Operation Snow

yesterday morning, Jordan and I woke up and prepared for church as usual (choosing the 2nd service since we both slept in until 8:45!). As we were driving down the road we noticed, to the northeast, a sight I hadn't been sure I would see here in my new home... snow! The previous two days brought LOTS of rain to our area and not the warm sprinkles that we got in August. No, this was cold, wet, shoe/clothes-drenching rain more on the level of PA and MI than OR. So the cold annoying rain we got here brought some lovely white to the peaks of the mountains that surround us. Jordan and I were a little bit excited about the idea of snow. Those of you who recently survived the ice/snow-storms in the east may be groaning or making inappropriate gestures toward the computer screen at this moment, but snow sounded really nice on the 2nd day of December so Jordan and I decided we would spend the afternoon seeking out snow. We stopped first to pick up some Christmas presents and a map of the county so that we would be less likely to get lost and then we headed east.
This is the kind of driving I love to do, just jump into the car with no preparation whatsoever (except the purchase of the map - past lessons learned) and see where we end up. I honestly had little hope of finding snow since it was only on the peaks of the mountains and generally mountain peaks don't have roads leading to them, but we headed off anyway to see what we can find. We headed east until the snowiest parts were immediately to our left and then found a good road (on the handy dandy map) and headed north. The road, unfortunately, was more a northwest than a north road and so began to drift back toward we came from, but as we hit the crest of the foothills and started heading back down into the valley, we passed a bunch of apple farms. I had no idea that apples were grown in this area known for its oranges, but there it was, 45 minutes from home. We stopped in first to a farm that had some animals to pet, some craft shops, and a place to buy caramel apples (for Jordan), caramel burritos (warmed up for me) and fresh, cold apple cider (to share). It was quite delightful. After looking through the shops and bothering the emu and goats, we headed for another little chain of shops. Unfortunately they closed at 5:00 and we were there around 4:45, but we saw more cute little crafts stores, a place with more animals and a "reptile cave" and some little booths with food, train rides, etc. We will have to go back another time when we can look around some more.
All in all, despite the fact that we never found snow (although one of the shops was called "snow line" so maybe later in the season...) we had a great time hanging out together and having an adventure. We'll have to do this again soon!