This winter I’ve been learning how to ski. Last Sunday we skied out to Elfin Lakes and back. It’s a good area for beginners, “mellow”, but I’m learning that often there’s quite a wide range of “mellow” that has nothing to do with how easy or hard I think a certain terrain is and all to do with boosting my confidence.

But this place is really mellow. And the head count was down quite a bit from the trip we made there in February. It was a sunny day and really hard to leave a city we could bike around and enjoy cherry blossoms in but, once we were up there, the bright sun blazing off white snow and crisp clear views of mountains so far around made it all worth it.

The highlight for me was a friend we made while stopping for a snack:

I know, it’s pretty easy to make a gray jay friend, but this is my first and it made me feel so good and warm inside to have a creature so bold hanging around. I think it liked my ski instructor a lot (I like him to :”) ).

The not so great highlight but good lesson was the large blister that shortly became a hole in my left heel. The blister tape was forgotten and I learned about sock liners but…it was too late. Never again.