#100

This is my 100th post to this blog.  That's kind of exciting I guess.

Anyway...

Last weekend Mike and I skied with some friends at Northstar.  It was crowded... and warm... which made for spring like skiing.  We skied half the day on Saturday, ate some awesome fish tacos at the lodge, then headed home since Mike had to work.

This past week was pretty exciting!  Mike had a friend from college come to visit and ALL week long they've been predicting a "severe" winter storm to hit our area.  Days before the storm the confidence was growing that we would have approximately a foot of snow above 7,000 ft (our house is at 7,400 ft above sea level).

The winds blew in on Thursday.  Gusts were as high as 70 mph at our house... up to 100 mph at the mountain peaks.  My car got sandblasted while I was driving around in the valley.  Street signs, trees, and power poles blew over.  There were lots of power outages. LOTS of trees came down.  Small boulders were falling down the side of the mountain.  The whole house shook with each gust of wind.  It was pretty brutal.  I went to "book club" (aka "drink wine and exchange Christmas presents club") and I was nervous that I was going to be driving home in a blizzard.  I decided I was going to leave as SOON as it started snowing.

I waited... and waited... and WAITED SOME MORE!  When I got home, it still wasn't snowing... not even a single flake... when I went to bed it STILL WAS NOT SNOWING!!!!  It's a good thing South Lake Tahoe closed schools for such a "severe storm." <<< Please note the sarcasm.

We. got. shafted.

There just wasn't enough wind out of the west to push the storm over the crest and into the Tahoe basin.  So, instead of a foot, we got an inch (maybe... that might be stretching it a bit).  It was certainly disappointing and at times I felt like a 2 year old about to have a temper tantrum (or an "episode" as my husband lovingly refers to them).  Anyway, instead of pouting I put on my big girl britches and went to work like the responsible adult that I am. LAME!

Anyway, Mike got some good pictures and videos of the windstorm on the lake.  Lake Tahoe was actually featured on Surfer Magazine's Website.  There were swells as big as 7 ft.  

Here it comes! 

Those are some pretty legitimate waves down there!!! 

That sucks. 

The storm actually did bring about 20 inches of fresh snow to Kirkwood, so the boys did get to ski some fresh powder on Friday.  I joined them on Saturday and had an awesome ski day.  Heavenly was closed due to power issues so there were lots of people at Kirkwood on Saturday.  As a result, we had lots of friends there to ski with!

Here are some pics the guys took on Friday...

Saturday night we headed down to the village for Base Camp Pizza (one of our favorite places).  We sat outside by the heaters, drank adult beverages, and stuffed our faces with delicious pizza while listening to live music.  It doesn't get much better than that... or does it???  

After dinner, just a few short steps away, Heavenly Ski Resort put on a free concert by the band Young the Giant.  It. was. awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!  

After the concert we drove to Sacramento to drop Adam off.  We left South Lake around 9:30ish... got to the airport around 11:45ish... said our goodbye's and then Mike and I started the drive back home.  In order to stay awake, we stopped for "nourishments" including soda... salt & vinegar chips... gummy worms... starbursts... and chocolate!  A little more soda and 20 chicken McNuggets later, we were STILL sleepy and felt like crap!!!  Anyway, we made it back home around 2:30ish and crashed.
 
We are so happy Adam was able to come... and even happier that he brought some snow with him! Come back ANY time Adam!  We had a wonderful week and weekend.  Even though we were all frustrated at the beginning of the weekend due to the lack of snow, the awesome skiing and amazing free concert had us LOVING Tahoe again (not that we ever really stopped loving it here)!  That's all from Tahoe.

11 days 'til Christmas!!!    

Missin' all you East Coasters!