Wonderful Winter

1. Walking through the streets of Corvallis, Oregon, at 2 AM with a friend, directly following a 4-inch snowfall, the streets were empty and we moved down the center of the main road, leaving our footprints and listening to the crunch--the only sound in the quiet.

2. Driving on the highway in Maine after a 3-foot drop, I realized that it was perfectly safe to drive in the snow, and necessary in a state that sees up to five months and 10 feet of the stuff! Cruising at 50 m.p.h., I found new appreciation for all of those days off from elementary school in Portland. Not all kids experience those.

3. Directly following that same 3-foot drop, Ryan and I spontaneously pulled over to the side of the road at one of the main entry points to the University of Maine and constructed a large snowman on the spot. We foraged through the trees for accessories to complete our man and then drove onto campus to do our intended business. The snowman, lovingly named Barney, stayed up for two days greeting people coming to campus. By the third day, he had been demolished. No doubt, by a roaming pack of wild moose--but it was fun while it lasted.

4. Our deck in Maine measured out at 5 1/2 feet of snow in places and I really loved waking up to that sight every morning, over a cup of tea. Of course, it made me want to stay in all day and bake banana bread, but that 15 pounds was well worth the view.

5. To catch the sunrise on New Year’s morning, Ryan, a friend, and I rode individual chair lifts up to the top of Mt. Moiwa in Sapporo, Japan. After drinking coffee in order to stay up all night, riding that chair up the steep mountain at 4 AM was not my idea of fun. If you’ve never ridden on an individual lift, there is an overwhelming urge to JUMP! At least for the three of us there was. When I finally made it to the top, I was reassured that the thick powder would have left me with only a broken leg, and besides, the view made up for it. I was up there riding it again two months later with my mom and sister.

6. My sister, Ryan, and I climbed to the top of a high hill in Otaru, Japan, where we found ourselves with a 360 degree view of the city, the bay, and the surrounding mountains, blanketed in snow. On the hill itself was a beautiful shrine, framed by a red torii gate and several stone Chinese lions. My sister was so happy that she dropped down in the snow and made angels. (The next day, she and I climbed another hill to see a temple, and the way up proved so difficult that we slid down the mountain on our bums. Talk about drawers full of snow!)

7. The most amazing moment I’ve ever experienced in the snow was last year at the Kokusai ski resort in Hokkaido, Japan. Ryan and I had been snowboarding for about four months and we had finally found the perfect day. The powder was thick and the sun was glinting off the surface of the snow, casting a million little silver flecks everywhere. Ryan came sailing by me at neck-breaking speed and he had his arms over his head yelling, “I’m the King of the World!” He looked alive and free and wild and I laughed so hard I cried, falling on my head, but not caring.

Angie and her sister Amy in Japan