Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Monday, December 26, 2011
After a quick stop at Walmart to buy some snowboots and pants for the kids, we headed north to Vancouver Island's snow field, Mt Washington. We were beginning to wonder if we would see snow as it was so dreary and wet. But as we climbed up the road leading to the mountain we started to see snow and the next thing the rain turned into snow – magical! The kids were frothing at the mouth to get out of the car into it, so we found a pull in area where other people had parked and were strapping on snowshoes and cross-country skis, and let them go for it. Joshua immediately started a snowball fight, Kate headed to a quiet spot and started constructing a little snowman. We romped around in the snow and then headed up to the Alpine lodge higher up the mountain which was packed with skiers and snowboarders. The wind was still blowing the snow every which way up there, (not pleasant) so we trekked over to where the tubing run was – but the queue to ride was phenomenal, and we decided to give it a miss this time. The kids weren’t at all disappointed, they were happy enough throwing snowballs and wading through drifts – a much cheaper alternative.
We were going to have a coffee with Aunty Sue on the way back from the mountain (an hour and a half drive from Nanaimo) but ended up getting 'slightly’ lost on the town by-pass and decided we were too knackered to drive all the way across town and went back to the hotel for a well-earned spa!
