Rattlesnake Ledge or On the Edge

Living on the Edge

“We’ve been talking about boarding a plane for a while—it’s enough already. Let’s go,” our editor remanded us. “We need to get to Switzerland, I’m getting antsy about those Alps,” she mentioned in her best English. Meantime, one of us still has a foot in the Western United States. That seems to be causing a little problem. With so much to see and do in this part of the world, it’s easy to understand why someone would be reluctant to leave. Well, that’s the writer’s view. Then a thought crossed the mind about Switzerland.


A few years ago, Rabbi Wohlgelernter was giving a talk and he added an anecdote. It went something like this: Rabbi Samson Hirsh, the famous 19th century scholar (and great favorite of ours) was telling his students that he intended going to view the Swiss Alps. ‘But Rebbe,’ they protested, ‘Wouldn’t that amount to wasting Torah study time?’ He answered them. ‘When I come before the Great Master after leaving this world and He asks me whether I enjoyed His beautiful Alps, what am I going to answer?’

In a way, his answer is the rationale for us wishing to visit many beautiful places. Obviously, based upon our less than righteous record, we have to be better prepared than the great Rabbi. When questioned about Angels Landing, Crater Lake, the magnificence of Lake MacDonald and the thousands of other delightful places, we need to be fully informed so we can provide the appropriate reply.

We sometimes wonder if Rav Wohlgelernter regrets telling us that story.
Our few days in Bellevue with our son, Gavin were wonderful. We hiked the last two days; the pictures are from Monday. The distance was 5.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1500 feet to Rattlesnake Ledge and beyond. Our poor editor is dealing well with the animals but it doesn’t seem to end. Never mind seeing the animals, even the mountains carry the names. She admits that sometimes she does not know whether she is Eve with the serpent or Goldilocks.



‘It seems that your friends are a bunch of “softies”’, we mentioned to Gavin. Don’t go and misconstrue this. Many are part of the powerful Microsoft team, hence the name “softies” We caught up with Steve and Carolyn and their ‘cute as a pin’ son, Zack at the indoor soccer bowl. Thereafter, Mike, Candace and their ‘smart as a whip, nearly 2 year old daughter Claire visited us. It made us think even more about little Ellie. Finally, we had dinner with Jon and Theresa--a wonderful evening enjoyed by the older Lazarow’s.
The Ledge from above

We caught up with ‘old’ friends that we made in Dallas, Clive and Gill Midgen. Clive has always raised the great questions of life. He should have been a philosopher. One of his outstanding pronouncements was: ‘If Denny’s Restaurants are open twenty-fours a day, why do they have locks on their doors?’ Perhaps that’s why we left Texas.

Shabbos was at Chabad in Bellevue/Redmond. We nearly classified it as a hike because it is some distance. The determining factor in the end was that we decided not to wear our boots. Our editor didn’t think they matched her beautiful flowing skirt. The week’s reading from the Torah may have the most number of mitzvot of any—it had a powerful effect on us.

We are grateful to Gav who was a gracious host. We will always remember the wonderful time we had in his yard—that’s where he pitched a lovely little tent for Mom and Dad. What a fine gesture, we thought, it saved us having to put up the tent ourselves. Fortunately, it rained only once during our visit. Thanks, Gav, for the REAL hospitality.


Yodeling (almost) Friends,