Earlier in the week we had been invited to stay the weekend at Neil Hake's cabin up in Tahoe (Neil is Paul's best friend). The plan was to drive the Eclipse about 2/3 of the way up to Tahoe, leave the car below the snow line, then have Paul get us in his SUV to get up to the cabin - Paul was kind enough to get us so we wouldn't have to put chains on our tires to make it over Donner pass.
The first 2 hours of the usual 3 1/2 hour drive went perfectly. THEN, once Paul and Neil got us it took 3 more hours to get to the cabin. The traffic was horrible. Everyone up there said they'd never seen such bad traffic, ever! We're guessing it was a combination of the 6ft of fresh powder Tahoe got this week and the long weekend all the school kids had.
Whatever the cause, we didn't get to the cabin until 2AM...a mere 4 1/2 hours later the boys were up getting ready to hit the slopes. On a "pow day" (a day of fresh powder snow on the mountain) the boys get to the resort - Alpine Meadows - before the lifts start running so they can be the first ones to hit the runs. These boys LOVE skiing and love pow days more than anything else on earth!!!
This is the small lift close to the lodge.
Andrew hadn't skied in over a year and was like a little kid on Christmas - so excited, he could barely contain himself. Of course the other boys (Paul, Neil and Neil's brother Dexy) who ski every weekend took Andrew to the most difficult run on the mountain right away....Andrew made it though and was on an adrenaline rush the rest of the day.
My weekend was quite the opposite - I relaxed at the lodge and in the cabin, reading books and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. It was incredible up there. I never thought I would say this, but I actually really loved seeing and being in the snow, it reminded me of being home in Minnesota.
View out the back of the Hake cabin.
Aside from skiing and reading, we ate a ton and had a blast hanging out with everyone. Paul made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner on Saturday and instead of having dessert the boys decided to jump off the cabin roof into the 11ft+ snow on the ground in Tahoe right now. I managed to run out there to get Dexy and Andrew jumping. The roof is 30ft+ ......boys......
A celebratory beer after making his jump haha
After testing their luck jumping off the roof multiple times we all grabbed sleds for some nighttime sledding down the street. They had some great old-school wooden sleds with runners which were super fast and super fun when we stacked 3 people on top of one another ;) With a great sled, the weight of 3 people and a little bit of luck we were able to go about 150 yards around 3 bends - it was the best part of the whole weekend!! SO FUN!!!
Sunday morning the boys woke up early again for a half day of skiing and by 1PM we were on the road again to come home. It was so nice to escape from the city for a weekend. Unfortunately we made it home just in time to see the boys in purple lose :( At least Superbowl weekend will be open for another trip up to Tahoe now....
3 comments:
Wow! That looks like a blast. What a relaxing and fun weekend.
I love that you go to a ski cabin and read a book all day! That's my idea of a winter weekend too.
Nice technique, Andrew. I give it an 8.
I wouldn't trade Maya and Justin for anything in the world, but man I am jealous of your lives!!! haha! Gorgeous pictures of the trees/snow. I think it's time for me to get a fancy camera..or maybe my point and shoot would work fine if I had such awesome scenery to capture! Starting right now I'm making (another) New Year's resolution -- it's time for me, Justin, and Maya to start having some more adventures. There's a ton to do in MN and we're not taking advantage of it!
Post a Comment