We got everything packed into the Escape and off to Snoqualmie Pass we went! The last time we came up this way in the winter was when we headed over to Spokane for Ben's interview. There was NO snow, at all. We knew we were in for a really dry summer with a lot of fires. It rained the entire time until we were roughly five miles from the summit. It literally went from rain to snow in seconds. I had not driven the Escape in the snow since I've had it so this was a real test to see how well it did. It did awesomely. The snow was slushy in a lot of places until we made that long corner then it was compact dry snow; just the way I like it. We took the second exit because we had seen a sign stating that the exit we wanted was closed for some reason. When we went by it wasn't closed...how confusing! We took the other one and Ben directed me to the area we needed to be in. We made two drive-byes until we found someone leaving. We were lucky to have found a spot that quickly. The place was BUSY!! Finding a parking spot was ridiculous almost just as bad finding a parking spot at WSU while classes are in session.
We decided to use the restroom, get our lift tickets and then our rentals. Once we had our snowboard boots. We then found a place for Ben to teach me the basics of how to skate when we are near the ski lifts, basic starting and stopping and other tidbits. A douchbag decided to smoke near us and got a sickening whiff of that which made me really mad that the guy couldn't go somewhere without people nearby to do it. Then my snowboard wasn't gliding very easily so while Ben exchanged it I ran a trip back to the Escape to drop off our shoes and grab the GoPro. Which later I found out I grabbed the wrong piece of it and some of our video didn't turn out. Lesson learned! He then took me over to the bunny hill to see how well I did while I was moving down hill. I lost that battle. I lost control and fell hard to avoid hitting these morons who weren't about to move at the bottom of the hill. Luckily I was wearing a helmet or I would have had a concussion.
I was tired of the bunny hill and wanted to go down the bigger hill. We got in line for the ski lift and they had to stop it so I could get on. I haven't mastered that skill yet. Haha. This was my first time on a ski lift so I enjoyed the moment.
Haha, getting off the ski lift was a chore as well. Every time we got off we crashed into each other. My only bruise that day was on my thumb from running into Ben when we got off the ski lift the first time. I know how embarrassing right?
The first time down took us a while and it was very memorable. Ben had the GoPro on and filmed some of him and some of me going down the hill and crashing. There is a segment of that video where I literally crash and face planted hard into the snow. I knew I was going to be very very sore the next day. With a couple more crashes and the inability to navigate the board effectively I eventually made it down to the bottom of the hill to go back up again.
The second time we went down I almost had a flawless run except I fell at the top once and again at the bottom, the corner of my snowboard hit the bottom of the SLOW sign and I crashed. I couldn't believe I did that. I hoped no one saw it but I'm sure everyone did. Haha!
The third time down...about halfway down the hill, I heard some kids on the ski lift chanting, "Fall, fall, fall, fall!" I knew they were directing it at Ben and I. Ben did fall and I had a flawless run! I was so proud of myself and I was starting to know more about how to balance myself, how to stop and how to steer myself clear of obstacles and people.
When we went back up to the top I challenged Ben to a flawless run and we went down the steeper side of the hill. He fell about four times and I did great until I made it to the bottom where I fell twice. I was mad and disappointed I fell. For not having any snowboarding experience I believe I figured it out pretty quickly. There is a learning curve to it and I am sure there will be one next time due to the snow conditions and whatnot.
We grabbed out gear and went back to the rental place where we turned in our boards, my helmet and I walked back to the Escape to grab our snow boots and came back so we could turn in our boots. We were hot, wet and sweaty and I could not wait to get back to the car to eat some of our food we brought with us.
Earlier yesterday Brenda and Ray asked us to make them a snowman. We took the 15 minutes to make a snowman while my car thawed out. The snow was dry so it was hard to pack it into balls. We managed to get some made, put it on top of the car, gave it eyes and buttons with our fruit snacks and pens for arms. It turned out well.
We thought it would be funny to drive away with the snowman still on top of the car. I honestly thought it would fall off as we got back onto the road. It stayed. We had to pull over to scrape it off the hood before we got onto I-90.
The trip down went fine. There was a definite line of where the snow was and where it ended and rain dumped on you. It was cool being in the snow this winter since where we live we haven't gotten any.
I couldn't wait to get back to Bonney Lake so we could take a shower, wash our sweaty wet clothes and relax. My body was going to hate me tomorrow morning. We got there a while later, thank goodness for no traffic, and started unloading the Escape. We brought a lot of stuff with us. Always prepared. Trish had made some dinner. We had chicken, mashed potatoes and veggies. It was nice to eat a warm meal after that.
We showered, started a couple loads of laundry and relaxed. I uploaded some pictures. We had some ice cream and watched our GoPro video from the mountain and How to Train Your Dragon because Trish had never seen it. I love the movie. The dragon, Toothless, reminds me of our cat Jonas.
It reached the time where we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer so we went downstairs and melted into our amazing mattress topper. I am really going to have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.
Next Adventure: Tehelah Caching, Red Robin and Ben's New Phone
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