Tahoe 08

I was busy uploading our Tahoe pictures to Flickr and ran into some problems with the images I had taken in portrait orientation instead of landscape. Never had that happen before, and I take a good number of pictures using portrait orientation. Flickr is now down for some maintenance, so maybe when they come back up, all will be well. In the meantime, there's Blogger!!! So here I am.

Donna asked for a picture of her Dad in his ski clothes. Oh, I have several, and all will be on Flickr, but these two are probably my favorites - one with the big snowflakes and the other with the big smile!

We had such a good time this year! The young women who manned the ticket booths and scheduled lessons got to know Lauren, and they teased him from time to time about how they wish they could ski as much as he did. Not only do you get good prices on lift tickets when you're a senior, but sometimes you get some really fun attention from young and friendly faces.

We had all kinds of nice weather while we were there - a good blizzard before we arrived, leaving wonderful snow for skiing for the physically active and wonderment for the not so physically active. Lauren had three great days of skiing!

We were expecting light snow on Saturday, the day we had decided to head back to San Diego, and we were really surprised when we learned - almost the hard way - that we needed chains to get out of the Tahoe basin via route 267.

We were coming down Village Drive, the road that leads to the main road along the lake, and stopped at the stop light before we turned right. When Lauren put on the gas, he shot out across the road and headed straight for a car that was waiting for a green light at the intersection. We thanked God, out loud, as we began to veer left instead of right, where the car was sitting, avoiding the collision.

It's amazing how long a few seconds can be and the myriad of thoughts that go through your head. I kept thinking that the other driver's car looked so nice and I didn't want us to bash in the front end; and at the same time, I thought that we would be late getting home because we would have to have our car fixed, about the rise in our insurance costs, the inconvenience to everyone involved, and a hundred other things! Wow!

So we drove down the road past the 267 turnoff and stopped in the Safeway lot while Lauren put on the chains. We weren't the only ones there, and it turned out to be a good thing that we did. There was a checkpoint just a little way up 267, and you couldn't get through if you didn't have chains on.

We ran into a slight delay on 267 at Northstar, where cars were lined up to go up to the ski area.

Our delay was nothing, though, compared to the delay from those who were coming from Tuckee. It was Saturday morning and those who had worked all week all had the same idea - get me to the slopes. Northstar apparently doesn't have good traffic management. The line of cars extended for at least five miles. I think, had I lived in Truckee and wanted to go skiing that morning, I would have gotten up and on the road much earlier than these people. I think I would have rather sat in the parking lot at Northstar reading a book, chatting, or working Sudoku than sitting in my car waiting for the next movement of a few inches.

We took our chains off before we entered I-80 and had no problems with our drive home until we reached I-210, which would take us from I-5 to I-15. We thought it would be a much better route than continuing down I-5 because it misses most of LA. Were we wrong! This traffic jam was about 40 miles long! When we arrived at the end of it, just before we turned off for I-15, a fellow with a wrecker truck was finishing loading a van or SUV onto his truck. He was all alone, and it looked dangerous out there by himself. We have no idea what happened, but it showed us down enough that we got home a little over an hour later than we expected - but we got home safely!

Safely - that's the operative word. We had a wonderful time this past week and hope to be able to enjoy Tahoe many more times as the years pass.

Now, in my last blog, I proposed an imaginary picture. Here's one of my favorite dreaming times while we were in Tahoe this time. The picture just kept telling me stories, and I could have stayed there, looked down at that foot bridge illuminated by the glow of lamp posts, and imagined a hundred and one tales - each new one as satisfying as the last.

Ah... Tahoe, in any season, has to be one of the most beautiful places we've ever been, but Tahoe in winter is truly a magic place.