Snow Days

By the time February rolls around Lee starts getting anxious about visiting Sigh-Bar and making sure everything is surviving the snow and freezing cold temperatures. February is also a good time for Tara to get away from the office, so we coordinated a plan for some snow days together. We were actually able to land in Spokane within minutes of each other, then headed the rental car east through Couer d'Alene, and north to Whitefish.
It was dark by the time we finally arrived at Sigh-Bar, and since no one had been past the gate since October, the snow was deep and there was no choice but to park the car at the gate and tromp through the snow to the house. Carrying our bags, we made the long, dark trek, sinking past our knees in the snow every step! We were so grateful to get in the house, turn up the heat, and climb into bed.
We spent a good part of the next day trying to dig out the area around the shop to get the vehicles out. We cleared a big enough spot to get the Blazer and the tractor out, but the snow was just too much for the tractor, and we finally gave up on the notion of shoveling all the way to the road and just decided to keep the rental car and walk in from the gate all week! We used the toboggan to ferry in groceries, etc.

There was sunshine every day, although the temperatures were cold, so we enjoyed lazy mornings in our pj's drinking hot chocolate, reading,and watching Netflix or stuff on the computer,until it warmed up enough for us to bundle up and go outside. Lee stayed busy checking out everything mechanical and working on projects in the shop. He built a fire in the firepit to warm us up when we ventured out to play in the snow. The snow was deep, but frozen, so we could walk on top of it and we hiked up the hill behind the house and found a good sledding hill. Frozen snow and a plastic toboggan make for a very fast (and scary!) trip down the hill! Tara was brave and made several trips, but I chickened out and started my thrill ride closer to the middle of the hill.

We went into Kalispell and did a little shopping, and spent an afternoon wandering through our favorite shops in Whitefish, where Tara bought a darling hat. One of our must-do's was our favorite lunch at the Fart & Slobber Saloon, and we introduced Tara to the pizza at the Mackenzie River Pizza Co. Tara experimented braiding my hair into a "starburst" braid, which was so cool, and then I was even able to do the same with her extra long hair. We worked a little bit every day on the 2000-piece puzzle that is on the dining room table, and made plans for our next trip back in April.

Tara left Wednesday evening, flying from Kalispell to Seattle to Los Angeles to Miami, getting home in time to go to work Thursday morning. Lee and I got everything locked up for another couple of months and left Saturday morning to drive to Spokane. We took a new route that we haven't taken before, north to Eureka then west to Libby, which was an awesome drive along the Kootenai River. Already looking forward to our return....