the light of day. It was absolutely gorgeous. I think both of our hearts swelled with love for God as we just stood there staring. As big and breath-taking as Niagara Falls is, it's only a tiny picture of how big and powerful our God is. It was also a reminder that no matter how toasty and fully-functioning my mind is at any given time, it is still finite, and I can only fathom the tiniest taste of the fullness of God. But the tiniest taste is enough to make me fall completely head-over-heels. And the simple fact that it IS the tiniest of tastes, just completely wrecks me every time.
No comments:
Post a Comment