The search for winter

Winter was a joke for the vast majority of the world minus the east coast region of the United States (I was very jealous by the way). I have no patience for people who refuse to pay attention to the clear warning signs that climate change is a real, serious, and immediate problem. Remember how you calculate averages east coast climate change deniers? You may have had some seriously cold temperatures but the rest of the world makes your massive snowfall and bitter cold days disappear as all the other way too warm temperatures get plugged into the equation and you end up with the hottest winter on record ever. Did you get that? The hottest global winter on record. Bamm. And what are we, as a global population, going to do about it? Well, nothing apparently. Let's just fry, that seems to be what our governments want. Can you tell I'm annoyed?

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/18/3635560/noaa-hottest-winter/

I digress. I started this blog so I could write about what Jay and I have done to try and find some snow during the hottest global winter on record. There wasn't much of a winter in western Washington...... we usually get at least one tiny dusting of snow that sends me running around jumping for joy! Well, we didn't even get close to that this year. Our daffodils bloomed a month ago and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is going to miss the tulips because they bloomed so early. But I was determined to get some winter, damn it. Lucky for us,we have these things called volcanoes. And they are big and tall! So tall that they reach into the elevations that still get snow, even though the snowpack in Washington is at a fraction of its normal levels. So we waited for a good forecast in terms of clear blue skies and went......kayaking (I'll get to the snow later, I promise).

It was so damn warm out in mid-February that Washingtonians were out and about in their shorts and t-shirts. We pulled out Alaria (my awesome wooden kayak that Jay built for me) and Jay's kayak to head to Deception Pass State Park for a day paddle.

After all these years, this was the first time we paddled around Rosario Head. We seem to be more attracted to drinking wine on Rosario Head rather than doing anything that involves real exercise near the Head. So this was exciting for us! The geology was really cool and the kelp, which normally dies and is tossed far away from shore during winter storms, was still living and doing its kelp thang. And don't worry, we still drank wine when we were done paddling. =) Traditions must be upheld!

 Hanging with Alaria

The forecast held for weeks - blue skies, puffy white clouds, and jogging in shorts - in February. So we decided to head to Mount Rainier National Park to find that high elevation snow. The day we left was jam-packed because it started with a tour of one of the new scientific research vessels being built at a shipyard right here in Anacortes. The R/V Neil Armstrong (going to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and the R/V Sally Ride (going to Scripps Institution of Oceanography) are both in the water now but are still being worked on at the shipyard. Our friend Kevin works for the shipyard as an industrial hygienist (I like to call him the "safety dude") and he was able to arrange a tour for Shannon Point Marine Center geeks like my husband. Lucky for me, spouses who are also geeks could tag along. It was totally cool to check out these state of the art research vessels from top to bottom. I've been watching these ships grow from the rooftop bar in Anacortes since last summer, so I was pretty stoked to stand in one! Back in the day when I was the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society Rolex Scholar (ahem....go way back to 1999), I was able to head out on a WHOI vessel on a research cruise to the East Pacific Rise in the Pacific Ocean. It was such an awesome opportunity to be at sea with biological oceanographers studying hydrothermal vents with the Alvin submersible. I learned a lot from them, probably contributed nothing, and had a great time! Now that I'm pretty established as a nearshore fisheries biologist, research cruises are not on my radar anymore. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the science or the fun of heading out on these vessels.

These are photos from the January 2000 cruise when I was the scholar...I never got to go on an Alvin dive (which made complete sense because I was the twerpy 22-year old technician at the bottom of the totem pole) but I do wish I could have been one of the cool Alvin pilots executing awesome dives off the sub when it was getting launched. I've stayed in touch, not so well anymore, with a few awesome people from this cruise and my memories of that time will be with me (I hope) forever. What a great time that was and great life it still is now! 

Once the boat tour was finished we hopped in our car and drove south to Rainier.....arriving a few hours later in Ashford to our warm rental cabin and exciting plans to play in snow!

Even though the snowpack was super low for Rainier, there was still enough white stuff up at the Paradise parking lot to take off on snowshoes and climb up higher toward more amazing views of the mountain.

 Wow. The Cascades were shimmering.... what a beautiful day! 

 Only the wind made it chilly when we stopped to eat our lunch in the company of a big ass volcano.

Once we got back down from snowshoeing we still had a few hours of daylight left for play, and play we did. The cross-country skis came out of the trunk and off we went, skiing around a flatter spot near Paradise. If we went much lower in elevation, we would lose the snow. I was pretty happy to have at least found winter for a day. 

Our next quest for winter was more of a family affair. Lucky for us, Jay's dad and his partner, Charlotte, live near Jackson, WY. We flew out in March to spend five days visiting them and playing in the snow. Of course, they didn't have a lot of snow either; after all, this is the hottest global winter on record. But we still managed to get two days of cross-country skiing in at Grand Teton National Park and two days of downhill spring skiing in at Jackson Hole Ski Resort.

 Buz and Jay

 Charlotte and Julie

 Cross country skiing in Grand Teton National Park

 Mountain bluebird! 

 The moose still seem to cause traffic jams here even though they are quite common!

More domestic versions of ungulates... Buz and Charlotte own the three burrows and they board the horse that was interested in Jay's carrot. Buz and Charlotte also own four long-haired dachshunds (Taffy, Tuk, Toosie, and Tulip) and one cat (Tuffy). Animals are big in the Dimond-Oliver household and they sure make coming home from a day of skiing really entertaining.

Jan/Feb photos here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/111221596171793333099/albums/6115915146713428865?authkey=CKaio4Tcue6ENQ

March photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/March2015?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjnkfex0q-Ndg

Springtime in Anacortes at the Barber-Dimond household!