March 3, 2010 - Drive to Snow Valley Resort

Finally after 8 years of getting ready and finding all kind of reasons why not to take this trip I am on my way to Snow Valley. Actually it is Running Springs where we will be residing for the next 3 days, but the actually place for our 3-day entertainment will be Snow Valley Ski Resort. Around halfway through the 128-mile stretch from my house we started seeing the picks of the snow covered mountain tops. We didn't know exactly which mountains were they, so I just told nicole that those are the places we will be soon. She never seen snow before so naturally she was getting very excited."Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "No.We are not there yet.We still have an hour worth of driving."

We arrived to our lodge on Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 around 1300. We had a fairly fast and clean drive all the way through. When I was at the end of the freeway part of our trip I was not looking forward to my 12-mile drive up the two-way mountain road taking us up to a 6000 ft elevation. I was scared of the drive. I don't particularly like two way roads. Period. But this is the only way up. So I had no choice but suck it up and drive. It turned out not so bad after all. We didn't meet much of a trafic(total opposite on the drive back on Friday). I had little chance to peek around since I was driving. But from the corner of my eye I could see the beauty of the surrounding us and hugging Mother Nature.

 When we were almost at our destination(believe me I know how far did I drive.I was watching the odometer to creep by) I made a short stop to enjoy the view around me. And it was gorgeous. Tall mountains all surrounding you, some with snow peeks and some are just plain green. It depends which way you turn: east or west. Nicole jumped out of the car( more like she asked me if she can get out) and wanted to stend with me for a few moments.I guess she was a bit sceptical with this high elevation also. We were so close to our destination yet there was still no sight of snow. Well, I thought to my self that if we don't have any snow than we can just have a nice quiet time off and have some mountain hikes instead of skiing. Either way it has to be nice.So back to the car we went and drove off. Literally, quarter mile from our lodge(according the GPS) we started spotting more and more snow by the roadside first and then all of a sudden everything was covered with a nice(not fresh) blanket of snow. Nicole just went ballistic. "Look, Mommy! Look! There is snow EVERYWHERE. Look, look!!!! Oh, it's SOOOOOOOO beautiful!" It's been a while since I've been in a snow(close to 20 years) myself. I have forgotten all the fun I had growing up with four seasons and enjoying them to the fullest.

Upon arriving to the Oak Lodge and settling into our fasinating new "home" for the next 3 days we decided to head up 5(another prolonged torture for me)miles toward the slopes. I have to admit that the 5 miles were not as narrow as the previous 12 miles, so overall it wasn't so bad, until we were ready to come back "home". Long story for later time. The slopes looked perfect and Nicole wanted to get going on her enjoyment of the newly found entertainment-SNOW. The time was close to 3:00 pm so I was not about to rent any skies or pay a steep $35.00 lift tickets either for today. Nicole was fine with that. All she wanted to do is PLAY, PLAY and more PLAY in the snow. She had her sled bucket(or whatever you call that round disk) and that's all she needed. She noticed the signs that said "No sledding beyond this point" so she was afraid to cross the invisible line, but I told her it was OK since there was barely anybody left around us. And beside the point, if someone tells us that we can(or more like she can't sled) than we can always stop later. So off she went up the little slope and down in her bucket. "It's fun, Mommy! It is! Thank you for bringing me here!" "Wait till you get on your skies tomorrow. That's when the real fun begins. You either love it or hate it.There is no in between." was my reply. And it's true. That is what I was told some 25 years ago, when it was MY first time skiing. You can't describe the feeling of the wind blowing through your hair as you go downhill(hopefully without falling) on your skies.

 So back to reality. After gathering all the info for next day about skiing classes and snowboarding( for Don) we(or more like me) were ready to head back to the new "home". I'm the worry wart. I saw clouds creeping in so I didn't want to be outside. I just had a feeling. Don't know why but I did. And boy was I right. So here is the story. After finally collecting my child and her stuff we were ready to head back downhill. I saw the clouds but I didn't totally register what it means in winter time. It's not JUST clouds - it's STORM clouds. So long story short, by the time we were quarter mile(once again I'm watching the odometer now more than ever) away from "home" the FOOOOOG is getting too thick and I start straining my eyes just to see where am I driving.No kidding but the thick fog was getting me really worried. Will we make back "home" all right? Well, after nearly missing the drive-in to "home" I was ready to park my car for the night. Since I could by now barely see more than 10 feet ahead of me I declared that I am done driving for today and we will walk to "Don Pepe" restaurant for dinner. It was supposed to be 5-7 minutes walk. But after walking up just the slight hill to the main road we all agreed that it will not be safe to walk to the restaurant since if we cn't see the road ahead of us most likely the drivers won't see us until it would be too late. And neither of us will take that risk. Even Nicole agreed on it, but her concern was that we will stay hungry for the night. Me and nicole went to the car and pulled everything edible out of it and brought it inside. I said that we have plenty of "dry" food to keep us from starvation untill morning time and then we will treat ourselves for nise breakfast. I would rather go to sleep hungry than jepardize our lives. It's just plain not worth it. I mean the food. But after calling around the local delivery takeout places only Dominos would deliver the nice warm frsh food to our doors. Well that was that. Like it or not. Dominos is our destination dinner for the night. It was OK, but far from being great, even if we were hungry. But besides the pizza we had apples, sweet & salty peanut bars, girl scout cookies, chocolate, hot cocoas, chips and other junk food.  Nicole volunteered to prepare hot cocoa for all of us. She likes to mess with stuff. After the pizza we had our cocoa along with some Girl Scout cookies and were ready to hit the sack till tomorrow morning. Nobody thought about the surprise the morning will bring us.

March 4, 2010

It was Nicole who woke us up in the morning:"Mommy! Mommy! Hurry up! It's all white outside.It looks like it had snowed all night."You were soo happily surprised. And so were we.All you wanted to do is go outside and play in the fresh snow."Can I go outside? Pretty pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease???!!!!"