My Hot Monday Date In the Cold

Today happened to be one of just a fistful of days in which Corey wasn't working parallel to the hours when the kids are at school and or at friends. We have been known to squander these rare moments by responsibly sipping from our bland cups of errand-running and household maintenance. Today, however, we extracted every bit of the pulp, juice, and zest from the fruit of life, filled our mugs and gulped down every last drop.

We snowshoed to the peak of Mt. Spokane, amidst a light drizzling rain and temperatures much too warm for January

We reached the top. The rain stopped and the clouds began to be inhaled in a way in which the earth seemed to be swallowing itself. I felt as if I may be the next one to be sucked up into its mouth....and I was totally ok with it.

The windy and cold conditions at the top of Mt. Spokane allow for the these surreal relationships between the snow and the trees. We were suddenly on the planet Hoth and I kept expecting a Tauntaun to crawl out from behind one of these sculptures.

This one almost frightened me in a beautiful sort of way. It looked like a fellow snowshoer that didn't go down the mountain soon enough.

The sun had been revealed completely, but the cold wind was winning the battle for my ears and fingertips. We sought our thaw at a lower elevation and serendipitously found ourselves in the midst of a mist of the ice frosted needles of the conifers beginning to perspire. The interaction of the mist and the sun as we walked through the halls of trees was picturesque. The earth was now exhaling in warm steamy breaths. My camera battery was dead, with a bit of relief, as I knew I was not capable of properly capturing the scene.

We stopped for lunch at this Spokane landmark which made an appearance in Benny and June, the Johnny Depp film made her in the 90's. We have had many intentions of dining here, but needed a day like today to make us stop. It is nice to be on a date with someone with whom you feel comfortable enough to order a grilled onion sandwich. It is also nice when your waiter chats with the older gentlemen at the next table about their latest fishing excursions and about how their uncle Jed is doing. It was evident that the Milk Bottles brief brush with fame didn't harm its humble hometown charm.

We perused a few antique stores that we have passed thousands of times and also needed a day like today to finally break the entering barrier. We found and purchased this vase, which will always remind me of this magical day. I knew it was truly magical when I actually was successful in my baking endeavors.