Snowboarding on Mt. Hood, part I.

After Em's previous post showing Mt. Hood from a distance, I have decided to give you some better pics. Coincidently, we just bought our season passes to Timberline yesterday. This prompted me to get a set of tire chains for the car and a roof mounted snowboard rack. It was sunny and 53 degrees F today so we loaded up the car and drove to Mt Hood today. Here is the view of the peak from the mid-mountain parking lot.

Matt and Kristina Kern joined us for the trip.....Kristina got a little too comfortable on the drive.

It was so warm out that we could snowboard in a sweatshirt. Here's Em on the Palmer snowfields (which are snow covered and open year round)....

...and on the lift.

It was so warm that I got too hot in my gloves!! Conditions were a little wet, but there was still lots of snow to kick around; it was very comparable to "spring skiing" conditions.

Afterwards, we stopped by a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant that got good reviews online. It was Szechuan style, which basically means "more spicy than anything you have ever had". We had a little trouble finding the pieces of chicken amongst all the hot peppers in this dish. Instant heartburn, but worth it. We literally went through 2 pitchers of water to cool our mouths down during the meal. My forehead was sweating and my sinuses are now very clear. :)

Afterwards, we drove by an old fashioned diner restaurant. I knew just by looking at it that they would have amazing milkshakes.....and I was right. What better way to cool off after a Szechuan meal? We opted for the large eggnog shake which turned out to be truly colossal.

And Kristina once again had trouble staying awake during the ride home. Is our conversation really that boring??