Winter's here already?

Wouldn't you know it?  The day before we needed to be in Seattle at O dark thirty, the snow came, the temperatures dropped, and Seattle became a parking lot.
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As the weatherman kept changing his forecast, we decided it made sense to get to Seattle the day before our appointment.  Luckily our dear friend, Caroline, graciously welcomed us (including Miss Lily) to her home and guest room.  After packing for overnight: toiletries, clothes, and dog stuff, we were off!
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We caught the 3 pm ferry out of Bremerton where there was about 2" of snow with more falling.  By the time the ferry landed in Seattle an hour later, all the roads there were mostly iced up and the snow was still falling.  With Dean's superb driving, we made it up Pill Hill, crossed an icy overpass over I-5, and to our friend's house without spinning out, hitting anybody, or getting in the way of anybody else who was spinning out!  It took us 2 1/2 hours going 4 1/2 miles! 
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And as it turned out, we were one of the lucky ones:  We saw stalled buses and many vehicles spinning their wheels.  And there were news reports of people taking 12 hours to travel 15 miles!
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After we got to Caroline's home, strong winds came up and 6 more inches of snow fell but the power stayed on.

The rest of the car did not look any better!

The next morning, we left plenty early before most cars were out and had no problem except trying to navigate the un-sanded ramp from the underground parking garage.  The roads to the ferry and from the ferry to home were dry where the ice had melted in the sun.  There were just a few fully iced spots on our route and a lot of them had sand to help with traction. 

Glad I wasn't standing here when this "arrow" branch fell!

Not much snow at home.  Our roads hadn't been sanded and there was plenty of ice.  The wind storm had hit here too, as we had lots of broken branches in our yard.  The neighbors told us the power had been out for 12 hours.