(life) Indents: the tahoe experience

So, I have to admit, there is no replacement for Mt. Tremblant, but going to Tahoe was pretty darn close. I think the only thing lacking was a snowstorm and my cousin's home cooking! I tried to make up for it by cooking 2 lasagnas - one vegan, one ground turkey to accommodate the variety of dietary restrictions.
So, we stayed at the Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort. It was pretty decent, the 'room' slept 6, but since it was broken out into an 'a' and 'b' side, we actually managed to get 9 people on beds, and two on a blow up mattress. Not to shabby! One room had two full sized beds, a small kitchenette and a bathroom, plus this great backlit light:

The other had a full kitchen, bathroom, king sized bed, and queen pull out couch.

Everyone arrived Saturday evening/night and then we got up Sunday to head to Heavenly Ski Resort, which was about a mile away. This place was huge! Plus the day we went was pretty windy. It has some beautiful views of Lake Tahoe.
Jeremy boarding:

Gearing up at the top of the mountain:

Cool airplane/tree shot by Blake:

Afterwards we hit up the jacuzzi at the resort and drank some lovely Mai Tai's and beers. This basically became the norm for the remainder of the trip.

Monday we packed up into our rental cars and headed to Northstar, up by North Lake Tahoe.
Who would have thought a car ride could evoke so much emotion?

I thought this mountain was so awesome!! I could spend a couple days there alone. There were a good number of intermediate trails, plus some more technical options and parks for the adventurous.
Here's Sandy, ready to roll

Since I don't have everyone's pictures, I don't have any more from Northstar to share. But I have something better, a little video going down 'Drifter' at the end of the day.

You can see Susannah Tele-Mark skiing in front of me and Rachel waiting down below.
I also have these great shots from Blake of the drive home! Crazy cloud:

beautiful sunset, even in a parking lot!

So, on Tuesday, it was a free-for-all. Some people took off for Northstar again, some drove around the Lake while Patrick, Susanna, Jeremy and I decided to go snowshoeing. This was Jeremy and I's first time snowshoeing, so we were pretty fricken' excited! Jamee let me borrow her boots and shoes and everyone else rented some from a local ski shop that directed us to Carson Pass for some good trails.

This is funny because of how awkward we all look, but also because we apparently didn't need to bend down so far.

Of course, like any good snowshoe hike, there has to be some man to man bonding. Susannah and I just let nature take its course, what else could we really do?

The best part was what happened after:

Patrick fell over! Lovestruck, I can only imagine.

Oh, and consider this your warning if you ever find yourself out in the back country of America...you just might come across something like this:

We stopped for some lunch on a couple rocks and watched some people snowboarding off on some untouched terrain on the mountains surrounding us.

Peek-A-Boo!

After lunch we decided to head up this hill known as Elephant's Back. It was cool, we took off our snowshoes and hiked up this rocky terrain to the top.

(that's me in red up there!)
Unfortunately my pictures are a little washed out because the sun was shining and there was snow all around, didn't figure out the right setting until the end of our hike. However, the view was really cool up there.

Funky angle shot of Patrick

Cutest prom pose picture taken on a hike ever:

That night we all went out for dinner at some local Mexican restaurant. I can't even remember the name. But it sure was fun! I definitely remember eating too much and I think they laced the tortilla chips with crack.

Then came Wednesday, sadly. I had to say goodbye to Sandy, give her back up to the East coast along with Vincent, Faye, Jamee, Rachel, Patrick and Susannah. Blake wasn't ready to head to Minneapolis just yet, but it was coming.