We had an important errand to run in the USA, so we crossed the border for the first time since the autumn of 2019. We live within 2 hours' drive of 4 different crossings (into two different US states)-- that number goes up to 7 crossings if you expand the drive time to 2 hours and 45 minutes-- so once upon a time we crossed fairly often.
Our reason for crossing today was a bit complicated to explain, but anyway, we ended up needing to kill a little time over there so we took the opportunity to do a hike we've wanted to do for several years now-- to Eternal Flame Falls (we also used to do a lot of hiking, especially to waterfalls, in the before-times).
The hike was more difficult than expected; the regular trail was closed partway down and there was a detour. That was unfortunate as we were already uncertain about Christopher's ability to do it these days, and the alternate route seemed to be both longer and over rougher terrain. He made it though, and we finally got to see the natural Eternal Flame burning behind the waterfall. The water was only flowing at a trickle, unfortunately, but it still counts! It felt really special to be there with Chris after everything he's come through (and everything he's still going through) since getting sick in March 2020.
