in case of winter, find snow

the other day, cole and i went up mount seymour in search of some snow. with cole wearing his snowpants and our baby sled in the trunk we had our hearts set on some tobogganing. all the way up the mountain we sang a made-up song about finding some snow (and camels, at cole's request) and i was becoming more and more doubtful of fulfilling the song's main aim as we climbed higher without seeing even the merest hint of winter. the landscape looked drab enough to be november or march, but definitely not january. anyone coming here for the olympics - don't bother dressing too warmly. maybe leave the red mittens in your hotel rooms.

luckily for the purposes of our journey, at the very tip top of the mountain there was snow. well, white stuff anyway. well, frozen water at least! crusty and weeks old from the look of it, but it was enough for cole. he loved riding in the toboggan in the bare parking lot, so he was pretty easy to please! throw in a few ice blocks to play with and it was a winner. i was really just looking for snow and the littlest slope that we could play around on, but the little snow there was was so crusty and old that we actually went to the Official Toboggan Area for lack of other options.

now see, i'm from ontario. while my young adult memories include snow avoidance (oh the horrors of shoveling, uncool boots and wet hair), my childhood was spent enjoying snow. real snow - piles of it, big flakes, crusts on your mittens that had that mitteny smell, snowmen and snow forts and snowballs thrown at passing cars. you'd just grab your toboggan and head to the nearest angled surface and fling yourself down.

of course, here in vancouver, where snow is a luxury, the Official Toboggan Area at seymour means business. it was really fun, don't get me wrong - we had a blast going up and down the hill (or halfway up and down anyway) and cole loved it. me too! but i was somewhat surprised that it was a) groomed and sectioned into lanes, b) populated by kids on organized schoolbus field trips and c) $8.00. you read that right - eight dollars! we were happily playing and i probably should have realized that a groomed toboggan hill might require admission, but i really didn't think of it. there was no sign and my ontario brain is somehow wired to reject the notion of paying for access to a snowy toboggan hill. halfway through our fun a seymour person traipsed ominously down the hill towards us and informed me that we had to pay. ok, fine - we're here now and obviously we're tobogganing so i'll pay. she seemed to doubt my promise to pay on our way out - um, lady - i have this toddler, see, and we're almost done here, and the car and my wallet are up that hill and only halfway to the lodge and kiddo here is rejecting his mittens and trying to eat crusty, dirty snow while you lecture me... anyway, all said and done, we paid and it was all worth it. lots of fun was had and when i asked cole what we did and he said "fun, fun, fun!".