Back in Snowy BC

After a wonderful Christmas vacation which we spent in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even North Dakota, we have arrived back in BC - and what a chaotic place we have come back to! You've probably heard about all the winter storms that occurred in the Northwest over the last few weeks, but have you heard about the havoc that they created?

We left December 17. It took us an hour to get to the border, rather than the normal 20 minutes, as it was snowing. No one has snow tires around here; imagine cars going no faster than 10 mph! We had dinner with friends in Seattle, and they told us school had been canceled that day due to the coming snow - yet no snow had fallen in Seattle yet. We flew out with no problems. Then it snowed and snowed and snowed.

We arrived back in BC yesterday. It was quite funny to drive on the main roads and see piles and piles of snow on the sides of the roads - we're talking 4 foot high piles that are on the shoulders of the roads, not on the grass next to the road. We drove by one pile and then realized there was a car underneath it - only it's left side mirror and the back window were visible!

Then we got off the main drive and into our neighborhood. Again, huge piles on the sides of the road, but this time, there is only one lane that is sort of plowed. Besides the piles of snow on the sides of the road, there were some piles in the middle of the road. As we normally park on the roadside, we had to find a parking space that wasn't a pile! Yes, we admit, we got stuck. Eventually we got unstuck and found a different parking spot that was accessible.

Our neighbor told us that BC hasn't had this much snow since the 60s. Vancouver has 16 plows - Langley has fewer. One person in our neighborhood has a snow blower, so he/she snowblowed all the neighborhood driveways, until he/she got sick of it. It sounded like he/she may have also snowblown the one lane on the road, but we're not absolutely sure about that one. We're used to seeing this much snow in the Midwest. We're just used to seeing it being taken care of in an orderly fashion.

We wish we could show you some pictures, but our camera is broken. But believe us, this much snow is crazy! Are we going to head out and enjoy the snow? Well, if you mean tromping around our neighborhood, yes. If you mean go downhill skiing in the mountains, then no, there is a very high risk of avalanches much less the risk of traveling on the semi-plowed roads!

And yes, it is snowing right now.