Winter Wonderland

Vacation is over and it’s back to reality. We headed up to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend of snowboarding. The drive up wasn’t too bad – they had chain control, but we have AWD and snow tires, so we breezed on through both check points. We did witness a truck slide all over the road, but other than that… I just white knuckled it and told Dan he was driving too fast the entire time – 😉 he was going 35 mph – I’m sure he loved it.

We arrived at our destination and there was a light dusting on the ground – nothing major at our elevation. We ate pizza for dinner and just chilled until our friends arrived the next day.

I had fun walking around taking pictures with different lenses. The guys decided to go snowboarding on Friday and ran into horrible conditions. They got in 4 runs and called it a day. We ended up grabbing lunch and then making a big Italian dinner. The lighting was bad, so no photos were taken – I just took the opportunity to enjoy a meal. Our entertainment for the evening  included watching episodes of Southland and playing Monopoly. I thought buying up the railroads and utilities was a good idea… not so much.

We woke up to a winter wonderland… snow everywhere. We turned on the TV to get the latest weather reports. 6-12 inches and still falling. The problem was high wind advisories at the resorts and it was slated to get worse.

We dug out the cars and the plows came by to clear the main road a bit – we decided to head to the grocery store for more supplies. We stopped at the lake before hitting up the store.

It was FREEZING – the wind off the lake was insane. I was wearing thermals, my snowboarding pants and jacket, snowboarding socks, casual snow boots, a wool hat and gloves… and I was shivering.

My girlfriend Britt was taking a panoramic photo of the lake and her adorable pup played in the snow. It was his first time and he had a blast.

He was such a good boy all weekend – it sure made me miss my own – he stayed at “Camp Grandparents” and had a wonderful time too.

I LOVE the above photo…

I even got to pose with the little guy… he looks really comfortable huh?

Slight distraction with other playmates at the lake. There were several dogs running through the snow while their owner threw tennis balls for them to fetch.

We made our way back to the car and headed to the store for lunch and dinner supplies. I got a panini for lunch and then we ended up making shredded BBQ chicken in the crockpot with Hawaiian rolls. We also got a bunch of side salads from the deli and it was perfect. The roads were closed in some areas, the higher lifts at the resorts were definitely closed, so we stayed in for the afternoon/evening. Dan kept the fire going and we played hours and hours of poker. Good times!

The next morning was clear, but more snow was on the way. We had a wonderful time, minus the no snowboarding part. I had psyched myself up, Britt was going to give me 1 on 1 lessons since I’ve only been once before. All in all it was a super relaxing weekend with great friends. I’m already looking forward to the next time. There is just something so magical about Lake Tahoe – if you haven’t been… you should definitely plan a trip soon. Winter or Summer, there’s plenty to do and the lake views are just incredible.

I promise to get back to cooking and food soon.