BAYPAC 12.10-12.12.10 trip

Once again after work I am off to go to Tahoe. Myself, Ms. Chilli, Ms. N, Mr. S all climb into Mr. A's car (who on the trip got fondly named Cricket). The ride up is pretty quick and easy going. With good music mostly the Stone and Nirvana. It is a bit long specially the end with the windy roads.

Once we get there and start checking out the cabin, I am so happy with the choice. It is just as sweet as I thought. The whole time I am grabbing people's secret numbers for a silly FB thing. We all wind down grab some veggies to munch on and pop into the hot tub. The night goes well in to the early hours we before we all crawl off to our beds.
The morning is amazing and I wake up to a lovely view. It is quite nice to have one of the master suites. We take our sweet time but are still out by 9:30 a.m. (UGH!). So once dress and up and out we are just waiting for everyone to get their gear.
Sitting all ready to go and Mr. A out of my line of site gets the camera all ready and focused. Then calls my name and snaps, all I can say is Damn! I am not the biggest picture person.

Off it is to the slopes and I am doing pretty well. Fully getting the hang of things and going off on my own. Even getting more comfortable just going forward and not falling as much. Yet I am seriously getting sick of my behind being cold from all the sitting to get my bindings on.
Half way through the day I stop to get some food and follow it up with hot coco and peppermint schnaps. Then go back out on the slopes for some more. I realize I am tired and think that quitting earlier than later makes sense.The night goes great. Mr. A and I go and grab food and I make a nice big meal. I have Mr. A and Ms. NC helping out and the rest of the crew is playing pool or card games. We are listening, cooking and dancing meanwhile singing. It's a blast. Before you know it the food is done and we are all eating. After, I go and study. Shh I know lame but I have a test on Monday.

Half the group goes to the Casino, the other half chills and passes out. I study and then try to hot tub a bit. HA that works out badly. I slip on the stairs get a great bruise and end up goose bumps in the hot tub. How? The top was left off and the heat out! Grr. I relent and take a way hotter bath.
The next day is actually a lot of the same, but I am messing up a bit more cause of being tired. I am smart this time and use my hand/toe warmers in my back pockets. Hey it kept my butt warm! (Doubt the above is me but might as well be, as I was in all black)

I ride for like four hours go to get food eat lunch and pass out in the sun for like an hour. It felt great. After I got my hot coco with peppermint schnaps and meet some cool guys to board with more.
We board for some more hours and then start to head down the mountain to go home. I am messing up the whole way, just exhausted. Yet the light is amazing and I have to thank Mr. A for catching some great shots of the scenery.

The drive back we are all exhausted and cannot help but take a nap. We stop for food and keep trucking sooner than later I am back home and changing. Not being able to help checking out the damage I do.

Oye, I am beaten up something fierce. There are bruises on bruises, my body aches and its hard to get into the shower. Yet I am elated. I know stupid but I am getting how to board.

First "surprise" trip to Tahoe

This is going to be short, hopefully.

I got invited up to Tahoe, Northstar Village at Tahoe, by a friend of mine. Told Ms. C I probably couldn't come I worked. She was all about well what about Sunday? Yet I was prepping her that without a car I couldn't, but would try to find a ride.

Find a ride I did! I grabbed one with a friend of mine, yes a boy and no I won't give you ALL the juicy details. Sheeze... So after work he picked me up, this was after being a doll and helping pack my bags for me as I ran to work. Granted I left most of it out... though we did have a few calls/texts about where things were.

So ten minuets after I am out of work he his picking me up and we are headed to Tahoe. The closer I get the more kid-like I feel and even act. To the point that it is mentioned I am like a 12 year old kid. Yea? So what. Sue me. I am happy and excited, roll with it. The drive is going smoothly until hunger hits.

This is when we stop, at first we don't know where till I ask and find out we are in Old Sacramento. Let me tell you, it is CUTE! So adorable, especially for the holidays. They had a Theater of Lights, with was buildings light up, to a real steam engine. We grabbed a nice (too leisurely) dinner that was fantastic. It included shark, which I liked who would have guessed and Kobe Beef. MMMH.

After we are on the road again and things get bumpy. We have to put on chains and this is not to bad but it is all about figuring out how they work. Things are going smoothly until we drift over 30 and a link in the chain breaks. We start hearing a weird noise. This starts a bunch of issues.

What issues? Well while we were only like 45 miles away, we can't really go above 15 miles. If we do the chain busts again. We are trying to repair it, with well what ever we have at hand. What we have at hand is safety pin on my sweater. Thank goodness I was in a punk mood and wore that sweater. After exhausting all safety pins and even a key ring we make it to Northstar at Tahoe. Let me tell you, the key ring was the best fix.

Once there we get walked by nice security guards to the correct spot. Got up to the room, set everything up got to hang out with Ms. C for a quick bit and then it was crash time. All too soon the next morning was upon us, ok actually the kids were.

Crazy how babysitter/mom mode kicks in instantly. Kid comes out and I am like what do you need sweetie. In moments I am getting water and trying to figure out food for this little one. Me figuring out FOOD in the AM when I feel sick to all hell? YUP!

So when I realized the kids didn't like eggs, then it was hmm. I remember something my mom would make, toast with butter and sugar. Sure enough it worked on them like it did on me and as more little ones piled out, so did more toast.

Then it was out on the slopes. I was doing really well or I felt like it till the last run and half. What is a run and a half, you ask? Well I went on what I thought is my last run. I go to ask how to get to bottom they say their is no way that you have to take the lift up again and come down another way.

Let me say when I heard this. I wanted to cry. So I take the lift back up, utterly exhausted and try to brave myself to go again. I really wish I hadn't I was way to tired to control anything. By the time I got to the end, I fell so many times I was laughing so hard I sounded like I was crying.

Once everything was returned as we head to the car, I call Ms. C to see whats up. She being stuck in mad traffic tells us to go eat first then leave. So we do, and grab sushi. The last three hours I am just frozen and looking like a wet cat, miserable.

The ride back is actually really quick and quite fun. We make it home in like a little more than four hours. I wish I took some pictures, and sorry this wasn't that short.

Snowboarding in Tahoe of the weekend 1/30

Snowboarding? What on earth made me think I should do this? Maybe it is the fact that, well I have never been great on ski's. Regardless, I have gotten it into my head to decide to do snowboarding. So I found a group.. a great one actually the Road Trippers and people who will actually do what they say they will.

We got to Tahoe in actually quite good time all things considering how late we left, all thanks to our gracious Driver J. Upon arriving Chef R had that covered and instantly there was some food, the two shown above.We also quite quickly decided which beds were ours, and lucky for me no one knew about the in-law unit right away. So by the time half of them were taken, there was the in-law and a room with three beds for the three guys (Poor babe's had a bear hibernating). Thus bed's were a scarcity.

My in-law was seriously sweet. I mean not only did I have my own huge bed. It is so tall I needed a step ladder to get up. It also has a fireplace and a semi kitchen/ sitting area. Which I loved cause it would hold all my stuff and gave me a reading chair. The place naturally but also very cozily has a bathroom and closet next to each other. I had my own lil porch in which Chef R and I often chilled in. It was great!

Getting up in the morning early, not so great. Remembering everything HA I forgot once and so did someone else. I forgot my helmet, but it was kinda good since we had left like lights on and windows open. It would have been chilly!

Snowboarding was a trip. It is freezing but that is why we are bundled. It is weird to move on the board. Plus whenever I had one foot out the bindings it was in pain. Yet it was a lot of fun and hard work. We were all bundled up and ready to go with boards in hand. Yet I learned a lot about balancing and trying to handle how to turn, stop and even navigate going backwards. Yet going up hill, regardless if you walked up carrying the board or half in it, was hard work. Often once we were up the slope, we were so tired we had to take a break. This is where having a helmet is really handy, cause it acts as a pillow where the snow is not really all that soft. Trust me I fell on it enough times to know. All and all, I did get turning a bit and on occasion even stopping. Yet getting off of the lift well and missing people not so good. I sure as hell do NOT have backwards down. None of the falls, the half scared out of my wits makes a dent in the feeling of being outside and trying something new. Not to mention... The view, I mean really. Wow.

After snowboarding the group went to a bar and had a lot of fun. There was a live band, lots of booze and car bombs. Everyone was dancing and having a blast, in general this was a great Road Trippers experience. If you want to see more pictures of this trip then just go here:
http://www.facebook.com/NatashaGM415?ref=profile#!/album.php?page=2&aid=10262&id=100000472761717