Lake Tahoe!

March brought green hills, warm days and Grammy Foster to California!  Grammy will be staying with us for three weeks, so we planned lots of fun activities to keep her busy!  Our first trip was the weekend after she arrived (no rest for the weary), and we headed 3 hours northeast to beautiful Lake Tahoe. 


Look how green it is!

Mike and I had both been to Tahoe once before - Mike went with our friend Josh on a snowboarding trip to North Lake, and my family made a stop at the lake during our California vacation almost a decade ago.  We were both excited to go back and see if it lived up to what we remembered, and to see just how rusty we had become in the 4 or 5 years since either of us has been on a mountain. 

For those of you who don't know, Mike has years of both skiing and snowboarding experience - having grown up with family ski trips to Vermont and then working at Copper Mountain, Colorado as a snowboard instructor in a former life.  Mike prefers to ride goofy, in the trees and as steep as he can (seems goofy to me all right)... but in his old age, he has grown a healthy awareness of the fact that he is NOT invincible, so although I'm always nervous watching him head off the path and towards double blacks, he swears he used to do much stupider things.  Either way, I am always impressed  by his skill and just how easy he makes snowboarding look.  I will never forget one ski trip to the Poconos with friends about 5 years ago, when he spent time teaching one of their daughters how to ski... it melted my heart watching his patience and ease with her, and I knew instantly that I couldn't wait for the day he'd teach our children how to ski too.

The Expert!

He has been telling me for years that I have GOT to experience skiing on the West coast, because there is no comparison, so I was eager to see what all the hype was about... especially because Mike says the Tahoe trip with Josh was some of the best snow conditions he's ever experienced.  My level of expertise is intermediate at best... although, when I asked for tips to make myself better, all Mike could come up with is, "Don't be such a wuss."  I have a beyond healthy awareness of how easy it is to break something, and just how hard life would be while healing, so I would much rather "cruise" than straightline down a mountain, and the idea of going off a trail is just about the stupidest thing I could think of doing on a mountain... oh, besides going down a double black diamond trail.  I will stick to my blue squares, thank you very much.

How I like to enjoy the mountain - with a beer in the sun!

So, we arrived at South Lake Tahoe, Embassy Suites on Friday night - just in time for two free drinks each at the daily happy hour and then headed out to Stateline Brewery for dinner.  We would highly recommend this restaurant for anyone with kids, looking for a loud, friendly atmosphere with good food.  I should probably mention here that Stateline Brewery is named such, because it (and Embassy Suites) are directly across the street from Nevada.  Like, with the right wind, I could spit out our hotel room window on to Harrah's Casino (okay, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point). 

Andrew's favorite part of the trip - the Koi pond at the hotel!

On Saturday, Mike and I got roped into going to a timeshare presentation.  I know, I  know, but they gave us a $75 gift card and a free two night stay back at any Embassy Suites.  We are planning on heading back in the summer to check out the lake some more... and no, we did not purchase a time share.  Afterwards, we headed back to meet up with Grammy and Andrew for a quick dip in the hotel pool, which Andrew was not a big fan of... :(

Finally, it was time to ski!  Mike and I headed out to get my ski rentals, and while I got fitted for skis, Mike's snowboard boots literally fell apart in his hands.  He rented a pair of boots too, we bought our half day passes to Heavenly Ski Resort, and hopped aboard the gondola to the mountain. 

Heavenly's summit is 10,067 feet (compared to 1,082 vertical at Blue Mountain in the Poconos), has 4,800 acres of skiable terrain (164 at Blue), and 97 trails (versus 39 at Blue)... and still, Mike was disappointed.  Conditions were not great (I had just as good days on Blue's fake snow), and he felt a little responsibility to wait for me and not go wandering off into the wilderness by himself.  I still had a nice day, I didn't fall once and it was the first day that Mike and I had spent doing something together by ourselves for as long as either of us could remember.  

The view of Nevada from the mountain.  Mike was in those far off trees...

Needless to say, we could not have gone skiing without Grammy's help! After a few hours of skiing, Mike rode back down the gondola with my pass and then back up the mountain with Andrew and Grammy.  We played in the snow a little, got a couple drinks, and then headed back down the mountain to get cleaned up for dinner.  Next year, we are excited to take Andrew on the mountain with us and put him on a pair of skis! 

On St. Patrick's day, we drove to Emerald Bay, which I thought was very fitting (we had booked a boat trip but the Captain called out sick an hour before we were supposed to leave).  The Bay was very pretty, and we explored the area's waterfalls and trails for a couple hours before heading out of town.  On our way out, we found an Irish restaurant for lunch!  After some Shepherd's Pie and a couple Guinness's we headed home.

Berkley Trip

We headed to Berkley last weekend to see the campus... unfortunately, that didn't happen.  I read a guide book that said Telegraph Avenue was a throwback to the hippie era with lots of coffee shops and cafes.  Since we were arriving around lunch time, we decided this would be a good place to start.  Well, we parked, buckled Andrew into his stroller and headed down the busy street.  After about 5 minutes of mingling with college students and cursing bums, we headed back to the car and away from the campus in search of a little more kid friendly scene.  We found 4th Street - less hippie, more yuppie - complete with sidewalk cafes, moms and strollers, Restoration Hardware and a Crate and Barrel Outlet.  I never thought Mike or I would prefer Yuppieville to Shakedown Street... but we definitely have a different perspective on things when viewing them from our child's eyes.

After eating lunch, we drove through the residential area of Berkley towards Tilden Regional Park. We walked through the Botanical Garden... not many flowers in bloom this time of year, but very neat trails.

The park also had steam engines to ride on!  Andrew takes after his Pop and loves "Choo choos", so we couldn't resist taking him for a ride on the train... and heck, you can't find much for $3 per ride anymore.  We were freezing and Andrew doesn't look like he's having much fun in these pictures, but he did seem to enjoy himself.

Waiting to depart.

And we're off!

 

The fields near our house are in full golden bloom right now, and we just couldn't resist the photo opp.  We rode our bikes down there this afternoon and got a few pictures.