The Right Height

Paris--Kenya--Spain, part four.

I totally got it when Mitt Romney went to Michigan and proclaimed "the trees are the right height." As an northeasterner transplanted in the intermountain west, I appreciated what he meant. I generally feel more at home when things are the right height.

And now, after 30 years in Utah, I've discovered that I feel at home here. As I traveled through Kenya and Spain, I kept thinking that lots of things felt the right height: mountains, trees, shrubs, grasses. Of course, they were all different. But the same, too.

Here's Kenya, heading south from Nairobi across the Great Rift Valley:

Here's Utah at the northwest end of our valley:

Here's our tented camp in Kenya:

Here's a view from the car somewhere in Spain (wow, we saw a lot of olive trees!):

And here's a view in our Utah town:

Maybe the pictures don't quite capture it, but over and over I was reminded of my Utah home. All three regions were so similar in terms of color and scale, yet so different in terms of flora and fauna.

No matter how much southern Kenya reminded me of Utah, I'm pretty sure I'll never run into these guys at home.

And no matter how much southern Spain reminded me of Utah, I'm pretty sure I won't get to have breakfast under orange trees like these at home.