...Snow in the yard

The previous Snow on the mountains... post (link) was all about a highly anticipated day of skiing and snowboarding at Mount Hood Meadows in March.


But what happens when the Portland metro area gets hit with a tiny bit of UNPLANNED snow and ice on the valley floor? Well, that depends on whom you ask...

NW Oregonians/ SW Washingtonians:   "Cancel everything. Avoid the roads at all costs. If you must brave the roads, drive as painfully slow or as recklessly fast as possible (whichever is most dangerous and inappropriate for the conditions). And for Pete's sake, don't miss a second of that around-the-clock local TV news coverage of the previous evening's snowflake sightings."

The rest of the country: "Go with it. It's only weather. Have some fun."



Breaking from Pacific Northwest tradition, The Hamilton 4 tend to side with the rest of the country during snow days. We enthusiastically agree that snow is beautiful and fun. And yes, we capitalize the 'T' in our "The."

It wasn't an option to mope around about the unfortunate cancellation of Warner Pacific College's Homecoming weekend events and about the 4 1/2 hour icy commute from PDX airport.  Beaverton rarely gets sticking snow, so we relished those snowflakes like a beach bum soaks up sunshine.

Sledding in the yard

Walking the desolate backroads of Beaverton

Slipping and sliding around with neighborhood friends and family

Walking errands with Todd, Lena, Kathy, Levi, and Shannon

The end is near:  Lena and Grandma Mimi use our last remaining snow to build a snowman.

As Lena and Lora's snowman can attest, the snow and ice quickly melted.  In fact, the local freeze barely lasted through the weekend.  The freeway photo that I live tweeted and later blogged in the "Snow on the mountain..." post of my record long 4 1/2 hour commute home from PDX airport became a melt-y memory.  And now, months later, the Portland metro area is experiencing a record heatwave while I am visiting friends here in Amsterdam!

By the time I returned to work the next week, the ice that had blanketed the streets had mostly turned to slush.  The warm-up was very noticeable on the Delta ramp.

We deiced every one of our Delta airplanes prior to departure, even though the PDX air had warmed up enough that it wasn't really necessary.


Earlier that morning, Kathy had ignored my pleas to stay in bed as I left for the airport...

...selflessly getting up instead at 3:50 a.m. to help me chip off ice off from the Jeep windows.  Do I mention often enough that I have the greatest wife in the world?



By national standards, this year's Portland metro snow event may not have been all that eventful.  But we managed to make an event out of it.

Snow happens.

Coming up on Garth's Blog...

More friend visits in the Netherlands,

Tony drops by from Afghanistan,

Running the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati,

... and more recent overseas adventures with the Hamiltons!