Winterizing

We are headed (after seeing our dear Lee friends in Oakland!) to Minne-SNOW-ta in two days and we have been busy digging around for all of our cold-weather clothes this week. While Humboldt County (where it is 40-60 degrees, year round!) is no Orange County in terms of weather, it was definitely still weird (shocking) to see temps in the 20s (for which we're lucky!) when previewing next week's weather in Crookston, MN.

Kelvin actually has never been to Minnesota ever, much less in the winter, and prior to this year hasn't even owned a winter coat (living in Vietnam followed by [mostly southern] California doesn't call for acquiring much winter wear [Good luck, honey! Welcome to the family!]). To have a heads-up on what we're getting into, I really think he should read my great friend Wendi's past awesome and memorable blog posts, Surviving a -29 degree day and Returning to the Polar North, which chronicle better than I did (could) some of the weather novelities/challenges of our years in Rochester, which is actually located in the "warmer" part of the state :). A cold hater and overall wimp, I still can't believe that I survived four years of medical school in the Minnesota tundra.

Some snippets of conversations we had this week:
K: "I need a hat that covers my ears."
T: "Okay, but it CAN'T look like the hat pictured above. That is just ridiculous. Although you are generally the more fashionable person, you have to take my word on this. That hat is awful. I'd rather your ears be cold." [although I am usually all about comfort over fashion]

K: "I'm going to wear my snow boots (new BOGS he bought) all the time there, ok?"
T:  "Uh... ok. You do realize, though, that although it might snow and is quite cold, the Polar North is not just heaped in snow all the time. People do wear normal shoes there, you know."

K: "I'm going to pack this hydrocortisone cream, ok? Just in case we get bitten."
T: "Bitten by what? You know that nothing can live at those temperatures, right? Do you mean frost-bitten?" :)

K: (anticipating we'll be kinda bored in MN, which is not the case!) "Can we take a day-trip to Mt. Rushmore? I've always wanted to see it!"
T:   "Seriously?! Do you have any idea how big those midwest states are? That's like driving from San Francisco to Mexico!" (We are only in MN for 6 days).


I can't wait to hear what comes out of his mouth when his nose hairs freeze up there (as we used to say, "you don't know cold until your nose hairs freeze!"). Polar North, here we come.