Positively Laura: From the Summit

Today is my second full day at the Mount Washington Weather Observatory. Wednesday was a very pretty day. I got to ride in the front seat of the Snowcat for the ride up to the summit, which took us about 1 1/2 hours to go the 8 miles. We did a little snow clearing with the attached plough on the way up, while I sat in heated comfort inside the cab. It was quite fun.

I took a walk down the auto road with Mike (Weather Observer) and Rebecca (Intern) to catch the sunset. It was absolutely still and almost eerily quite. We did catch a nice sunset.

Steve, my fellow volunteer, made a beef roast with a gravy, peas, and I made mashed potatoes. Steve made Grasshopper Crepes for dessert... made with creme de menthe, not grasshoppers. Couldn't find enough grasshoppers up here this time of year...

Yesterday, Thurs., was another nice day, still cold of course. I made a coffe cake for breakfast, which was devoured throughout the day. In the afternoon I took another walk down the road and out to a rocky, snowy knoll for a nice view of the valley. Don't worry Dad, I had a radio with me for safety. It was 17 degrees with a light wind. Exhilarating.

When I got back the 6 hikers we were expecting for the night had arrived and included me in their photo opportunity. Nice bunch of guys. For dinner I had made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce in the morning, along with a smaller veggie version, a big salad and double batch of brownies. Steve made 2 loaves of Italian bread from scratch and turned them into loaves of garlic bread. Another excellent dinner enjoyed by all.

We were up at 5:20 AM MWOBS time (that's 6:20 daylight savings time) and made a big breakfast for the hikers. I made the pancakes, Steve the sausage and scrambled eggs - and 3 pots of coffee. The hikers headed down around 7 AM amid snow flurries and 30 mph winds. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

It has been snowing off and on all day today with 19 mph winds and 45 degrees. Not much of an outdoors kind of day - supposed to get much windier and heavy snow. I will stick my nose at the door, though. We are entertaining ourselves with cooking. Steve is baking 5 loaves of bread - 2 of which are Cinnamon Raisin ( the smell is driving me crazy) and one is a pecan swirl. I am making a puff pastry spinach cheese pinwheel appetizer for tonight as well as a blueberry/strawberry cobbler. Steve is making Ropa Vieja over a rice pilaf for the main course - kind of a Spanish dish.

Enough for now. I will now try to upload some photos from the last 2 days.