I love love LOVE a snowy weekend in the woods, so I seized on the MLK holiday as a chance to recreate last year’s magic at Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop. We headed out on Friday after school, made it over the pass before the incoming snowstorm could close the roads, and spent the first night in Wenatchee, eating bad takeout and swimming at the sad hotel pool. But Saturday! Saturday was a new day, complete with a waffle bar breakfast and a fresh dumping of snow. We frolicked for a bit at the park across the street, grabbed coffee from the Wenatchee indoor market, and then set out toward Winthrop.
Oh, Winthrop, you charmer, you. Kitschy as all get-out, but I eat it up. We lunched at the Schoolhouse Brewery, tossed a few snowballs, and then trekked up the mountain to the Lodge.
We were greeted by Floyd, the resident stuffed bison, and got busy with checking out the snow conditions. Conditions were: deep!  And good.
We sledded, hit the hot tub, played pool and foos ball and ping pong, and then cozied in for the night.
Sunday was ski day! First though, the requisite scraping of the windshield with a credit card (teach ‘em young!) and carrot cake from Rocking Horse Bakery.
Juliette and I drove down to the bakery, but Shane skied the 8-mile trail from the Lodge to town – this is the magic of Winthrop.
We brought our ski trailer for Juliette, figuring she’d poop out on her own skis after only a few minutes, but that girl went, and went, and went. She’s such a sweet little trooper.
Finally, though, she called it!
We soaked our tired legs in the hot tub and then Juliette and I did some ski drills in the field outside our room, practicing our “shuffle, shuffle, slide†while Shane cheered us on. We closed out the day with a romp on the playground and pizza at 22 East.
Monday came far too fast – Shane got out for one final trail run while Juliette and I got out for one final game of tag near the playground. The snow was soft and powdery, but Juliette found one chunk of intact snow on the slide and declared it her snow-baby, which she carefully cradled in her arms for the next half hour. Â
I braced myself for the drama that would ensue when we would have to leave beloved snow-baby behind, but we ran into a couple of neighbors as we were heading to the car, at which point Juliette tossed baby on the ground so she could throw her arms around her buddy. All’s well that ends well!
We made a pit stop in Leavenworth to stretch our legs and bust out the sled one final time, and then we were back in Seattle, where all was covered in a blanket of…rain. Give me all the white back!
