Happy Spring?

It’s officially Spring here…the weather just doesn’t know it yet.

Difficult Commute

This was the scene in downtown Duluth at lunchtime today.  I decided to take the skywalk from my office to get lunch at a downtown restaurant and snapped this picture with my iPhone.  Mike and I usually spend our lunch break at home to give our dog Daphne a little love, some exercise and needed bathroom break. Fortunately our neighbor was home and kindly accepted our request to let Daphne out for us.  We were lucky to stay put and not venture out.  The roads were snow-covered and treacherous on what is supposed to be the second day of spring.  The snow lightened up in the afternoon to allow the plows and salt to do their jobs.  I guess this means the snow conditions for skiing will be excellent this weekend.

Snowboard Lesson

After trying out Sebastian’s old snowboard in the backyard two weeks ago, Sophia took a free snowboarding lesson at Chester Bowl Ski Hill yesterday.  It was a quick hour that she wished could have gone on longer.  She was given the basics and really enjoyed trying her hand at a new winter sport.  We stayed for more than two hours after the lesson was over so that she could try out some of the techniques her teacher showed her.

Boarder Girl
Snow Champion
The Girl & Her Board
Enjoying The Sunshine

We were back at Chester Bowl again today for the ski races.  Sophia finished in the upper third of her age category of close to 20 girls.  After the races concluded and the trophies were handed out, she exchanged her skis for a snowboard and was back at again for another hour.  I have a feeling she will sleep well tonight.

Icicles

Two strange icicle formations were created on our lilac bush yesterday.  The temperatures remained below freezing all day, but the sun was able to melt the snow and the dripping water froze into a sinister looking set of icicles.

Scissor Hand
Jagged
Sharp
Pointy

The sun was out again today, but the temperature climbed to over 40 degrees.  What remained of the icicles lay on the ground in a broken pile.