A little over two hours outside of the Bay Area is snow. Go about three hours and there is enough snow for snowman, snow angels, snowball fights, sledding and even skiing.
On Saturday we decided to make the trek to Strawberry Calif., just East of Sonora. I had found
Leland High Sierra Snow Play online, and thought it would be perfect for winter novices like Jonathan and me. It is reported to have sled rental, a cafe and a shop for any forgotten snow play items. I say reported because we never made it there.
Yes, we lived on the East Coast before we got married, and we even met at Syracuse ... but this is our first trip to snow with the boys. Neither of us are skiers, and our current winter weather gear is lacking.
For example, my ski jacket is teal and purple, perfectly fashionable in 1994. My husband couldn't even find his winter jacket from the same era. The boys have winter jackets, and fleece sweatshirts to keep them warm on top, but we had to make due with lined jeans. Yes, I know jeans get soggy in the snow, but honestly I'm not going to buy them snow pants for one to two days a winter. Caleb wore his Thomas rain boots, and Xander wore his dragon boots.
Knowing that our clothing wasn't optimal I did bring change of clothes for everyone down to shoes and socks for after sledding...
We did everything by the book. We called ahead to the Snowplay park to make sure there was snow, and that we didn't need chains. The drive was relaxing. We listened to Meryl Streep reading Peter Rabbit for a group called the Rabbit Ears. It had an acid jazz meets Beatrice Potter feel. The boys loved it. At first I thought it was the funky music, but they were actually listening to the tale, and thought it was hilarious.
Then we got to the entrance to the park. There were six cars in front of us, and we were all being turned away. Apparently the park had run out of sleds, and unless you had reservations they weren't letting you in.
Shouldn't the person on the phone have mentioned it when we called?
Well, after driving three hours for the soul purpose of going sledding we decided to do whatever possible to salvage the day.
Along the drive we noticed cars had pulled over to the side of the road to sled, or just play in the snow. Some areas had large crowds of people, but other had smaller groups. We found a spot with 10 or so cars, and joined in the fun.
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm (mid-forties). The boys liked it for the most part. Xander fell, and scratched his cheek on a branch, narrowly missing his eye. He made us promise that we will only go back if we buy him gloves. Gloves! I totally forgot. Caleb didn't like the snow at first, but warmed up to it quickly ... he can't wait to go back (even without gloves).
We then headed to the
Jamestown Railtown Museum. I got Internet access about 20 minutes outside of Jamestown, and figured out that it closed at 3 pm. The boys still liked seeing the trains outside the museum.
So, what did we learn? We would like to go back for a do over. We will plan to stay over night. We will stop by the
Oakdale Cowboy Museum and the Jamestown Railtown Museum on the three hour drive. Finally, we will make reservations at Leland High Sierra Snowplay.
Now, where did I put our gloves?
This time we shopped the winter clothing sales and got the boys mittens and snow pants. I got their snow pants a little on the big side, so that the boys can wear them next year too. We bought sleds from Mel Cotton's for $15. We also got an early start.
It turns out that Caleb doesn't really love sledding. He went twice, but found it a little scary. Xander loved it, but he was a little under the weather, and was a bit spacey. It made it a little more challenging. He had Jonathan worried a couple of times when he played kamakaze down the hill.
