Winter

The past few days, you could be excused for not remembering that this was the Pacific Northwest. It's been clear and cold. Sunday saw great NE winds coming down through the Fraser River valley (see graph to the right). I was flying solo with the kids, and the wind readings along with the brilliant sunshine had me thinking about finding a babysitter for a couple of hours. Taking the kids down to the Bay to play on the beach, I was struck by just how incredibly clear and beautiful it was (the Canadian Cascades looked like you could just reach out and touch them, and the abundant sunshine was creating the most amazing low-altitude rainbow in the spray that got blown off the chop). Perfect slalom conditions - except the temperature was right at the freezing mark, and with the wind chill, my desire to sail diminished rather quickly.

On Monday, we took advantage of the weather and the recent abundant snowfall on Mt. Baker coinciding with the holiday to do a family ski-day. It was a bit like Colorado without the lift lines (or the attitudes, for that matter). Gorgeous views, super-fluffy snow (and lots of it), and a good time being had by all. Fear not, however - nasty weather (and with it reasonable temperatures along with good winds) are back in the forecast for later this week.