Oh, yeah: The sledding hill at Hyak. The one and only groomed snow play area in the world... or at least within driving distance. And since I have the permit I kind of have to use it, right? So bundle up, kids. It's time to go sledding.

Except the hill is closed. WHAT? How can the hill not open at 6am when normal people would arrive? UNACCEPTABLE! I guess that's why they have the cops stationed there. To keep us off the closed slopes.

To be fair, they were waiting for the groomer. So we were. When he showed up we wandered over figuring it'd be a few minutes. Nope. 20, minimum. And we couldn't even watch because they wouldn't let us go to where we could see the slope. Bugger.

However, there's the kiddie slope that was all the rage with the kids just a few years ago so we played there for a little while. When we were finally allowed on the big slope there was a huge crowd where we were told we couldn't go already in line. So much for getting the virgin corduroy.

Nonetheless, we successfully got in a bunch of runs. One even with me and all three kids. Clara largely took pictures, still gunshy after her wipeout in Chelan around Christmas. The only problem were the hoards of ill-mannered teenagers without sufficient supervision.

Cut in line? Sure!

Sled out of control? You bet!

Ignore the rules? Well, duh.

Throw snowballs at little kids? Seriously? (This was put down by the authorities.)

All in all, success. Plus, by going up and down the hill what seemed like a million times I racked up 500 feet of gain. Take that you lazy skiers!