Road Trip Day 2 Mt. Shasta(Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery,)

    Waking up the next morning, we walked around the neighborhood. Snow was everywhere, and bulldozers were clearing piles of snow from the roads. It was my second time to walk in the snow, the first being my stay in Melbourne for one month.

Actually, we also spent the morning looking for a poncho for Henry so that he could keep warm and dry during snow. I'd got the waterproof outfit, so it was the least of my concerns. What followed is that we dined at Round table Pizza at noon, and had as many slices of pizza as we liked. It couldn't be more filling, but the price was less than desirable. Meanwhile, we played some board games available in the restaurants.
By the way, the urinal there was way too high.. that's racist!!!

Much later, it hit Karan that taking a hot spring in the snow would be comfy and ideal. So, we looked it up in his ipod, and did find a resort in Mt Shasta. Before that though, we went to Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery as Karan was interested in it. It wasn't had to locate it thank to the GPS, yet it wasn't easy to drive on the snow-covered road leading to it. So, I gave kudos to Karan for his driving technique that didn't fail in such circumstances. Originally, I thought it was no more than an average monastery, but it was actually a nice place to visit. There were lay people, interns, nuns, monks who trained within a monastic schedule. We were warmly welcomed and given a tour around the monastery. It was a bit weird to see American monks as I stereotyped monks as mostly Asian. Also, the monastery was really a nice and tranquil place where, from what I heard, there would be ceremonies, teaching, spiritual counseling, or retreats. I was also invited to join a introductory retreat.

A picture taken at the front gate of the monastery:

The road leading to the monastery

                                          A snapshot of the tour guide, a nun,  and us

Then we were on our way to the resort. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and took some real good pictures.

2 hours later, we got to the resort. But you know what? It wasn't open that day..... shoot.....
Anyway, the scenery there still made this trip here worth it.

Then as the sun was about to set down and we got another 5 hours to drive to where we would stay over night, we thus got behind the wheel at no time. And looking through the window, the scenery was different as different shades of light were thrown upon it. Cool, isn't it?

    Into the small hours of the night, we got to the motel in Christmas Valley....