First for the record. I don't do snow. It's cold and wet and I hate it.
My daughter goes every year with her Dad. Perfect.....something I don't have to do. Well Joey is dying to go so I broke down and planned a trip. Nothing big. Just a couple hour drive to Arnold and home.
No! They were under emergency conditions. PG&E trucks everywhere. No place to play. I pull into The Arnold Meadowmont Lodge. Pam the clerk filled me in and said we could play in their back yard. She even called around to find us a place to stay. Between you and me I just wanted a place to warm up and take a nap before heading home. Pam opened up a heated bathroom for us to use and let the kids play. I recommend if your ever that way to give them your business. I have never had a business so nice to me knowing I would be giving them no payment. Here's their website.
http://www.arnoldlodgeca.com/
Playing in her back yard was great. I could sit in the car with my butt warmer and watch the older kids play once the little ones decided they too had enough snow.
Then we went to the hotel. At this point I just wanted to relax,have a snack and warm up. We had a room in Murphy, CA. Seven miles down the hill from Arnold. Hardly any snow, and cute little downtown area. People are walking down the street with empty wine glasses. The town is a winery town and there are tasting rooms all over the downtown area. Not very kid friendly place. The hotel we stayed at was Murphy's Historic Hotel.
http://www.murphyshotel.com/ It's an old historic hotel. Not kid friendly! The room was up stairs from a bar. Murphy's...........on Yelp it says is awesome after 9 and if you need a restroom there is another one up stairs. Well there is another bathroom up stairs. A bathroom that is communal to the guests staying in the rooms. Yes that means there is no bathroom in the room,as well as no heat or TV. OK there is a space heater that too looks historical and turns on and off when it can. Their parking lot is a block a away and our room is filthy. We have a double size bed for me and four of my kids. We had to lug our sleeping bags in. Oh and no carpet. Hardwood with a ugly,thin throw rug.
After getting settled we took a walk down the main street looking for food. All the restaurants look fun for couples or groups of adults complete with live music and wine. We choose the Sun China to eat at. No one is there. Perfect! Aft. We are seated promptly and she has pot stickers ordered and cooking while we review the menu. My family is use to ordering enough for left overs so it was hard for my kids to pick one thing to share. We ordered mu-shu pork, lemon chicken and pork friend rice and hot tea. The food comes quickly. The pot stickers have spinach, pork and mushrooms in them. Kind of weird. The lemon chicken tasted like chicken nuggets with lemon cake filling on it and the mu-shu pork was overly salty, our fried rice was fried rice with pork, no eggs or veggies. None the less my kids ate everything. No complaints. Go figure?
Back to the hotel around six o'clock. The kids have fun running up and down the halls to go to the restroom. I pick up a binder on the dresser and it says that the hotel is known for paranormal activity. Marysa knows exactly what this is. She's a huge fan of Ghost Hunters. Too bad for Joey since she filled him in. The poor baby was terrified.
The night was long. Lots of crying from all the kids. If I wasn't so tired and had more experience driving on icy roads I would have put them all in my car and left. After what seems like 5 hours I got the kids to sleep. Marysa and Joey in the bed and Sonny, Declan and my self on the floor. This is hands down the worst sleep of my life. Checking out the following morning the desk clerk asked how I slept. Dark rings under my eyes, kids with matching rings under their eyes I told her the hotel was awful and I would never be coming back.
We drove back to Arnold to find breakfast and snow to play in. We ate at a cute place called Bristol's. The place was filled with families. We were seat quickly near a window and got to see icicles right on the other side. Very cool for Joey who studied each one carefully. Our order was taken and then we waited for close to forty minutes. Sonny had to go potty five times while we waited. Declan danced in circles in an open space next to our table. The coffee was bad but my cup was always full. When breakfast came I felt like I was at Claim Jumpers. The portions were huge. The food was cooked well my kids ate until they looked like they would pop. It was a pretty good choice. I'd go back.
The parking lot had a huge field of snow. Marysa, Joey and Sonny attempted to make a snow man and played for a good hour. Declan would not go in the snow. He yelled NO SNOW. He and I played in the warm car. The kids were soaked. I had no change of cloths for Joey so he road home wrapped in a blanket and his shirt. Marysa had gone through all her pants so she wore my pants 15 times to big. Sonny slipped back in to his pajamas. I have to tell you the trip was outside of my motherly instinct. I packed and planned poorly.
Will I go back to the snow? Probably one day. Did I like my trip? NO!!!! I am still a snow hater.
