Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Washington! Hal and I have enjoyed our extended break for the holidays as we both now work on academic calendars... It's been great to have so much time to relax, and explore Washington a bit. For Christmas this year we decided to stay in Washington rather than travel back to the midwest, and while we have missed seeing our families we have enjoyed our adventures!

On the 23rd we headed north, across 2 mountain passes, to reach the Methow Valley and get a "snow fix" for the holidays. (As much as we love the winter weather here - 40's or 50's typically- we do miss the snow, especially at Christmas!) It's an area well known for good cross country skiing, and all kinds of winter sports. It was a long but beautiful drive, and worth it to find the snow!


Here is a view of the Valley:



We stayed about 10 miles from the cute town of Winthrop, Washington. The whole town had an Old Western theme, including gas stations and grocery stores. We explored the downtown a bit, and were excited to find no less than three stores devoted to winter sports, with a heavy emphasis on cross country skiing! It would have been heaven for my Dad... We also read about the winter festival, which happens in Februrary, and includes FUN winter events such as snowshoe softball tournaments, a "doggy dash" (a six legged race for you -on skis- and your dog), Winter Cowboy Races (rope cattle on skis and three legged ski races. This event is free and open to all abilities of skiing and roping, so we may have to go back for Hal to try his hand at cattle wrangling!). There are also lots of other skiing and snowshoeing events for the more serious or competitive minded.

We stayed at the Rolling Huts, which were SUPER cool. We found the website for the huts a while ago, and have wanted to go up there for several months.
There are six huts, a couple of community buildings that house a coffee shop (not yet open), and bathrooms. The huts are grouped together with views of the mountains. Here is a picture of "The Herd":
The entrance of the hut is the yellow door in the center, and there is a portable toilet in the door to the right. Full bathrooms with showers and flush toilets (and HEAT) were just a few hundred yards away.
The other side of the hut. We didn't use the deck at all as it was pretty cold, but there was a sliding glass door that would make it really nice to have fresh air and the view in the summer.
Inside the hut was very basic, with modular furniture, a small kitchen area, and a small sleeping area. Here is a view from the door looking left, toward the porch and the front of the huts. We enjoyed lots of fires in the stove, and rearranged the furniture to give ourselves a little coffee table in the middle to eat meals on.

Here is the view from the sliding glass door: you can see the kitchen area that was stocked with a microwave, small refrigerator, coffee maker, and some basic dishes and utensils. We brought most of our food with us as we knew it might be difficult to find places to eat on Christmas eve and Christmas day. We had simple meals, but they were delicious after skiing/snowshoeing adventures!Here is the sleeping area. We brought our sleeping bags and pillows, and Riley promptly made himself comfortable.
Breakfast on Christmas morning...A leisurely cup of tea with a book in front of the fire, with a view of the mountains. It doesn't get any better! (unless our families had been there too!)
Riley REALLY enjoyed the fact that he didn't get left alone, as he does when we go to work. He showed his appreciation by being extra cuddly. In fact, he couldn't get close enough....


The Valley was BEAUTIFUL. We were able to ski on some trails that went right in front of the huts... One trail took us past a pasture with horses in it. Hal called to them, and they all came to see if he had treats. He's the Horse Whisperer.
Just before we left we had Riley's nails trimmed, and the hair around the pads of his feet trimmed, which turned out to be a bad idea. The snow in the Valley was really hard and crusty and it cut the pads of his feet. He still needed to go out, but would quickly start limping, so he got to ride in my jacket alot. I think he enjoyed it. On Christmas day we drove into the mountains to find some softer snow. We found it at Loup Loup pass. It had snowed that night....and some dedicated skiier had groomed the trails that morning. It was great snow...and a BEAUTIFUL setting.


When we got home we had our own Christmas celebration. We joke that Riley is a very curious dog, because he likes to snoop in bags, purses, etc that get left on the floor and has no problem ripping through wrappings on things that he thinks might hold something interesting. Riley had been pretty curious about the presents that were out over the last few weeks but left them alone like a good dog, and was excited when we started opening our gifts. We didn't buy him anything, but found put a new rawhide in one of the stockings we had for decoration, and he was VERY excited to have a "present" of his own.
He wouldn't put it down for a nice picture. Hope that your holidays were great also!