Snow says NO: Trains, Chains and No-Ski "Ski week"

We probably got ~6 inches of snow while we were in Reno on Monday-Tuesday.  We were happy that we didn't have to drive a car over the (Donner) pass and Tahoe on the way back-- but our Zephyr return journey to Sacramento turned into quite the adventure.

The train left more than a half-hour later than its original time of departure... and things seemed to be going relatively well. However, just west of Truckee, the train stopped.... and then didn't start going again for over four hours!  Due to the incredible amount of snow that Tahoe got (feet, and including a devastating avalanche that cost some skiers their lives), there were delays in both directions, and the "dispatcher" considered our train less important than some freighters and an east-bound passenger train, so we just had to sit tight. There also was also need for a "spreader," a machine that removed snow from the train tracks, but which only moved at 2 miles per hour, so, once we got going again, we had to stop to not be too close to tailgating the sweeper.... 

What was supposed to be about a ride of about six hours took us... ELEVEN.

The Amtrak conductors were very apologetic and explanatory at steps along the way (including the unknown time of stoppage) and we even got complimentary snacks, water, and dinner around 6:30, which was kind.

The kids played a lot of cards in the observation car...

... we listened to some podcasts.... 

... and I read the better part of a book The Magnificent Ruins on Kindle.  We also met an interesting trauma surgeon across the aisle, who was also quite the magician with card tricks. 

Truckee River 

The snow was lovely... but we got sick of looking at it after a while!

 

We got into the Sacramento train station at around 9:30 p.m., six hours after our expected arrival time, and then we planned to drive north to Mount Shasta for the remainder of our "ski week" (to ski, of course!)  However, yet another winter storm was moving into this area, and it soon became clear (after checking CalTrans and the daily/hourly weather report) that it would have been very risky to be putting on chains and trying to go over the pass near Dunsmuir after midnight...

We decided to ride out the night in Redding, where we slept at our go-to lodging, Home2Suites, and the next morning woke up to it snowing hard in Redding!  We originally planned to stay in a Mt. Shasta AirBnb rental from Wednesday until Sunday.... but the ability to enjoy this "plan" was becoming more and more uncertain due to the weather events before us (ironically, Mt. Shasta had to close their resort last week due to not enough snow this season and had just reopened !). 

We thought there may be a window of time on Thursday -Friday that we might be able to make it up the mountain and still do some skiing, but then we risked getting trapped again in the snow, as the HWY 299 between Redding and home was also a snowy, icy mess with more snow predicted later in the weekend (just before/at the time we’d need to return). There were already a lot of accidents on the I-5, a major interstate (including one car hit while putting on chains), and elective driving in snow and ice is just not something Kelvin nor I are very comfortable doing. 

After a quick family meeting, we decided that we'd rather cut our losses and just head home rather than risk the possibility of getting stuck in snow.... again, more than four hours from home.  We took the snowstorms as a "sign" that the universe didn't really want us to ski this week.  I like skiing, but I don't love it, and I don't particularly like skiing in blizzards or risk getting injured (Kelvin is the same way and we were on the same page). Iver's quite the enthusiastic skier, and Niall was excited to get back on skis after his lessons last season, so we felt bad crushing the kids' ski dreams, but they rolled well with the change in plans (just as they had the day before, and even though I don't think any of us wants to get on a train for a long, long time).

Due to the condition and storms on Hwy 299, we drove back south to Sac, then west and up, taking about six (rather than three) hours to get home (this reminded me of the time Kelvin and I had to drive hundreds of extra miles after not being able to traverse the SoCal snowy Sierras [1000 miles and a night in Bakersfield] and a re-route, ironically on the 299, during the 101 closure during Coastal Snowmageddon 2023). However, there were no chains required nor blizzards to drive through on the route we took.  It was a lot of relief to find sunny skies and a pickleball court awaiting us in Arcata, which filled Iver's cup enough to not be too disappointed in the pivot in our plans.  

The end of "ski week" 2026 didn't end with any skiing, but we are safe and secure in our own beds, which is the most important thing (I also really dislike the cold, even though I had packed all my winter gear including gifted heated socks and heated vest, and I was pretty travel-weary so I was fine with it all). We are great planners, but the practicing of pivoting is also an important life skill. Maybe the universe will let us down the slopes later in the spring or next season but for now we'll watch the professionals tackle the downhill in Milan-Cortina 2026 from the comfort of our (relatively) warm, coastal house! 

That kind of week

 How's your week going?

Half my key fell off in out front door lock as I entered the house last week. Luckily, we have other ways to get in/out (through the garage), but our handyman came quickly and, with some tiny tools, was able to get the stem out and we are good to go without needing the bolt changed!

Then we had a major west-coast tsunami warning on Tuesday, which blew up people's phones (and anxiety). Apparently my phone doesn't care about me (or I shut off all notifications and natural disasters don't show up as alerts for me)-- I didn't get notice of the wildfire we evacuated in Jasper last summer, any of our earthquakes, and certainly not this tsunami warning. Fortunately, we don't live right near the beach, and while I heard there was some damage to one of the docks in Crescent City, about 80 miles north of us (which also felt the brunt of the major 2011 earthquake in Japan), our lives carried on as usual. However, there were lots of people with their water(s) broken showing up on the labor unit on my call day, Wednesday!

It was a tiring week but I did get some rest last night and today!

Shaken (again)!

We had a large earthquake Thursday morning-- I was in clinic and felt the "rolling/rumbling" while at my desk.  I never feel the small (3.0- 4.0 magnitude) earthquakes that happen frequently around here. We had a large one a couple of Decembers ago which shook us awake but which caused no damage at our residence, while others south and west of us on the north coast were not so lucky. 

The earthquake registered 7.0 on the Richter scale (our largest in ~32 years) and, shortly after, triggered a tsunami warning for (about 5 million people in) our area and north of us, which had people's phones blowing up (apparently my phone does not receive natural disaster notifications or I disabled this feature a while back). We still had patients in the clinic and more work to do-- once the shaking stopped and we got out from under our desks, we checked and no one in authority told us to evacuate our clinic in Arcata, so we kept working. We got text, call, and e-mail alerts from our kids' school to say that they were safe and, while they're located in a lowland area of Arcata, they're not actually in the tsunami zone, as shown by this map (Iver told me the teachers showed the kids the map which I liked!). (E-mail from the school read, "Students are safe. School is secure. School is not in a tsunami zone. Students have returned to secure classrooms.").

Nevertheless, many employees and parents were anxious, left clinic, and also picked up their kids from school, causing panic and traffic issues. A nearby clinic, veterinary hospital, and childcare center evacuated their building.  Our kids, who stayed at school until late afternoon, said that only nine kids remained at the end of the day! Many appointments were cancelled (or no-showed) by patients.

Many friends (even my sister in Africa!) heard about the quake and warning on national news and reached out to check if we were okay (thank you!!). The tsunami warning was canceled about an hour later (right around noon), and all went on as planned on the sunny day we had. Some people in Eureka and South/west (closer to the earthquake's epicenter in the ocean) lost power, but we did not.  I have worries about many things, but I trust emergency authorities and, despite evacuating a wildfire this summer, natural disasters and their aftermaths are not high on my list of things that cause me anxiety.

We're thankful for the calm response from the school, and, more importantly, to have stayed safe and well despite this latest quake!  Until the next one! 

Scorched Earth: Lassen Volcanic NP and Surviving the Heat Wave of NorCal

We planned a trip to Redding over this Fourth of July weekend (taking Friday off to make it a long one!), knowing it would be summer-hot.  However, we did not expect it would be 118-degree-hot (some people thought it better not to go, but we forged ahead)! 

(note the temp of 88 degrees is at around 11 pm! Uff da!)

The kids insisted on being "patriotic" on the fourth, despite how UN-rah-rah-America a lot of us feel these days! Since I didn't have any red shorts to complete a whole outfit along with my blue-and-white shirt, I think I was blacklisted from the photos.

Even Vanessa, abroad in Senegal, sported the stars and stripes!

We caravaned with Shannon and her family (plus a bonus kid) to Redding, stopping in Weaverville on the way for some lunch.

Cila/Evan

These are the kids goofing around in Grocery Outlet!

"tiny legs!"

We spent the afternoon at the house of Lacinda/Devin, who moved to Redding from Humboldt a little over a year ago. Niall reconnected with best preschool bud, Dylan.  It was HOT, but their house had a lot of shade right by their amazing backyard pool. 

The resters dodging the heat! 

Apparently, fireworks shows still went on (I thought they might cancel them due to the high fire risk, but Redding is staunchly in Trump-country, so LET FREEDOM AND SPARKS RING!). We, however, went back to the hotel for such much-needed Zzzs. Getting out of crowded parking lots after fireworks events or concerts is about my least favorite thing in the world (even when wildfires are not involved), so I'll deprive my early-waking kids of spectacular fireworks shows for some more years. (Now, if we could do winter fireworks that started around 7 p.m. or earlier, I'd totally be game!). 

We stayed at our trusty Home2Suites, which has great breakfast and, key for us, two separate sleeping spaces for the differently-sleeping kids.

Kids loved playing with "baby Evan." Niall said, "can we take Evan home? I wish he was our baby brother." 

(Iver pretending to breastfeed because he was upset about something :))

Hall-way crew! 

I was the event planner for a Friday day trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which Kelvin hadn't been to. My only previous trip to Lassen on a day trip from Sacramento in September 2009!  It took us about an hour to get from our hotel to the NW entrance of the park.   While warm (in the 80s), it was still much cooler than Redding, and so scenic! The road going through the park only recently opened due to snow clearing, and the views were spectacular so *early* in the season. I was only slightly surprised, but it was really crowded and parking lots at the park attractions filled up quickly!

We started with a gentle 1.7-mile flat walk around Manzanita Lake.

Nice views over still-snowy Lassen Peak (10,457 ft).

We had a picnic lunch by Devastated Area, which suffered in the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak.

Kids climbed on Lava Rocks

Even Evan kept up on the 0.3-mile interpretive trail!

We continued on the main park road, and Niall wanted to pull over at the sight of some beautiful meadows. 

The water was icy but all tried to step in!

All the "big boys" jumped over! (None fell in but some went in. It was so cold, like straight snowmelt!).

We stopped briefly at the road's high point, around 8,512 feet, where the air was warm but where there was still a lot of snow on the ground!  The hike up to Lassen peak is about 2.5 miles (for obvious reasons, we skipped the hike this time!).

Evan touches snow!

Glacial Lake Helen was pretty on the way down.

Our last stop before exiting the park was at Sulphur Works, a hub of Geothermal activity.

Boiling cauldron of mud! 

(don't fall in!)

The kids spent a lot of time in the hotel pool, and, of course, had to get some icy treats. 

La Michoacana is, in my opinion, the best place for ice cream in Redding!

Nieve flotante with a chili rim

32 below (walking distance from our hotel)

The main Redding attraction (advertised as "The Coolest Place in Redding!") is Water Works (water) park, which the kids (mainly Iver) just loves, and, to be honest, is just about the only place one can tolerate being outside when the weather is like this:

We honestly put our phones away so they didn't melt (and my water camera hadn't charged as I thought it had), so really don't have any photos of the day, but it was still really fun. Iver rode the "Avalanche" ride with me, which had frightened him before, and we hit the Cyclone (or "toilet bowl") a few times on inner tubes, as well as the flume slides. The cement of the park was so hot that I fear I was going to get blisters on the soles of my feet, so footwear stayed on after one particularly uncomfortable line wait (we just held shoes in our hands when going down the slides).  When not underwater,  there was time to chill in the (shaded but probably still over 100-degree) cabana, watching Wimbledon! 

buds Niall and Dylan

We left the waterpark around 3:30 p.m. to drive the ~3 hours home, and were just a few miles from Blue Lake when we started seeing smoke and fire crews.  We weren't sure if there was a controlled burn or something else, but, despite a few-minute wait, were allowed to continue on the highway to home.

Shannon's full car, not too far behind us, however, ended up getting stopped/stuck, as the Highway 299 between Lord Ellis and Berry Summit was closed with an indefinite opening time!

We found out later, after internet research, that the fire may have been caused by a the dragging of a jetski trailer, which threw sparks which lit the roadside brush. Yikes!  It has even been "hot" on the coast (a July high of 75 degrees was recorded in Eureka), but the temperatures inland have also exceeded one hundred degrees.  Thankfully, firefighters were able to put out the blaze and the highway reopened to traffic a couple of hours later-- we literally snuck through at the last possible moment (Praise God).

This is what it felt like this weekend:

We had some fun times a'roastin', but we're so happy to be home and on the cool (although record-setting 75-degree) coast.