brrrrrrrrrrrr

One of the many many things I love about living in Portland are the temperate seasons. Yes, winter may be gloomy, grey and rainy but its usually never freezing....usually... So we are in the midst of a freakishly cold snap. The highs have been in the 30s with a wind chill of around 15, NOT fun for wimpy ex-midwesterners.

Another thing I love about Portland and the surrounding area is that if you want to see snow, it's right there waiting for you up on the mountain. You can cruise up there, play in the snow and then come back to happy, snow-free Portland!

Last weekend I took Lulu subaru on her maiden snow voyage and trekked up to Elaine's (one of my bosses) house near Mt. Hood for a 'snow day' with a bunch of fun folks from work. She has an amazing 'cabin' about 5 miles from both the big ski resorts, in this gorgeous area of about 20 houses surrounded by federal forestlands. I went snowshoeing for two hours - basically just following trails around her property out in to a meadow. It was fairly warm the first day - around 30 - and after snowshoeing we had a fabulous dinner, hung out in the hot tub - all around wonderful day.

The next morning was crispy cold with bright blue skies - only 10 degrees but I had to get out and take some photos.

It's truly an idyllic spot - you can see Mt. Hood from several spots near their house. I still get ridiculously excited about seeing mountains - it just never gets old after spending all my formative years in the flat-lands.