12/31/16-1/1/17 Ellen, Ocean, and I went up to Camp Serendipity for 2 days: Saturday and Sunday.

We visited Priscilla on the way and then proceeded over the pass to the Squirrel Tree Inn where we had our lunch. There had been a big snowfall in the mountains two days earlier and a clear, sunny day the day before, so the scenery was spectacular and the roads were excellent for driving. I had called Mike earlier and learned that our driveway had been plowed. Good news.

We had planned to pick up Marilyn on the way, but she had a bad cold and opted out. When we finished lunch, we drove to Camp Serendipity and arrived at about 2:00. I was able to drive right up to the hairpin turn, even though the lane was rather narrow.

There was 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground so as soon as I parked, I put on the snowshoes and blazed a trail up the roadway to the cabin. The snow was heavy and icy but still loose enough that I sunk in a foot or so with each step. It made the going pretty exhausting, but I took it easy and eventually reached the cabin.

Another round trip to the truck with the snowshoes on packed the trail enough so that we could walk on it with our boots. Ocean was able to sled down the trail once it was packed down.

After moving our gear in, I set the thermostats up and started a fire in the wood stove. Ocean watched the process but was a little too timid to try to start the fire with the torch by herself.

We turned all the lights on, including the outdoor flood lights, so that the place would be lit up when we returned from Leavenworth. Then we got in the truck and drove to Leavenworth for dinner and sledding.

We got a great parking place so as soon as we parked, we walked around looking at the spectacular lights. We also looked at the various shops and visited the candy shop. When we got hungry, we found the restaurant we were looking for and discovered that we were parked right in front of it. The problem was that the restaurant was overbooked and we didn't have reservations. So we gave up and found the Sausage Garten nearby and ate there.

Then Ocean spent an hour and a half or so sledding down the grassy hill along with dozens of other kids. She kept up her enthusiasm and excitement for the whole time without so much as taking a break. She had a great time.

By the time we decided to leave, it had started snowing. And by the time we were leaving Leavenworth and heading up the Tumwater Canyon, it was snowing so hard that I couldn't use the bright beams much at all. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on the road so in spite of the poor visibility I was able to drive at a comfortable speed.

When we got to Camp Serendipity, I decided to park heading out at the entrance to the driveway in case the truck got buried in deep new snow overnight. It did snow all night, but not nearly as heavily as it snowed in Leavenworth.

The cabin was cozy and warm, but we built a fire in the stove anyway. This time Ocean wanted to run the torch so she did and got the fire going. We had a fun, relaxing evening in the cabin and watched part of a movie until we got tired.

In the morning, we had our breakfast and decided to stop and have lunch with Marilyn even though she had a cold. We agreed to try to minimize our contact and we even brought along face masks thinking that they might work.

There was only about 4 inches of new snow on the ground, and when I went down to scrape the ice off the truck, I saw that the snowplow had not thrown up a significant berm and that I would have no trouble driving out. I backed the truck to the hairpin turn to make it easier to load and then went in and started closing up the place and loading our gear.

The drive to Marilyn's was gorgeous because there had been no wind and the trees were all loaded with new snow. We had a great lunch with Marilyn and then left for home at about 1:00 a little apprehensive about how the roads and traffic were going to be. Sunday afternoon is typically not a good time to drive to Seattle from there but as it turned out, the traffic went speed limit all the way. It was a great way to end a fun adventure.