Blind date with a treehouse

Treehouse-review #2. On our way to the „World Treehouse Conference“ we spend the first night on american soil at the place of Pete Nelsons daughter Emily. In Fall City, Washington, only a few cougar hops away from Seattle, she lives on a very idyllic property in the woods. She stashed the key for us to be able to come in until her arrival from the airport some time later. In fact, the key was hidden so well that it took us a while to find it. And because the woody land is not illuminated, we search for our place to sleep in the dim light of our cellphone displays.

As our eyes get used to the darkness we notice something high up in the trees which could be a treehouse. First we feel our way over a long boardwalk, we stumble across fir cones and suddenly find ourselves in front of a steep ladder. I go first. Upstairs I fumble for the door, but I just grab another ladder. The same game two more times and my heart is thrilled because: the higher, the better!

At 35 feet above ground a generous rounded platform stretches across three big douglas firs with wooden counter, colorful bar stools and a mobile barbeque grill. The delicious smell of cedar wood crawls up our noses. And after a chain of lights wraps the treehouse from the boardwalk to the ridge in a magical light it becomes clear why: the little house is shingled with cedar shingles all over. Christopher tells me that this treehouse had to be torn down at treehousepoint. So Pete and his crew reassembled it a couple of miles down the road on his daughters property.

Inside the cedar-house is insanely cozy, I would instantly spend my hibernation in there. Colorful pillows decorate the comfortable bed and dark curtains offer protection against the curious light. Not much space apart from the bed, but who needs more anyway?

A bat flies past and waves good night, right before my new friend jetlag embraces me. A good mix of deep happiness and a hefty pinch of time difference ensures that we hear the crickets chirping at night and the adventurous wake up yowling of remote coyotes.