Oh!  What an incredible weekend.  If I could create a time machine and go to any time in history, I would go back to this weekend.  It was a long weekend thanks to the MLK Jr. Holiday, so we made the most of our time and took a trip to Lake Tahoe!  My friend Morgan flew in to join Lea, JP and me.

We took off Friday night and after a 3.5 hour car ride without a moment of silence, arrived at our cabin in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada just after 1AM.  Just minutes from the Stagecoach Chair Lift, it provides a completely unobstructed view overlooking Carson Valley.  It was comfy, suited our needs, and was cheap.  Loved it!

Saturday morning we spent over an hour getting our rental gear, but we were soon off to the slopes at Heavenly.  I can only speak for myself when I say that I was pretty rusty, but being on the mountain felt great!  Morgan and Jared were clearly more advanced than Lea and me, but we stuck together for most of the trip.  The only time we separated was at the end of the day when the boys thought they’d take on an extra challenge and go skiing through the woods.  They came to an out of bounds marker that created a dead end, and they had to hike out.  Chumps.

After a fulfilling day mountainside, we went straight to the store to pick-up some groceries.  JP was in charge and had an idea for a pasta dish with roasted green and red peppers, Italian sausage, and layers of baked cheese.  As Paulie would say, “Oof…marron!”

While J.Rod was getting his Giada DeLaurentis on in the kitchen, Morgan and I tended to the fire.  I don’t know what Lea was doing…  We packed some good wines, starting with a 1998 Gloria Ferrer sparkler.  I believe we then moved on to the Pooley Pinot Noir from Tasmania, and had mildly disappointing cab with dinner.  Zins, Syrahs, we ran the full gamut this weekend.  With the pasta in the oven and the fire ablaze, the four of us took to the three-person hot tub.  It almost overflowed when the first two people got in.  You can only imagine what happened when we added the other two.  🙂  Oh well, we had a beautiful view of the lights twinkling in the valley below, and not a star in the sky – the storm was moving in…

We’d been hearing all week that the storm was coming, and would promise lots of fresh snow (i.e. “powder” in these parts).  By Sunday morning, the snow had not come, but we were on our way to a new ski resort, Homewood Mountain.  A friend of ours has taught snowboard lessons there in seasons past, and recommended it for the amazing lake views.  He wasn’t kiddin’.  The mountain is small in comparison to Heavenly, but the runs were awesome.  Without knowing it, we all completed Lea’s first black diamond together.  She is very controlled, and looks so darn cute when she works her way down the mountain.  Did I mention the lake views?  Incredible…!

 

Here she is, ready to take on another black.

 

 

And here we are, moments later.  I’m a dummy…

And then the snow came.  It had actually started during our drive and had been gaining momentum throughout the day.  It’s a beautiful experience to be caught in the snow while skiing.  But by about 3:30 (30 minutes before the runs close) we got too much of a good thing, and the snow turned into a blizzard.  We were in white-out conditions and the snow came in sideways like pins to the exposed skin of your cheeks.  JP only had his prescription sunglasses, so without the protection of full goggles, he was ill-equipped for the weather.  I said I’d be his guide dog and ski down before him so he could follow me.  Unfortunately, I got going so fast in the fresh powder that I couldn’t slow down, and poor Jared was left blind.  Morgan was following him and said he dropped like a bad habit when he hit a drop in the run that he didn’t know was there.  I don’t know why I think that’s so funny, but he was totally vulnerable to the situation and had his first “yard sale” of the day, as Morgan calls it.

On the way home we stopped by the store again and decided we’d have ourselves a kitchen experiment by cooking both a flank and skirt steak to compare the two side-by-side.  What we found was that the skirt steak was much more fatty, while the flank steak was heavenly goodness.  It didn’t hurt that JP managed to cook it to perfection, but now I know that I’ll take a flank steak over skirt, anyday.

That night we tended back to the fire with fervent attention.  I can only imagine how hot the iron stove was, but we had it chock full of red hot coals.  What a masterpiece.  I guess I wouldn’t be telling the whole truth if I left out the part about the greasy bubbles, but I’ll spare everyone the details.  Let’s just say that Jared and Morgan slept with their window open that night…

By Monday morning, we had the cabin cleaned and packed and we were on our way out for one last day of skiing.  We were en route to Kirkwood Mountain, which is about 1.5 hours south of Lake Tahoe, and on the way back to SF.  As we got closer, the snow and the wind both started picking up.  As we pulled into the resort, people were skiing through the parking lot, and the wind was enough to knock you backwards.  Morgan asked a snowboarder who’d already been out that morning, and he said not to go to the top, and even down below it was extremely difficult to see anything.  We eventually had to face the sad truth that we would not be skiing today.

Ah well, I suppose it’s for the best.  After a slow, beautiful climb out of the snow entrenched mountains, we found a route to keep us busy for the day.  Hwy 88 happened to run through Lodi, CA, which is one of our favorite new wine regions.  It’s interesting that they’re known for producing old vine Zins, and are only recently becoming a popular wine appellation.  After stopping for a couple beer samplers at the Lodi Beer Company in downtown Lodi, we made our way to Michael David Vineyards.  The winery has a very old family history, and produces a wide portfolio of wines.  Our favorite is Earthquake, but not just for the sweet label.  Just down the road is VanRuiten Winery.  I’m gonna say it – the tasting room attendants kind of gave me the willies.  I can’t quite describe it, but it’s like there was some dark family secret in that place.  Eerie.

Alas, the time has come, and this wonderful weekend is now over.  I miss it dearly and will look forward to returning to Kirkwood to redeem our half-fulfilled quest.  But not without my friends!

Cheers!