Annual Snow Park Trip

Last week-end Marya and I took our 5 year-old grandson Clayton on our annual trip to the snow. We can't be happy with local Southern-California snow, we trek 400 miles to a special snow park at Echo Summit on Hwy 50 near Lake Tahoe. But, once again, the extra effort was worth it.

We have gone each winter for 4 years now. It was almost comical with two adults, one child (and sufficient gear to clothe 20 people) in my wife's behemoth Excursion SUV. The third seat had extra clothing for--before, during and after--snow. When we could not decide what to take, I kept saying that "its not like we have to choose", so we took much more than necessary.

Our timing this year allowed us to detour through Sacramento to spend some time with my mother to mark her 86-th birthday. She was especially happy that she had one-on-one time (rather than a single party) with each/all of her 7 children this year. The next morning, Clayton insisted upon contributing to the prayer before travel. (We have his pre-school and kindergarten teachers to thank for the incredible quality of his public prayer. He prays with the innocence of a young child--truely an example for adults.) In addition to prayers of praise and thanksgiving, he included a request that God "watch over and protect great-grandmother as she is 86 now".

Without haste, we got to the snow park late morning on saturday and found it not too crowded. Surprising since substantial snow fell during the prior week and the fresh snow (maybe 4 feet) made for good sleding. This snow park has a dozen or so runs with an entire section for young children. Check out the pictures. After the first run, Clayton did not want Grampa to slow him down.

A great day of snow play was completed by an absolute great Lake-front hotel room. I expected that a last minute reservation would be problematic since this late season week-end had many ski parties booked. Not so.

Thank God for a safe and refreshing trip.

Don