There'd been a long run of Grey Days, so to help prevent SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), we took a trip to the other side of the Mountains, where the sun actually shines.  :-)

The Shadow Lady has a couple of friends who have made Wenatchee their home, and we'd been wanting to head out and get in some show shoeing, so I looked for a place where we could get some sun, enjoy a bit of time outdoors, and visit friends... Wenatchee ended up providing all three.

I REALLY like to drive... and I enjoyed the trip quite a bit.

The pass was "Bare but wet and slushy" according to the radio... but the traffic panel just up from where we get on the highway was blank, so we didn't expect it to be very bad at all.

It was pretty heading through the pass... I REALLY like it when the snow is on the trees...

 
We passed a snow blower, which is something I hadn't seen in quite some time.

Not long after we got through the pass, about Cle Elum, he headed North through Blewett pass... the road is a two-lane state highway, and its normally a bit messier than the pass on the Interstate.

The conditions there were pretty good, and before too long, we were heading into Wenatchee.

They have a number of places with items on the roofs... Cars, trucks... a whole assortment of things to attract your attention... it works, apparently.  :)

We stayed at a VERY nice hotel in town...  The Wenatchee Coast Hotel.   I found it on the web... it was VERY reasonable, and quite nice. 

We had a great view from the room, overlooking the Columbia River.

When we were driving through town, I thought it was weird for the Office Depot to have an Indian Head on its roof... I'll bet that's got some sort of story behind it.

 
Wenatchee seems surrounded by hills, which makes for a pretty nice picture from nearly anywhere in town.

We headed out of town, and up into the hills to go snow shoeing. 

It'd snowed the day before we got there, so the snow was relatively fresh.

 
After a short drive, we arrived at Squillchuck State Park, which is set up for family-style snow activities... cross country skiiing, snow shoeing, and they have two sledding hills.

We have an annual parks card, but all's they ask is a donation... so we pitched in for the cause.

We bundled up, secured the Tadpole, and headed out on the trail.

some folks had been there before us, but it wasn't TOO beat down... we had a good time tromping through the snow, talking, and enjoying the view.

We also determined that we need to do this a bit more than we do... the hills weren't as fun as we remembered... :-)

 
It was nice to be outdoors, and the views were VERY enjoyable!

The little guy handled it very well... he looked around at the curious scenery for a while, then he fell asleep. 

We wrapped him up in warm clothes, and blanket, and he was zipped inside the Shadow Lady's Jacket... he was sweaty when we got back to the truck, so he was pretty warm!

The views in the little park were pretty awesome!

Our route took us by the sledding hill... looked like fun!  Seems likely that the little guy will like this place in a couple of years!

 
After leaving the park, we decided to drive up to Mission Ridge, which wasn't very far away... The views on the road there made the trip more than worth it.

We'd heard about the resort, but when we got there, it was quite a bit smaller than we expected.

It didn't seem too crowded, so it likely is a nice place to go -- I really dislike fighting the crowds to get on a lift.

As we were driving down, it seems that someone wasn't having all that much fun -- an ambulance was making its way up the roadway to the resort.

 
Our last view heading down off Mission Ridge was a great one...

As we drove on, we decided that we'd have to come back -- Not only do we have friends who live here, there's a lot more to see and do than we could hope to get to in only one day!

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