Q's Adventures: Lake Tahoe

This weekend I did something that is completely out of character for me. I spent a weekend in the snow in Lake Tahoe, snowboarding and hanging out. Yes, I know, travelling is completely IN character for me, but it was the location that was out of character. You see, I am a reknowned opponent of snow. I like how it looks on mountains. It's very pretty. But being in it has always been something I avoided. Snow is cold and wet. I don't like being cold and wet. Thus, I had always avoided the snow.

Until now.

I don't know what inevitably led to me agreeing to go on this trip. I was drunk when I agreed to go, and then plans were made, and it wouldda been kinda dick to back out then. Also, I dunno, I sometimes feel like I'm allowing myself to get stuck in a rut, and thus need to try new things out. This was definately a new experience.

Crystal and I left the house on Friday at 5:30am. You read that right, FIVE THIRTY IN THE MORNING! I did not even know 5:30am existed until Friday. But it does, and let me tell you, its as awful as its been fabled to be. It's dark, and early, and a time for sleeping. But we were off. After a brief stop in Walnut Creek to pick up Christen, we cruised on up to the house we were renting in South Lake Tahoe. We were there by 9:30. Yes, even with a stop, it only took 4 hours. No, I was not driving.

Anyways, we went shopping for the masses, and then J-Mart showed up from Reno (where he's been working far too often lately), and then we drank margaritas that I made, and played some Wii, and then I took a nap. Because, really, when you wake up at 4:30am so you can leave at 5:30am, when 4pm rolls around, your body checks out. So I slept for a few hours. That was nice. When I woke up Pasha and his girlfriend were there. Everyone else showed up throughout the night. All told there were 11 of us in the house that weekend.

Saturday arrived, and once again, I was awake well before the end of my allotted sleeping time...but this time it was to go try something I had never done before...snowboarding.

Apparently everything you hear about your first time snowboarding is completely and 100% true. You are going to fall constantly. Snow is not as soft as it looks. That being said, its better to just fall than to try and catch yourself with your hands. Everyone falls constantly their first time out, and usually for their first couple times out.

That was me on Saturday.

We showed up at heavenly, got our lift tickets, and then I got to stand in a line for 45 minutes to get my rental gear. Joy! Finally we treked up to the top of the mountain (in a gondola for those who didn't want to take the lift to the top...I wasn't ready for that yet), and I got to learn! And by learn that meant learning how to strap your feet onto a rigid board, and then try to stand up on a slippery, icy surface. And then learn meant to try and make myself go in a direction...any direction, really. And then learn meant trying to stop myself from going in that direction...which meant falling.

I learned all day long!

By the time tne end of my day rolled around, my wrists were sore (STOP TRYING TO CATCH YOURSELF, DAMMIT!), my back was sore, my head hurt, my legs were sore, my shoulders were sore, and I was exhausted. I had also managed to balance long enough to get an entire 1/4 of the way down the mountain before falling...and the only reason I fell was because I was going way to fast, had yet to master turning, and cannot stop myself yet without crashing. So crash I did, in most spectacular fashion. But man, those few seconds I was flying down that hill before I had to crash out to regain control were amazing. It's easy to see why such a sport can be so addicting, and worth suffering through the learning curve.

We did our snowboarding/skiing that day at Heavenly (which was conveniently 3 blocks away from the house). And, I have to say, for all the hate it gets from the locals, its definately a gorgeous setting. It's massive, and has some stunning views of the lake and surrounding mountains. I took some pictures. Unfortunately, during one of my spectacular crashes on my final run of the day, I broke my poor little pocket camera. The SD Card is fine, though...so once I get an SD Reader (already ordered), I'll be able to find and post pictures of it. I only took a few, but hopefully they came out ok.

That night everyone was pretty exhausted and we all hit the sack before 11. So much for partying the night away, eh?

Sunday I took a day for relaxation. Woke up at like 9:30 (which was late for going to bed before 11), watched some football. It also turned out that no one else (except Sean and Christen) wanted to go skiing/snowboarding on Sunday either. So they were all around. We went sledding for a little bit up on a hill near Heavenly. Came back and watched the Chargers blow it against a really terrible Jets team (how they are in the AFC Title Game, I really don't understand. Except that the AFC is weak this season). We drank. And we drank some more. And we ate. And we drank a little more. And then it started pouring snow outside. Between 2pm and, say, 6pm, we probably got a good 4-5 inches of snow, which isn't bad. So we had a snowball fight. And then the sober person drove us down to the grocery store to get some provisions (after the snow cleared out). And then we came back and played some games.

Some people were worried that they would not be able to get out of Tahoe on Monday morning, so they left Sunday night once things cleared up. We did not, and it ended up being fine, as we got out of Tahoe, over the summit on 50, and into the pouring rain before it hit Tahoe and turned into snow. The drive home was just me and Crystal (J-Mart headed back to Reno, and Christen rode back with Sean), and we made good time, even with the pouring rain and Crystal's bruised tailbone (snowboarding is a rough sport). And we got home, unpacked, and effing relaxed the rest of the day.

Well, sorta. I did go into the office to send a FedEx package to Jason, who had packed up and sent home with us his driver's license and debit card. Very smart. So hopefully he got that today (I know it was delivered). And then I got to relax, watch Scrubs, then watch the Sharks demolish the Flames (beat them 9-1), and watch night 2 of the 24 season premier. Good times.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. I might even go back and try snowboarding again sometime! Although I do still think the snow is overrated. But so is the rain we are seeing right now in Campbell.

I'll try to post pictures to Facebook at some point...assuming I can extract them from my poor, busted camera.