While I was on a short (but fun) trip to MN for Christmas, Anya and her parents were celebrating in Seattle. It was a little sad to be apart but we were reunited for New Year's - which worked out because New Year's is traditionally when Russians have more fun anyway. We opened presents and went out for a wonderful dinner & drinks with our friends. Pictures of various different events & places can be found in this album.
For the long weekend after New Year's we had reservations to go skiing at a big ski resort called Schweitzer, which is normally about 5.5 hours east of Seattle in northern Idaho. Unfortunately, the weather was not "normal." We did get there, but it turned out to be a pretty adventurous trip.
Most of you reading this probably know that Washington is bisected North-South by the Cascade Mountains. During the winter, there are only 3 passes open over the mountains (in other words, only three roads going from Seattle to points east). All 3 passes were closed indefinitely due to avalanches on the day we were trying to drive.
Our reservations weren't refundable and really we wanted to go skiing, so we took the only route open to cross the Cascades: Interstate 84, about 180 miles south of Seattle in Oregon. I-84 goes east through the Columbia River Gorge, an extremely scenic drive that basically takes you through the mountains without going over them. After a 600 mile, 10+ hour marathon drive we made it to Idaho.
The skiing turned out to be worth it: it dumped the night we got there and we had ~8 inches of fresh powder the next day. The 2nd day the snow was still great but the sun came out and showed off the spectacular beauty of northern Idaho. Schweitzer is a fantastic skier's mountain: it's basically two giant bowls with open powder fields & perfectly spaced trees. Words don't do it justice, though: check out the pictures in our Schweitzer album - especially those of the second (sunny) day.
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