Northshore School District took a snow day today after seven inches of snow in the Bothell area on Sunday and a few more in the days since.
Snowplows have been out, so the main roads are mostly clear, but many back roads and cul-de-sacs can be trickier to navigate.
In the Canyon Park neighborhood, lots of folks were out playing and sledding . Others shoveled driveways or walked to get groceries.
"I got a day off today, so I love it - it's perfect for me," said Antonio Nunez, a carpet installer who was smiling as he left Sid's Minimart with a bag of chips. "I'm going home to make some soup, relax and enjoy the weather," adding that he hopes others can too.
"It's absolutely beautiful!" exclaimed Kathy Fader. "I just don't go anywhere unless it's by foot - it works fine for me."
A man dressed in a bright orange t-shirt as he spread blue granules that helped keep ice from forming outside the mini-mart said he thinks this year so far, most people have heeded warnings and stayed off the roads if they don't need to be driving, "so that always helps" he said.
Teens were walking around, "just hanging out" and enjoying the day off from school.
Matthew Ortiz, who says he's seeking work full time these days, was out watching over his sons, Lorenzo, 8, and Carlos, 11, and joining the neighborhood on a sledding hill. He was having fun, though he noted, his wife's work situation was harder.
"She was able to go in about three hours late," Ortiz said, explaining she works at Edmonds Community College. But "by the time she got there on the bus, they'd closed everything, she turned around and came straight back home."
Ortiz's boys weren't much bothered by that and happy to have the day off, though they had opposite opinions about the snow itself. Carlos likes it "because you can play and drink hot chocolate" while Lorenzo lamented that "my hands get frozen - just really cold - and my fingers start to hurt, but my friends want me to stay outside."
Lorenzo's classmates at Frank Love Elementary, Ben and Michael Hall (11-yr-old, 6th-grader twins), were equally divided about the weather. Ben prefers to skateboard, so he says "I'm not a big fan of snow." He thinks his parents agree. But his brother Michael's different;
He loves it and can hardly get enough: "right now, we're going to build an igloo...it's really easy and I do it every time it snows," Michael said, with a striped hat pulled down around his ears.
He might be building his igloos for a couple of days more.
In the forecast is more snow... and more school closures are likely, all around the Puget Sound region.
