This weekend we witnessed a miracle: An 80 degree Saturday in Seattle... in April.
After a cold, dark winter, we natives were truly restless. And, knowing that we won't have another day like this until late July, we had a huge decision to make: how to spend this one-time opportunity? It's an enormous amount of pressure, I've got to tell you. Being married to Steve, it does simplify things to some extent. The big question was, "Which skis are we going to strap on?" Steve vacillated between water and snow, but we finally came up with the decision to spend one last day on the slopes. We headed up to Crystal Mountain, with our friends Dave, Leslie and Mike. We had a truly phenomenal day. While the snow was soft and strange (Leslie described it as skiing on a snow cone), it was incredible to have 360 degrees of sunshine and mountain peaks and to ski with your jacket unzipped.
Mt. Rainier - Up Close & Personal
I pushed myself a bit to do some more challenging stuff than I'm accustomed to and the rest of the gang was remarkably patient as I picked my way down a few black diamond runs.
It was a great day. We had a really good lunch at the summit: lamb sandwiches and cocoa van... not typical ski lodge fare and did a couple more runs before heading out. When we hit the parking lot, it was 65 degrees. No wonder we were so warm in our ski gear!
We arrived home by 3:30 and knew in our hearts we could pack more into this day. Steve tried to hook up a water ski (as a truly perfect day would include both a snow ski and a water ski, right?). As his boat isn't in the water yet, he wasn't able to pull it off. Instead, he dusted off the motorbike and we took a 70 mile bike ride through Duvall and Monroe. We drove out to a beautiful waterfall that he stumbled on years back. It was a gorgeous drive that we were able to make in shirt sleeves. Did I mention that we had great weather???
We arrived home at 7:30 pm, rushed to shower and change to have dinner with our only young and hip friends, Cameron & Lisette. They are so much fun to be around and we had wonderful a great dinner at our favorite Thai place (yes, Karine & Megan, it was Thin Pan... get back to Seattle and we'll go again!). They love the place too, so we were able to taste each others favorites. Cashew Chicken has been added to our list.
We stopped back to Cameron and Lisette's to document the fact that somehow we had all dressed alike. It was slightly disturbing, as you can see for yourselves. I have to say that when we arrived back home I was exhausted. I actually blame myself that Sunday returned to rainy and 50 degrees, as I didn't think my heart could take the energy and activity that sunshine seems to induce!
So, all is back to normal... cool rain, cloudy skies and long days at the office... I document this to remind myself it was more than a dream.
