When I was growing up in Michigan we had these things called snow days...so we silenced the screen, double-masked it and drove 50-minutes to the mountain to a place called Mount Baldy. Our neighbors came with us so it was a girls day and a much needed break for Marie, a teacher who hasn't had a day off since March 2020!
Thankfully, the trip to the mountain wasn't as wind-y as it normal is. Usually there is an element of car sickness when you head up a mountain but we either found a straight path or we got lucky. Probably both. With only one other car behind us it was a perfectly socially distance day on the mountain. We parked and immediately spotted a baby Bob Cat lurking very near our car on a hill. That's not something you see every day!
We had to wait to get on the ski lift so the girls placed in the snow and picked up shards of ice. You can tell these girls didn't have much exposure to snow as they played gloveless only to find out that their fingers burned a few minutes later.
When it came time to go up we had to decide who would sit with who. As it seemed dangerous to us moms, we each took our own kiddos and road up the mountain. I thought it was a beautiful ride but kiddo said she was a bit scared. I took her mind off of things by playing the "Let's spot what items people lost on the ground game." People lost ski poles, shoes, ski boots, hats, everything. When we neared the top, we even saw a guy drop on purpose his shoes. Not sure why but it was interesting.
Kiddo and I hopped off the chair into the company of our excited neighbors and we marveled at the beautiful view and the fresh air (as filtered through our Covid face masks).
We immediately hopped onto tubes and let the 20 year old guys push us down the hill. Instead of Zooming for school we did some old fashion zooming as in sledding down a hill with wind whipping through your hair! They had 6 lanes set up. 3 lanes to go down on and 3 to walk back up. We quickly learned that going back up too effort so we went and turned in our lunch tickets and enjoyed a lunch overlooking a glorious snow filled view of the mountain.
After lunch we did more tubing. One of those 20 year old guys thought it be fun to send me down spinning. I was so surprised I couldn't complain and it was actually fun. The girls made some mini snowmen and I did some relaxing and marveling that only 50 minutes from LA was this gorgeous place.
We had loads of laughs. We made friends with a dog at lunch and we gobbled up burgers and hot apple cider. After a day of climbing up the hill we were pooped but our hearts full. It was nice to break from distance learning for a day of snow. Sometimes a person needs a snow day.
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