A good start...
Ok, I'll try to summarize my year as best that I can...but I have a feeling that this will still be long. I've been nice and put the rest of the pictures behind a cut at the end though. The resolution is poohie though because I have yet to find a free site to host high resolution pictures.
Sooooooooo, as I said before, we didn't go to Australia/New Zealand. (duh, right?) That's a bit of a long story...but if we couldn't have sun, we couuld have snow. Since we ended up staying in the area last minute, there wasn't much of a New Year's Eve plan. Neither of us really wanted to go to the typical party, so I taught Matt to drive a manual and then we played board games. Oh yes, it was fun..haha. I don't watch TV, I don't subscribe to cable or satelite TV. We had to rely on the internet and the radio so we had some kind of count down. C'mon now, we had to know when to kiss, right?
In the morning, we decided to join Chris and Athena (smurfette1980) at her parent's place in the mountains. Matt had only seen snow once while driving over the grapevine and as a wee lad....so, we were pretty excited to get in it as soon as possible. Of course, the roads were closed. Oh well...we would set the alarm to get up early the next morning. That was silly of us. Athena's parents have a rooster, making alarm clocks pretty obselete. Even so, we managed to sleep in until noon. Hmph! It was too late to get a start to Tahoe now which was almost another 2 hours away. Plan B: We searched for snow chains (did I mention we were trekking through snow in a Toyota Corolla?), saw Mona Lisa Smile (Go Tori!) and ate.
The next morning, we got up and on the road by 9....
Due to traffic, it took us a little over 2 hours to get to the lake...with the two stops. One was to get windshield wiper fluid since we couldn't see past the muddy snow. Although, this really wasn't very necessary since the vehicle wasn't under our control. At one point we were slipping and sliding all over the freeway. Wheeeeeeeeeee! Ok, it was more like: AHHHHHHHHHH! We got off at the next exit to put on the chains. So, I've just installed one of them when the driver of a neighboring vehicle told me that the CHP just yelled at him to take them off. Without giving it a second though, I took off the chains and we were on our way...hahaha. The roadway cleared up about 100 yards later.
We arrived in Tahoe City, a cute little town on the northwestern shore. Matt was soooo giddy at the sight of snow. He just wouldn't stop smiling. It was everywhere, but every 2 feet he'd stop and say "Brandon, HOW can you pass up all this good snow without touching it?" heheheh. I instantly fell in love with the area too. We walked in some shops and out onto a pier before driving down the western edge of the lake. The houses on the lake there were unbelievable. That's all I can say. I really wanted to see Emerald Bay and a replica of a Viking castle that was there...but the road was closed in that area due to an earlier avalanche. Oops! We got out, played in the snow a bit, and took some pictures. Matt also insisted that we pile snow on top of his car. He just wanted it there. Surprisingly, it stayed there for a couple days.
I was determined to see the South Lake Tahoe area which was right on the other side of the avalanche, so we had to drive all the way around the lake. We made one stop on the way at the north shore area. There, we almost got ran over by a truck, took pictures, and demolished some kid's creation. I also wanted to see the sun setting over the moutanins on the other side of the lake, but we were too late :(
After leaving the north shore area, we crossed into Nevada making it offically a "trans-national" vacation...which is all I really wanted..hahaha. We continued until we crossed back into California on the other side of the lake. Eventually, we found this random "lodge" that was one block from the border. Matt waited in the car while I went inside to see the price. He wanted $89 for the night. Ha! Seeing that it was a privately owned place, I decided to negotiate the price. Eventually...
Clerk: ...ok ok, $49 for the night.
Me: Sounds good.
Clerk: Oh wait, there is one condition.
Me: In my head, "Uh oh"
Clerk: You have to root for the Panthers. They're ahead by 3!!!
Me: Ummm...ok. I think I can manage that. Go Panthers!
I signal Matt into the parking lot and we load our stuff into the room. The room was like something from a movie. It was the stereotypical "Cheap room near a casino" room. I loved it. I half expected to hear hooker screams in the middle of the night. Our tummies were growling so we ate, watched an episode of Cheaters and hit the casinos. I'm not much of a gambler, but I just wanted to walk around them all and see what the big deal was. Well, no big deal. I couldn't resist all the slots and I lost $20 there too. Hmph! Time to catch some Z's.
We did good and got another early morning start. I wanted to take the Heavenly Gondola up to the top of the highest mountains in Tahoe (over 9000ft high) so that we could see the whole area. Our hands froze...but the view was beautiful!! We spent a bit of time up there before heading back to town. Now that the shops were open, we looked around those for awhile. I only bought a picture frame and a shot glass for my collection. The sky was growing dark, and we had to drive all the way around the lake and back to Athena's parent's place, so we got on the road. After a short stop there, we made the trip back to the bay.
And now, the visuals...
Matt on the pier in Tahoe City. Don't let the snow on his sweatshirt fool you though. He put it on there with his hands himself! heh
Me on the same pier.
Matt stealing a snow-plow..haha.
Purty icicles.
I found this sign to be ironic since it was at the road that was closed off because of the avalanche.
Another funny sign. What road shall I share? I don't see any bicycles..heh.
Matt decapitated some poor snow man that a little kid probably built...
...I plowed over the rest of the body...but fell in the process...heheh.
Me straddling the California/Nevada borderline.
Look! A sign NOT covered in snow!
And now for a TON of scenery pictures.... (I wish you could see the full resolution versions)
Those are the gondolas we rode to the top of the mountain.
Matt took this spiffy one.
This one too.
It was an incredible way to bring in the new year. Perfect really. I had nothing but a smile on my face the whole time....well, except for when I thought of it ending. I could have easily spent a few more days in Tahoe....and a few more days with Mister M.......