Good Monday morning! Welcome to the another #weekendcoffeeshare! If you will once again please follow me into the elevator, we are taking this little chat up to the ninth floor.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you if you were with me on Saturday, we would’ve been sitting in the Needle Lodge up at Snowbasin drinking Hot Cocoa!

It was a fun-filled day that day and really, it was my first real adventure of 2019. This trip erased a lot of the stress and anxiety I had been feeling during the week from shuttling everyone around and waiting on everyone. I am still processing the 140 pictures taken that day in Lightroom and so far, the 20-some photos processed have been my favorite.

I even got a good test out of my brand-new 55-210 mm lens.

We started the day by going to my Toastmaster club where I got to speak a lot more than I was expecting because several of the club members did not show up. I had a great time though. The more I went up and spoke, the less nervous I became. I felt as though the longer I stayed up there, the slower my heart began to beat.

After the meeting, as my cousin, aunt (the least annoying aunt), and I hopped back into the car and got ready to head to our next destination, my aunt shrieked, “Look at how the clouds are covering the mountain!” When I saw the view, I immediately pulled the car back into the parking spot, put the car in park, took out my camera, and screwed on the long lens.

After taking all the shots I want, we jumped back into the car and headed north 25 minutes to Ogden for some to-go food before driving another 15 minutes up the canyon to Snowbasin Ski Resort. Snowbasin was crowded that day with skiers and snowboarder lined up at the entrances to the lifts and gondolas. It took us a few minutes to find an empty table to sit down and eat the lunch we purchased.

“So what do you guys want to do?” I asked my aunt and cousin as we ate.

“It’s up to you.” They both said. I took out my tablet and browsed the ski resort’s website. Even after all my research during the last few weeks, I still had little clue of what to do when I really got there.

I looked to my cousin, “Do you want to ski?” He asked me the price of ski lessons and I told him the truth.

“Maybe next time,” he said.

“Didn’t you say there’s a gondola?” My aunt asked. I pointed out the window at the Needles Express. “Then let’s go to that one.” A few minutes later, we packed up our food and headed outside to the ticket counter. Within minutes, we were in queue for the gondola.

The view from the Needles Lodge was absolutely breathtaking and the air quality was certainly a lot better than the hazy city. Here are some of my favorite views from the lodge. I just love how the sun was shining on the particular trees. It looked as though it had the choice of picking which trees to put the spotlight on.

I think it’s interesting how the sunshine is casting a glow (almost like a spotlight) upon the trees.

After finishing my hot cocoa with lots of whipped cream and taking lots and lots of pictures, it was time to head back down since the gondola would be closing soon. This time, I kept my long lens screwed on and ended up taking a few close-up shots of skiers making their way down the hill back to home base. I can tell I will have lots of fun adventures with my long lens this year.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I closed my adventure that day with a shot of the magnificent moon from the parking lot. Then I would thank you for joining me on this Monday and hope to be back in a week with brand new adventures.