Girl's weekend at Tahoe!

I just got back from an awesome girl's ski weekend in Tahoe this past weekend with the ladies. We decided on Skiing at Alpine Meadows which is just one resort over from Squaw. Julie's parent's have the cutest ski cottage up in Tahoe-Donner and we stayed there. The drive up from SF took about 4 hours after we finally passed the traffic getting to the bay bridge. We picked up Julie's sister Noelle in Davis and then headed up to Tahoe. It wasn't snowing or raining so we made pretty good time. Julie's 4 wheel drive Rav 4 was perfect for the drive.

Lake Tahoe in the background

We got up early Saturday morning and drove about 15 minutes to Alpine Meadows. I had only skiied at Squaw so I was excited to try a new mountain. Alpine Meadows apparently has the most extreme skiing in the area and I did see lots of double blacks on the map. (not up close and personal =) We stuck to the blues and easy blacks and had a blast! The resort wasn't that crowded at all and all the cars behind us that morning all pulled off into Squaw's parking lot. It was a perfect sunny ski day! The snow was packed powder for the most part but in the afternoon the snow turned to a soft slush. We skiied well together and at the same pace which was nice. After lunch, I decided to go to the peak on a different lift by myself. The other girls didn't want to go up because they thought it would be too windy. I knew what wind and whiteout conditions were *really* like (think top of Whistler, Val d'sere and Squaw) so this wind I decided would be nothing. When I got off the lift at the top I was so glad I went up because the view was amazing! You could see Lake Tahoe and all the other neighboring ski resorts - it was so pretty! (See picture below) I skiied down the bowl from the top and it was great. I never felt the Sierra cement this time like I did at Squaw. What a fun ski weekend!

They also introduced me to sledding this weekend not believing I had never been! I have seen tubing on the resorts at night but have never tried it. We fired up a batch of margaritas and then head outside to the luge Julie's family dug on the side of their house in their yard. We used plastic sleds and hiked up one side and flew down the other. We dug out a few spots that ice had built up on and the finally got it perfect. We could start from the top (in their backyard) and make it all the way to their driveway. It was so fun! Of course it started snowing Sunday when we were leaving. We all agreed we had a great weekend!

Schnitzel?

Am I spelling it right? Not sure, but anyway, we went to our friend Chuck's surprise birthday party at the Schnitzel House in SF this weekend. Known to be a great German restaurant good for groups and drinking lots of beer, we all huddled inside at the big table we had reserved and popped out and scared Chuck. He, of course, in true Chuck fashion was in full motorcycle gear and *very* surprised to say the least. We all ordered different beer and Chuck drank his out of the cowboy boot glass they served him. It looked more like a lady's UG boot...

I had never had true German food before like this. I ordered the "schnitzel" not even knowing what kind of meat it was or what it would look like and Karl tried some sausage of some sort. It was all very yummy! The German potatoe dumplings and sauerkraut on the side were my fav! About half way through the night the music changed from German jingles to full on Tejano/Mexican music and we all had a good laugh. Apparently, the owner of the restaurant, some old German dude, died recently and the Taqueria next door to Schnitzel House took over. Hence the entirely Hispanic wait staff talking about shots of tequila all night and the change of music half way through. Funny. Who knew we all loved German food so much!?

what was named that night as "Heart attack on a plate" but oh, so yummy...

Later that night Chuck unveiled his latest project in his backyard- a former Radio Flyer red wagon that he welded 3 legs to which became a fireplace for smores that night. We all enjoyed lots of smores topped off with some paint fumes from the wagon.
What fun! Happy Birthday Chuck!

Hola!

It's been a while. Not much new to report here. Karl went skiing with "the guys" last weekend in Vail and they had awesome snow apparently. I'm excited for the "girls trip" to Tahoe next weekend! My friend's family has a house up in Truckee and we're making a weekend out of it. We're not sure what resort we're going to yet-Alpine Meadows, Kirkwood, Heavenly, Squaw, whew....so many to choose from! Squaw has received 6 feet of new snow in the last 3 days! yes, FEET!! I'm telling you- out here they get HUGE dumps when they do finally get snow. What that translates to in the city is usually many days of rain, rain & more rain. It has been coming down here lately. So, it looks like we'll hit it just right next weekend. Can't wait!

I've been thinking of other recipes I whip up during the week and I totally forgot my staple- Chicken Stir Fry. It's SO easy and healthy. I love how I say healthy and lately we've been chowing down on all the Girl Scout cookies my mom sent us...dangerous! Anyway, Karl just informed me that we are officially mailing in our taxes tomorrow. Hooray! (not that taxes are exciting but it's been eating up alot of evenings around here lately) After many late nights of working on them after work Karl has officially put the stamp on the envelope!

.......Good nite!