Strawberry Jam

After crossing the bridge to get into Strawberry, CA, we saw this unfortunate accident:

The vehicle's occupants were fine and made it out of the SUV unscathed. At this point we decided to pull over at the town's ONLY market and purchased snow chains for $119.99!

Breakdown of expenses so far:

• Oil Change (hubby said we HAD to do this for a "long" trip) 50.00
• Snow bib/boot rental 40.00
• One night room rental Strawberry Inn 140.00
• Tire Chains, gloves for all three of us 200.00
  

At this point, we had spent $430 and had yet to touch any snow!

Thirty minutes after what equated to struggling to put chains on the car (hubby had to have custom tires!), we pulled into the snow park.


Admission to Leland snow park - $30/each. Add that to the above cost and we are now at $520 still without touching a drop of snow. Factor in gas and food and we hit about $600 BEFORE we touched a drop of snow.

That cost is kinda hard to swallow, isn't it? Now about the snow park itself. It's a got a nice option where you spend an extra $10 per person (!!) and you get towed up the hill by a simple pulley system. Once you get to the top of the hill, you have to wait in a L-O-N-G line (see above) to get the opportunity to slide down the hill. The ride itself is short, a "little" bit of fun but on the way down, you are CONTINUALLY being yelled at by very questionable looking staff to "USE YOUR FEET". You are required to dig your heels in about half way down in order to slow yourself down.

On the way down, I USED MY FEET so much, that my feet came out of my shoes!

My daughter loved it. She has pleaded with me not to post any pictures of her on the internet anymore and in keeping my word to her, you'll have to take my word how cute she looked with snow in her hair and rosy cheeks.

After 4 or five runs, hubby provided his commentary on the park:

It seems that he too, slid out of his shoes. Plus for us "old, overweight folks", the altitude can really mess with you. Both of us had tight chests and tired easier.

Our daughter continued to tube without her folks. We both planted ourselves in our tubes in the snow and "people-watched".

There was a guy there who had the tightest bibs on ever. Even though I was only able to capture a profile shot, believe me when I tell you that from a front view, one was able to see "the whole shebang". Gross! He does have a face but I decided to anonymize him in order to protect myself from a libel lawsuit his privacy.

I'll finish this post later today as hubby's pancakes are ready! Yum!

I'm back to finish the post and suffice to say, I just don't want to. In a nutshell:

• I don't like snow
• I don't like high altitudes
• It's expensive to go to the snow
• Snow park employees are .....freaky
• I'm glad to be home!!