Winter Wonderland

Editors Note: the day references relate to when it was written not published. The lack of broadband delayed publishing.

Well what a week that was! The snow started last weekend with quite a lot of hype but no real action. We saw a little flurry in Bellevue on Saturday but Sunday was when it was really meant to start. We woke up and found some but not as much we hoped for but fast forward 24 hours and then we really saw the fun begin.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day so the children weren’t at school anyway so that wasn’t a problem but the snow on the hill from our house was enough to make me think I’d work from home. Admittedly I don’t need much encouragement but Seattle-ites are renowned for being particularly bad at driving in the snow so I figured it was safer!

The snow continued to fall all day although being the brave Brits we are we did manage to make a brief excursion to the Triple X Diner in Issaquah for lunch with its world famous root beer. It was a stereo-typical American diner and the food was good and burgers and cheese steaks were duly demolished!

As the snow continued to settle news came through from the Bellevue School District that school would start 2 hours late on Tuesday – Harry was pleased! On Tuesday morning I decided to venture out to work as the snow had pretty much gone over night – it was proving to be a fickle thing. At around 11am I was sat sitting looking out the window from the office and Seattle disappeared under a snow storm. As I watched (strategizing in my head not just being lazy), the snow storm could be seen coming across the lake at quite some speed. It then reached Bellevue and within a matter of minutes the city turned white with a layer of snow – it was quite impressive to watch.

This covering of Bellevue in snow caused widespread panic through the office and everyone got sent home! The strange thing was that once I had slipped and slid my way about 2 miles south of Bellevue there was no snow at all and everything was fine! Never mind – off home I went!

The snow did reach us eventually though and started to fall hard again. I wouldn’t normally have minded but I had a flight to catch in the morning and the volume of snow was clearly going to cause problems. On top of that I was starting to get a sore throat so I didn’t really want to go anywhere other than bed!

With the snow still falling we all went to bed at 8 o’clock which at the time felt like a good idea but it did mean I missed the fact that the flight was cancelled in the morning. I found that out when I woke in the morning and saw all the missed calls and text messages on my phone and the general chaos that seemed to have fallen across Western Washington. I think the people of Washington have a similar approach to snow as the UK – not very good! Although to be fair I think the amount of snow and ice that arrived across the week would probably have bought the UK to a grinding halt for about a month!

With my flight cancelled, I had been scheduled onto a later flight at 7:55pm so I spent the day in bed feeling rough and watching the havoc unfold on local news. When there are winter storms here the local news just continues all day with updates around everything that is happening! People where ski-ing down the streets of Seattle, skidding off the freeway into ditches and generally it was complete and utter chaos!

At about 3:30pm I decided to leave for the airport as I figured it was best to get there as soon as possible! The road down to West Sammamish Parkway wasn’t too bad but the i-90 was! As I arrived on the freeway the first thing I saw was a car pointing towards me. They’d clearly just finished spinning before turning around and heading off in the right direction again. As I slowly chugged along – never going more than 38 miles per hour – the giant american trucks just carried on hammering along the roads like there was nothing wrong at all! I kept well out of their way!

An hour later I arrived at the airport and I saw there was a slightly earlier flight to San Diego – 6:45pm rather than 7:55pm. I checked to see if there were any free seats and there were so I would be in San Diego by 9:20pm rather than 10:20pm which was good. Or it would have been if it happened!

At 7:00pm I was starting to worry that the 7:55pm flight was going to leave before the earlier one I had changed onto but then some good news came through – the 7:55pm flight was cancelled! At 7:30pm we started to board the plane and then we had to sit there and wait for it to be de-iced. Finally, at 9:20pm we took off. So a 10:20 arrival in San Diego had improved to a 9:20 arrival but then ended up being an 11:40pm arrival. I got a cab to the hotel to find out that my reservation had been cancelled but after telling me that they said it wasn’t a problem because they had a room for me! So at midnight I crashed into bed.

The next day was obviously non-stop work for me with regular check-ins to see how Tracy, the boys and Washington were coping. There had been the odd power outage but unlike large parts of Western Washington it came back on and stayed on. The phone and internet went though and we only got that back a week later. The power was going everywhere because the weight of the snow on the trees made them all fall over and they collapsed on the power lines. Fortunately we have someone in our close who works for Puget Sound Energy so even if we do lose power I think we get priority in getting it switched back on!

The other new phenomenon in Washington was ice rain. Tracy and I had laughed the day before as we found the whole concept of ice rain slightly ridiculous but not any more. The ice rain just fell from the sky and covered everything with an instant layer of ice. Tracy decided to move the car into the garage as this fell but despite leaving the car running for almost an hour the ice rain kept falling and the car windscreen refused to de-frost! In the end she drove blind into the garage and fortunately didn’t crash – I guess that’s what you can do when you get 98% in your driving test.

On Friday, Tracy ventured out to get some bread and then struggled to get the car back up the hill. The neighbors didn’t manage at all and had to get the snow chains out to get back up. Harry and Toby – still having snow days at home from school – went sledding down the road. Harry mastered the skill of falling of the sled before he reached the road at the bottom but Toby didn’t quite – Tracy had to dive on him to stop him – not that there was any traffic about.

In San Diego I was busy working in the sunshine. Poor me! Working and eating, watching dolphins leaping out the sea, humpback whales blowing water into the air through their spouts, watching sea lions and feeling very ill and quite sorry for myself! My flight for Seattle was delayed a touch coming home but we still left at 7:15 – the first and only flight of the day to Seattle – the rest had been cancelled.

I landed back in Seattle at about 9:45pm and set off of the final leg of the journey back home. The freeways had cleared quite well with the rain that had been falling but as I came off the freeways and tried to head on up SE 40th Street the snow and ice was still all over the road. I managed to make my way up as far as the basketball court before sliding back down. I thought I’d give it another go but despite the run up the batman car couldn’t make it and slid back down into some snow by the side of the road and got stuck! After rocking and skidding about for a while I managed to spin the car round and slide back down the hill where I left it for the night.

I trudged back up the hill and arrived to the sweet snores of home. Back in your own bed – you can’t beat it!

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