Lynne's Tahoe Birthday

Lynne's Tahoe birthday trip!

Wednesday, 30 Jan 2019

Left work mid day, and drove up the mountain.  Stopped for food and fuel in Auburn, and then got to Lake Tahoe (northwest shore) a little before 9pm.  Quickly unloaded the truck, and started relaxing.

Nice relaxing, Lynne

Thursday, 31 Jan 2019

Decided to go cross-country skiing today, because neither of remembered how much cross-country skiing hurts.  It'll probably be a few years before we do it again.  On the other hand, one advantage of getting older is that your mind isn't what it used to be, and you forget a lot.  So there's a chance we'll go next weekend...

Before pain

A really beautiful day

(Stopping to look for a bird, of course)

Cruising

Standing

Sliding

Just generally crushing it

After skiing for a couple hours, we stopped at a warming hut to have the sandwiches that we brought with us.  Inside the little hut, there was a couple igloo coolers full of water, and a little two-burner stove with a kettle.  And hot chocolate!  So we boiled up some water, mixed up some hot chocolate, and sat on the table out in the sun to eat our lunch.

Hot chocolate and a sandwich at the hut

After lunch, we slipped and skidded our way back down the little hill that we had climbed at the beginning of our adventure, and strangely, the hill was straight down, and miles long.  Or at least our ability to control our skis made it seem this way.  So, back at the lodge at the bottom of the hill, not only were our muscles sore (many we didn't know we had), we both had a big bruise and scrape on our left hip/butt cheek in exactly the same spot.  Yes, "how romantic" is exactly what we were thinking, too.

Back to the condo for a sip of something delicious, and a fine dinner.  The 'something delicious' came courtesy of Shannon, and was a bottle of Four Roses Bourbon.  Thanks Shannon!

Well deserved sip of something delicious by the fire

Friday, 1-Feb-2019

Okay, so there's pain and soreness, but nothing that will keep us from going cross-country skiing again today!  Ha, right.  Our aged brains aren't THAT bad yet.  No, we're staying in and enjoying the condo today.  I mean, right after we go for a hike, of course.

We went up a trail to the old fire lookout site right near the state line.  Not sure where it got it's name, but it's called Stateline Lookout Trail.  Anyway, the lookout is at the very north end of Lake Tahoe, and is just barely on the California side of the border.

All bundled up and just getting started

Looking east across Crystal Bay at Herlan Peak (maybe)

Big ol' pine cones

Cone, Pine Cone

Just a short time into the uphill hike and we're already de-bundling (bundling down?)

Who knew a fire lookout trail would be so uphill??

Up at the top, looking directly south across the lake

Looking west from the top

We're staying right near the point straight across in the middle of the picture

Just a pretty hillside on our way down

Wait, Lynne's there too

A pretty hillside and Lynne

Wait, a pretty hillside and a pretty Lynne

There.  Phew.

We went back to the condo and ate some lunch, and then definitely decided to stay in and enjoy the fire, and not go outside again.  I mean, um, after a little snowshoe adventure.  Yeah, I know...

We walked out of the condo, and went up a road toward the mountain behind us, and put on the snowshoes.  And then just walked around all over.

Snowshoes ready

One can stand without sinking in

Just kinda purty

Sort of looks a little like we're wearing Duck Feet

No idea what's happening here

(Well, I do, of course, but it's embarrassing, so I'll not say)

Cool lichen

We got in from the snowshoe adventure, and decided, that we were DEFINITELY staying in to enjoy the condo, and relax.

Well, after we went to the hot tub, but that hardly counts as going out, now, does it?  Oh, and since we walked that far, maybe we should just keep walking down the road a little further, and get a bite to eat.

Getting a bite to eat

Or, I guess, a sip to drink

But the eats are on their way

THEN we went back to the condo to relax and enjoy ourselves.  But, actually, at that point, we just fell asleep.


Saturday, 2-Feb-2019  Groundhog Day!  Oh, right, and Lynne's birthday, too!

So we definitely didn't keep up the activity pace of the first couple days.  But we did get back out on the snowshoes for another tromp through the woods up behind the condo.

The snow's starting to really come down

When I think of snow, I can't help but think of Sahara and Pretoria

Walking up the road

Into the snow

Cute little tree Lynne

Beauty, eh?

Really

More Duck Feet (ish)

Just like Grandma Free's tree

Look, it's Lynne on her birthday snowshoe!

Purty

Panorama

Look, snow!

More...

Moi

The Duck Feet thing again

In the trees and on the snowshoes

Sun came out briefly

A little creek

By a little creek

We finally got back to the condo after walking around for a couple hours, and needed to warm up.  Took a nice hot shower, and then a little hot chocolate to warm the insides.

Warming the insides

Pretty much spent the rest of the day relaxing and kicking around the condo.  A very good day.

Sunday, 3-Feb-2019

Well, today is the planned departure day.  We got up, and started packing, cleaning, clearing off the truck, and got mostly ready to go.  And the whole time, we were sort of watching the weather.

The truck on departure morning

Gonna be a slow drive

I got the truck totally ready to go, and we finished packing, and ... well, we didn't REALLY want to leave right away, and there WAS this storm coming in, and ...

This started happening

We decided not to drive in the incoming storm, so, naturally, we went outside for a walk.

Naturally

But don't be ridiculous, with the storm coming in, we didn't really get too crazy, and go snowshoeing, or XC skiing, or anything.  Just a short walk, really.  Half a mile or so.

This is as far as we made it 

And then, we had to walk home, and we were really glad we weren't driving.  Um, not because of the beer and wine, but because it was getting a little snowier.  Well, at this point, maybe a little because of the wine and beer.

Walking home

Yea, we're staying another day (or two) 

Snowy

Me, picturing

Really, not the best conditions for driving (that there's the road)

Truck's already not cleaned off

Looking out the window from the vantage point of the warm condo

Yessir, sure glad we're not driving

Monday, 4-Feb-2019

Interstate 80 is officially closed as of last night.  So is 50, 88, and 49.  So we're staying put.  We're very sad that we can't get to work today.  Really. 

Again with the snow on the truck!

The front walkway

The trees out front

The back deck

View over the back deck

Sure looks cold out there... I'm really glad *I'm* indoors

Oh all, right, I'll start shoveling the front

Eh, maybe later

The sun actually came out for a bit, and they plowed the parking area and access drive, so I figured that I should get out and clean off the truck in case we decided to go somewhere.

A little sun

More shoveling

Clearing the hood of the truck

Then this started again, so I went back inside

Luckily we had provisions to make it through...

I may or may not have gotten a little antsy at some point today, so I may or may not have put on some snowshoes to go run around out back.  And I may or may not have taken a disc with me to throw around and hopefully not lose.  But that sounds ridiculous, so I doubt I did that.

Yep, there's a disc in the air somewhere there

Now just about to hit the tree

Ridiculousness in the kinda deep snow

Lynne smiling under the icicles of death

Just why am I out here, anyway?

And it just kept snowing so I eventually came back inside to warm up and enjoy the view of the outside from the coziness of the inside.

Coming back inside

And the truck looked like this again as I walked past it

No way I'm going to go back out and clean the truck off again this evening.  Nope... staying in.  Really.


Tuesday, 5-Feb-2019

The weather is supposed to let up today, though I-80 is still closed this morning.  But we need to get ready to go, so we finish packing, cleaning, eating, clearing the snow off the truck, and start loading it up.  Finally get word that 80 will open around 10am, so we load the last stuff up, and, sadly ... leave.  Sigh.

Again again (again) with the snow on the truck

Tromping down the path out of the condo

Underway down the access road

So much snow on the trees

Heading up 267 from King's Beach to Truckee

Heading down the other side of 267

Finally on 80

Starting to look pretty good weather-wise

Oops... spoke too soon

Things cleared up after this, and we dropped down off the mountain, and stopped to get gas in Roseville.  We also put fuel in the truck for the last bit of the drive home.  We finally made it home at about 6pm.  Sorry we had to leave, but it's also good to be home.  Just too bad we weren't snowed in until Friday so we didn't have to go to work the next day.

A really fun trip.  Not disappointed at all to have been snowed in (sorry boss...).