Vacation- Day 1 Christmas Day

It will take awhile to post about my 12 days of Christmas! Here's the first post of many:

Christmas Day. I've created a new tradition of eating at Anthony's Restaurant in the Sea-Tac airport every time I visit there. So, as an added extra when I arrived on Christmas Day I treated myself to a Christmas margarita. Anthony's has a great salmon burger too. I forgot to get a pic as I left Sea-Tac on Monday evening when I ate the salmon burger at Anthony's.

A good beginning to a long trip to Holden Village. I traveled by plane, amtrak train (departed four hours late due to the snow in Seattle), and then boat. This is why:

This is the view from the lodge where I stayed. Beautiful beyond words! Snow came almost every day... some nights we had over a foot of snow. This is why in part, I traveled for a day to get to Holden. No phones there; only email access available to staff working there. I was happy to take a break from all that for this. It's located in the middl eof the North Cascades and only accessible by boat.
At Holden everyone gathers for vespers each night. Here is a pic of part of the advent wreath and the advent/Christmas decorations in a place called Koinonia (means community).

There are many reasons I like Holden. One is that they recycle all they can (or carry it off the mountain). This gift of chocolates and a cookie was in my room when I arrived. It's made from a card box- how thoughtful! Here's a pic of the lodge where I stayed. The windows are boarded because of the significant amount of snowfall expected- 300 inches in a year on average, so rooflanches are normal.

That was enough for my first day there. It was an exhausting trip!