Lake Tahoe

Ben and I just had a wonderful vacation skiing in Lake Tahoe! Ben's dad Carl took us. We left Thursday morning and got out there by around 2:00 Nevada time. We took a limo from the airport to the hotel, about an hour and a half ride...starting the trip off right!

The ski lifts are only open from 9am-4pm, so by the time we got to our hotel it was already too late to ski. Instead, we went to the ski rental shop, picked up our skis for the next 2 days, and headed to dinner at a nice restaurant in our hotel called Friday Station. I had horseradish encrusted salmon on a lemon caper sauce with rice pilaf and steamed veggies - it was awesome!

Ben had a filet with king crab legs, which he gave a 10 out of 10!

Carl had chicken lyon with a mushroom sauce, but I didn't get a picture. We also started off with a crab artichoke dip appetizer that was yummy, so needless to say we were stuffed by the end of that meal!!

There isn't much to do in Tahoe except for ski, so after dinner we pretty much just went back to the room, watched a movie (The Invention of Lying- funny idea and some funny parts, but also sacrilegious we thought so I wouldn't see it if you haven't already!), and went to bed.

Friday we got up bright and early and had a hearty breakfast at another restaurant in the hotel. Ben and I put on our multiple layers of clothing, our ski gear, and headed to the gondola, only a couple blocks over from where we were staying. This was my first time skiing in my life, but at this point my first impression was "these boots are really hard to walk in" and "this is so annoying having to lug all this stuff over here"!

The gondola ride up was about 2.5 miles long (at least that's what I heard someone say), so it was a decent ride and the view was gorgeous!!

At the top, Ben helped me get my skis on and we poled over to the ski lift. When we got off the lift at the top, things were already looking good when I was able to get off, make a wedge with my skis, and come to a stop without falling. Ben proceeded to give me the details on how to go left and right (which I had also looked up on youtube before coming...yes, I'm a dork like that), which we practiced on a tiny slope a few times before moving on to the official green slope. I was doing good so far and Ben was really impressed! The green slope was hard at first, and I fell down several times just learning to balance and go back and forth without picking up too much speed. Going too fast would also make me fall down out of fear and not knowing how else to slow down. The hardest part was standing back up after falling!

After a few runs on the green, I was making it down without falling, so Ben left me to practice and went on to a blue run. Ben grew up skiing, so of course he's great at it! He came back after a while to get me, and talked me into going up to the blue run since the scenery was so beautiful. I agreed, feeling pretty confident after the green run going so well (I'm in the red coat in the picture below).

Yes, the scenery up there was gorgeous...

...but after only skiing for about 2 hours, I don't think I was quite ready for the blue!! I freaked out and was really scared the whole way down, but only fell a few times and Ben was really proud of me for doing it.

We breaked for lunch after the blue, and we ate the sandwiches we had packed (we had gotten them from the place we ate breakfast) and Ben had been carrying around all day in a little backpack, saving us lots of money on the overpriced food on the mountain! After lunch, I was feeling really annoyed at the idea of having to ski again, so I told Ben I'd just sit there a while and he could ski. He kept coming back to check on me, but I never wanted to go back out, so I ended up going in a little hut they had there and getting hot chocolate and waiting. Ben did some more blues and a black diamond, so he had a blast!

When we went back to the hotel, Carl was surprised that I could ski at all since he was convinced that I would go all day and not be able to ski 20 ft. without falling over. For dinner we went to the same place we did the night before, where I got a salad with pomegranate seeds and some other fruits I didn't recognize, and a seafood pasta (no pictures this time). Ben got a ribeye and loved it even more than the filet the night before. Carl got french onion soup and the crab artichoke dip. Again, we were all stuffed! We went back to the room and watched the movie Love Happens. It was really cheesy and Carl made fun of it the whole time, which was hilarious!

Day two was about the same as day one. I was much better at skiing that day, went down the green all morning alone while Ben skied on the harder slopes, and I didn't fall a single time. I felt brave enough to try the blue again, so we went up there. I was much better than the day before, but still fell a few times. I was glad we had done it once the day before because this day it was snowing the whole day and you couldn't see the view at all! We did the blue run again, and I made it the whole way down without falling. However, at this point, my legs were burning like crazy after that run, I didn't know what to do since I had no desire to do the green again and no desire to do the blue either, so I left Ben out there again and this time just went back to the hotel. Carl and I had lunch, then Carl went to the lobby to watch a ball game and I took a nap until Ben got back. We had a buffet dinner, which I was pleased had sushi on it, and went back to the hotel room for a good conversation before heading off to bed. We had to get up at 3am the next morning to get to the airport on time for our flight, so we just went to bed early.

This was a wonderful trip!! Ben LOVES skiing and had a great time, although he thinks he would enjoy it more with someone who could do the black slopes with him. I was happy that I was able to ski, but decided that I don't enjoy it...too much work, too much pain, and too much snow!!! Still loved the trip, the experience, the great food, and hanging out with Carl though. Thanks, Carl, for a great weekend!

By the way, to see some more pictures, check out the Lake Tahoe link to the top right under Picture Gallery!