Wenatchee is roughly three hours from Sea-Tac airport. Ted and I had a nonstop flight from STL to Sea-Tac for our Christmas visit with Thom’s family. (Unfortunately, we had to get up at 4:15 a.m. for the flight. 🙁 ) From the airport, we took the Wenatchee Valley Shuttle to Wenatchee. With the early four-hour flight, three hours between our arrival at Sea-Tac and our departing shuttle, then a three-hour shuttle ride, it was a long travel day. Definitely worth it to see Thom, Katie, Sefton, and Hadley but, still, a long day.

We did the same thing in reverse on our way back, with a far more scenic shuttle ride because it snowed in the mountains overnight. We experienced some of that snow at our Mission Ridge Ski Resort dinner the previous night, but on a clear, sunny day, the snow was sparkling and gorgeous! The higher we went over the pass in the Cascade Mountains, the deeper the snow became. At the top, it was at least a foot deep. Every view seemed more beautiful than the last.

The shuttle makes a rest stop in Cle Elum. You can see in my photo below that the snow was deep enough to require plowing the roads. Ted and I had brought a sack lunch to eat on the shuttle drive. At the rest stop, Ted returned to the shuttle with a surprise dessert: A Milky Way Midnight candy bar for each of us. I don’t remember when I last had a candy bar, but Ted knows that Milky Way Midnight is my favorite. It was delicious!

Note: The same candy bar was called “Forever Yours” when I was a child, and it was my favorite then, too. Mars stopped making “Forever Yours” in 1979 and didn’t bring out the “Milky Way Midnight” until 1989. I missed it for every one of those 10 years!

After the rest stop, the beautiful shuttle ride continued.

As the shuttle descended to Seattle at sea level, the snow decreased, then disappeared to be replaced by a gloomy, cloudy city. After another layover at Sea-Tac, we had a non-stop flight home and parked in our garage around 1:00 a.m. Another long travel day, but a wonderful holiday spent with the Wenatchee branch of our family.