Posted on by John Iwawaki

ESCAPE to the snow

Did we find snow? YES we did! (Eventually.)

It’s been a dry winter. But we are grateful for north-facing slopes, and vendors who stash snow in the shade during the week, and spread it out on the slope for flatlanders like us to enjoy on a Saturday. Though it’s been raining and snowing more the past few weeks, February was a tenuous situation, and we caught what was at the time the last weekend of the season.

As in the past few years, we were treated to a charter bus. Fifty of us geared up, all clad in our new ESCAPE Club apparel, and headed to the Sierras. But our day would not go as planned. We sat on the bus for an extra two hours as I-80 was reduced down to a one-lane road.

Our kids persevered, however, and we kept the hope alive of seeing snow. We arrived at Kingvale close to 1pm, and it had a layer of snow as promised.  We quickly scarfed down our tamales, chips, and Mexican hot chocolate in the parking lot, and got in our time in on the slopes. The snow was icy, and thin. Not fluffy or light or powdery. And I don’t think one person cared. We had so much fun. Several, including parents, were in the snow for the first time.

We didn’t spend as much time as we normally do sledding, but that’s just how the day went. We were grateful for what we had and what we got to do. Because we were fairly dry, we didn’t really need to spend much time changing clothes, and we were on to Auburn, and our regular stop at In-N-Out.  

The state capitol was brilliant in white against the black night for our final stop, and we even got home on time. Kids were happy and tired, and we were glad for another adventure.

Apologies again for the delay in reporting. We’re off to Slide Ranch (away from our normal November time), so hopefully our PR department gets its act together with a timely summary. 

Thanks for reading, and thanks as always for your support.

Sure, the photos are okay, but you won’t know the full glee and laughter without watching the video. We’ve had a little trouble with YouTube and artists’ copyright claims for this one. But we’re a non-profit-ish program, and I think it’s okay to enjoy. So we’ve created a workaround… Click it.

#workaround