Summer in February

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to have about 2 feet of snow fall at Mt. Bachelor. For our friends who like to ski in the Seattle area, that may seem like the Good Lord had blessed us with some white gold. I'm not going to lie, it was heavenly. It officially put Mt. Bachelor on the top of the snow pack list for all of the western United States. I guess we picked the right place to ski this winter. We got out and enjoyed the fresh powder while it lasted and had a couple of the best ski days that may have been available in West this entire winter season. Unfortunately, 2 days after the big snow storm, the weather turned unseasonably warm and the skiing started to go downhill fast. I'm all for some sunny days skiing on the mountain, but when it's so warm that it starts to seem more like water skiing than snow skiing, it's time for us to find other activities.

Since Bend is an outdoor recreation mecca, there is no shortage of stuff to see and do. And since it has been in the mid 60's and lower 70's, it's been the perfect time to get out and see and do some of the stuff that is available here. Rock climbing...check. Hiking...check. Biking...check. Sightseeing...check. Playing tourist...check. We've even had some more of our good friends from Seattle come down and visit which makes things even more fun when we can share this stuff with others.

The big activity yesterday was “the race”. This race was part of the Bend Winterfest which is apparently the largest winter festival in all of Oregon. It's a pretty cool festival with all of the normal festival activities...music, food, beer, and arts and crafts. The race takes runners through the middle of the festival, along the river, through the town and back, and just for fun, you have obstacles like tires to run through, bails of hay to jump over, balance beams, etc. that all need to navigated while running for miles on end. Since Brenda loves to run and I hate to run, the glory that would be bestowed upon our family from a big win was going to be all up to her.

A few months ago while we were in Arizona, Brenda entered another race. The prizes for that race included nothing more than glory and an ugly blue T-shirt. Nevertheless, when Brenda left our home on wheels in the morning to head to the race, I had said “you better not come home without that T-shirt...this family only likes winners!” Of course I wasn't joking. We only like winners in this house. She wasn't welcome through our door unless she had the mighty T-shirt. It turns out that Brenda is a lot better runner than she thinks she is because she actually took second place and came home with an ugly shirt. Way to go Brenda! You made our family proud and now I don't have to divorce you because you are a winner.

At this race, Brenda had a couple of recruits to run with her. She suckered her good friend Gigi into running and Mik decided to come down from Seattle to join in and attempt to make us proud. Anyway, at the start of the Bend Winterfest race, I gave Brenda, Gigi, and Mik the same pep talk as the one that seemed to work in Arizona. “This family only likes winners! I don't care what you have to do, but WIN, WIN, WIN!!!” I said. There was one fact that I was not aware of at this race...they weren't tracking times...there were no winners. This race was a “fun run”. Since I hate running, the term “fun run” made no sense whatsoever to me. I see nothing fun about running.

Surprisingly, all three people on our team came back with big smiles and seemed to have fun on the “fun run”. Amazing. And all three people on our team ended up leaving with commemorative cups. I am assuming that their cups are trophies and that they are winners. Nice job team! Now hit the showers because you all smell terrible!

The long range weather forecast shows nothing but sun and warm temperatures in the area for the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow we are going to try some more spring skiing on Mt. Bachelor. Then it's probably going to be some more rock climbing in the warm sun on Wednesday (it's supposed to be 70). After that we may head over to the John Day Fossil bed's for a couple of days to hike and explore that area. I am still hopeful that this summer weather will subside and we will return to the winter so we can get some more time in on our skis before winter is officially gone. I am keeping my fingers crossed.


Here are a few photos from the last couple of weeks.

That's Brenda showing off her mad skills at Smith Rock

Me on the way up.

Where's the team???  Gigi has her hands up, Brenda is half obscured, and Mik is a following a few paces behind Brenda.

The Team at the end of the big race...all winners in my book!

Brenda at the top of Benham Falls on the Deschutes River

Comments

  1. Larry_and_KarenFebruary 16, 2015 at 5:38 PM

    All this time I have been worrying about your trailer freezing up again. I guess I can relax.

    We are really glad to see Mik and presumably Christina made it to Bend.

    We've commissioned our heater, getting ready for Alaska and Tasmania some days. Two hurricanes are forming north of Australia. Some models show them moving to East Australia maybe as far south as New South Wales. We are in the right place.

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