I remember being always amazed at the beauty and challenge of the mountains in Hong Kong and Korea. Now, experiencing Wisconsin's topography again with new eyes has been delightful.
"The Hill". Alec and I were at UW-Eau Claire for his first college visit. There they boast "The Hill". (How flat is this place?) We heard all about it during the orientation and then our tour guide made a big deal about it before we were to leave on the tour. There are two ways to get from the lower campus to the upper campus, the STAIRS or the road on THE HILL.
As a slow sprinkling rain began, our Eau Claire Senior, Jason, first took us to The Stairs. "Let's take the stairs," he said. "Don't worry, we will take it slow. And don't worry, if you are a student and don't like the stairs, there is an on-going free shuttle to get you from the lower campus to the upper campus." (How big is this thing anyway?)
These were wooden stairs winding their way through the beautiful lush, green Wisconsin underbrush and woodlands. Through the trees we couldn't see very far up the hill with clarity. But it looked inviting, even challenging. Our group of 10 began the climb. At about 6 stories there was a landing where we all rested and caught our breath before the rest of the climb. "Have a seat and some water if you like," said Jason. Alec and I looked at each other, "That wasn't too bad. But how much is left now?" we wondered.
Well, as we left the covered landing we could now see to the top of the hill. About 4 more stories and we had reached the top of The Hill. At the crest, we chuckled to ourselves thinking of the HKIS campus and the many many stairs to be climbed each day especially from the field to the entrance of the high school for Alec as a middle schooler.
By the time our tour of the upper campus was done, the sprinkling rain had become torrential. Now we needed to decide whether to take the steps or the road down "The Hill". My vote was for the road as I worried the wooden steps had become slippery. Plus, I really wanted to see what this famous hill was like! We opened our umbrellas to begin the descent in the heavy rain. Our tour guide led us down a slow winding road without a visible end. Again, Alec and I chuckled as we reached the bottom in about 4 minutes after having carefully selected our footing in the rain. This wasn't even a 1/4 of the length of Villa Rosa, the hill just beyond the HKIS gates.
Forty-year old Brenda would have huffed and puffed and cursed "The Hill". But this Brenda was simply chuckling and realizing anew how flat so much of Wisconsin actually is.
