19. Spend at least 24 hours in 10 states (2/10) Washington State

Who is crazy enough to attempt a journey across the country for one day of snowboarding? If you said we are, you would be correct!! We, being the overly ambitious and sometimes stupidly enthusiastic travelers that we are, decided that it was indeed completely within our ability to attempt a weekend trip from Houston to Mt Baker...yup!! We decided that a four hour flight, combined with a two and a half hour drive whist battling a two hour time difference at the end of a working day (for me anyway) really wasn't all that much to deal with... after all, what's travelling a couple of thousand miles at the end of a Friday?? Where are those men in white coats with those pretty straight jackets??

So we arrive at our gorgeous log cabin up in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forrest, less than 100 miles from the Canadian border, after a delayed flight and a less than agreeable experience with the rental car company and of course we both fall straight into a deep sleep... zzZZzZzzzZZ....

The next morning we wake early (damn two hour time difference) and its raining... don't worry Paul says... you know this means it'll be dumping up on the mountain, woohoo fresh powder for us this morning... Unfortunately we forgot the 'Curse of Paul'! You see, every time we go sonwboarding somewhere, no matter how lovely and cold it is the days before we arrive, no matter how many inches of new powder they receive the week proceeding, no matter how wonderful the extended forecast looks.. the moment Paul steps off of that plane into that State, the sun comes out of hibernation and the weather turns to unseasonable warmth!! (Strange that he doesnt have the same effect on beach holidays??).. SOOOOO of course we're travelling up the mountain... up switchback after switchback, watching the rain fall against the windscreen, thinking to ourselves, 'dont worry it'll turn to snow soon, it has to'... up the mountain we continue, our eyes glued to the temperature display on the dash that is tormenting us with its stupid positive numbers.. higher and higher we climb... the entire time the temperature not falling one single measly degree... we arrive at the top... to a slushy rainy wet mess!! What to do?? What to do?? Grit our teeth, bear it and make the most of a wet situation... Needless to day it wasnt the best day I've ever had on a mountain.. thank god the scenery was soo pretty.. (when you could see it through the fog and clouds) and the lift tickets sooo cheap!!

Washington State is a gorgeous part of the country, the scenery is breathtaking, everything is soooo green, the water is crystal clear and even the air smells sweet (Ive been in Houston too damn long!). The weekend was over waaaaay too quickly.. thank goodness we have a second chance at some snow this weekend when we head to New Mexico... wonder what the weather will be like.....