Do You Know the Way?: February 2008

as a former michigander i would say that i am quite familiar with "the snow." especially since snow was my former last name for 22 years of my life. often during these winter months i will hear this phrase from excited 2nd graders "mrs. denouden, i'm going to the snow this weekend!" in my head i'm thinking-fabulous-you are excited about visiting a place where it is super cold and snowy.
well, let me just say i have never seen snow like i saw last weekend on our trip up to tahoe. a group of 14 of us from san jose crc went up to a cabin this past weekend near sugar bowl. some went skiing/snowboarding on saturday, but others stayed at the cabin and ate lunch at the ski resort. jeremy and i would fall into the second group-relaxing and reading by the fire was quite nice with a cup of cocoa in hand. here are some pictures of the cabin we stayed in.

our room at the cabin

outside the cabin...check out the sweet driveway/parting of the red sea :)

closer view

inside the cabin

at sugar bowl ski resort

check out the windshield wipers-they are up so they don't freeze to the windshield

-genius idea i think!

(check out the hat and sweatshirt jeremy is sporting)

after much snow had fallen...yes, this is the driveway

before the snowstorm

after the snowstorm

hello friends and family! it has been awhile since my last update, due to many happenings at school and other festivities. back from a refreshing weekend i am ready to post again about the latest happenings in our lives.

due to a few days off of work and the voting of our faithful blog readers we decided to go camping to celebrate president's day weekend. yes even jeremy had a day off..AMAZING! we made some last minute plans wednesday night and booked a kamping kabin at the n. san fran/petaluma koa. why they continue this crazy k-everything is beyond me...

first stop on our trip-sausalito. just beyond the golden gate lies this tiny village of sailboats, bicycles, a man who balances rocks and a car decorated beyond our belief!

side note: people in california are crazy when it comes to dogs...
exhibit 1- this sign says that there shouldn't be any dogs on the beach...dog on the beach-not on a leash...so much for that rule.

exhibit 2-people feel that their pets must ride in the car with them and must go on vacation with them...then why is fluffy looking so angry? oh wait she's in the car with the windows rolled up...didn't they say that was bad for babies-what about dogs???

second stop: petaluma koa. our home away from home for 2 nights was this lovely koa kamper kabin. i didn't take any pictures of the inside-sorry about that. just imagine a nice tiny cabin with a large bed and bunkbeds...that's about it for the inside.

on our way into petaluma we discovered these premium outlets...we couldn't resist! after setting up camp we headed out to find some great deals at the outlets. believe me we had success!

upon returning to camp, we decided it was time for some hot dogs roasted over the fire. after buying some wood and a newspaper for kindling we attempted to start the fire. we would say that we are pretty experienced campers, but we had no luck with the hunks of wood we were given as "logs" to burn. after a failed attempt at dinner, we decided it was time for bed. jeremy went hungry and i decided to eat spinach dip and wheat thins for dinner. after a wonderful night of sleep in our kabin we awoke to the sound of birds chirping and a day full of second chances at making food. after waking up with an empty stomach i decided it was time to put the stove/grill together to make breakfast. i attached the propane to the bottom, turned the gas on and tried to light it but nothing happened. i also had jeremy try and it didn't work for him either. have no fear, i can just head down to the kamping kitchen and use the stoves down there...too bad they weren't yet turned on for "the season." strike 2 at cooking...so we headed to denny's. wow what an experience that was-but at least the food was good :).

ok onto the rest of the day. after breakfast we headed down some beautiful back roads throughout lower sonoma county. we stopped at various vineyards and winery's along the way. here are a few pictures of our journey.
outside sebastiani

inside...beautiful!

Ravens Wood...yep you've seen this wine in stores

st. francis

after an afternoon of driving and tasting we headed just a bit farther north to santa rosa where we visited the outside of the charles schulz museum-it had just closed. we did get to go in the gift shop and gallery which were very cool as well as the ice arena.

downtown santa rosa

next stop-walmart for a new propane tank!
after we stopped at walmart we headed back to the koa to try our hand at making dinner one last time. oh no! the wood from our failed fire had been stolen during our time away from camp...our neighbors returned it after feeling bad for not realizing we were coming back and they also gave us a fire starter log---good people! after doing a much better job at screwing old propane tank on we realized that it did indeed work and we were doing a horrible job as experienced campers. we had a means to cook our food! after eating dinner in front of the fire it was time for bed.
did i mention we had wireless internet at this koa...major perk that we were able to figure out how to work :).

our last morning at the koa was pretty uneventful, i was able to make breakfast before we checked out and headed back to san jose. here are a few pictures to guide you along the way.