February was full of fun trips for David and I. Trip number one was to Big Bear, trip number two took us to Shaver Lake, and trip number three will be up on the blog shortly.
Trip number two, in particular, was extra special because not only was it put on by iFixit (the awesome company David works for) but it was set in a place I grew up visiting as a child – Shaver Lake.
Shaver Lake lies amidst the million acre Sierra National Forest. If you haven't yet made your way into these parts, you best get to it; it is one of the most magical, wonderful places in the whole world (in my most modest opinion).
To make this wilderness wonderland even dreamier, add a decked out cabin (no pun intended) – or three – and you're in heaven (not literally). Yep, that was our weekend. Thanks iFixit!
Night one featured pizza and beer for all, a dip in the hot tub for some, and a gaze up above at Venus and Mars, compliments of our good friend John.
Who is John... you're probably asking. John is a simple, humble man whom David and I met at our sunset perch. Just when we were peering up at the moon, trying to guess what the bright dot next to it was – a satellite? a star? superman? – John pulled up in his van and said "you two looking for Venus and Mars?". We had no idea that that night, by our good fortune, (better yet, by the grace of God) we would set our eyes on an extraordinary astrological happening. Venus and Mars were the closest they've been in over 500 years.
John gave us a little astrology lesson which I will not try to relay, for I would completely butcher it, and kindly shared his camera lenses with me – a poor girl who had only a 50 mm on hand. Once we saw Mars zoomed in through the lens, we were able to point it out easily with the naked eye, just a teeny-tiny red dot between a brighter Venus and the crescent moon.
John is a talented physicist, but you would never know it by his modest nature.
Thank you John for your generosity!
What a way to kick off the weekend!
The next day was spent cutting through barricades and hiking over Kaiser Pass. To my joy, the trail was strewn with patches of leftover snow. (People who live through the four seasons would hardly call it snow, but I was overjoyed and proceeded to stomp my way through it in my duck boots.)
Oh how I love to hike. There really is nothing like beating your way through pine trees, skipping over creeks, and climbing up on boulders. It's some of the best food for your soul.
Up at the top of Kaiser Pass we had a nice panoramic view of the lightly powered Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
And the higher we climbed the more snow we found, so clearly we threw a snowball or two.
It was a beautiful day in the sun. Little did we know, that the next day we'd be waking up to a whole different scene.
We opened our eyes Sunday morning to a down pour of, not rain, but SNOW! It snowed and snowed and kept snowing. I was absolutely THRILLED – and that might even be an understatement.
I was also really happy to find that the cabled beanie I had recently crocheted was able to, successfully, keep my head nice and warm.
Lucky us to get two vacations in one – a day hiking in the sun and another sledding through the snow. That's California for ya!
The snow brought much joy as well as a few speed bumps in our plans. You see, we only had 2 four-wheel drive vehicles, a couple sets of chains, and a handful of clueless California drivers (no offense guys, but really, us beach dwellers don't know how to drive in that kind of weather).
While most of us hunkered down in the cabin, playing Settlers of Catan and drinking hot coco a crew of hard workers attempted to tow cars out using one of the SUV's, but there was no hope, we were snowed in. (Yay!)
We were set to stay another night when it was suddenly announced that the roads had been plowed. (Boo.) As quickly as we could, we made our way down the mountain before the snow started up again. Everyone got out safely and with that the trip came to a close.
Thanks again iFixit for a super fun trip to the mountains!
Happy Snow Days!