We booked this trip a few months ago, banking on El Niño giving us early snow! And the little guy delivered!! Monday We traveled all day, arriving in time to unload at our home for the week - the Stardust Lodge - and have a great Mexican dinner with Larry & Jean at a hole-in-the-wall nearby, Maya's.
Tuesday Started off the skiing portion of the trip with yummy breakfast at Red Hut of course! Went skiing/boarding for a few hours at Heavenly - the snow was not plentiful, but it was nice and there was good coverage on the groomed runs - exactly what you need on the first day of the season 🏂
Afterwards Jean and I had fun creating our first tie dye shirts! Steve and I stopped by the Tahoe Sports Ltd shop, always great, where I picked up elusive snowboard boots and Steve got new snowboard pants. Success! And then we all headed down to JJ's in Minden to have dinner with Butch and Michael.
Wednesday After a late breakfast at Red Hut, we found it was too windy and icy to hit the mountain today, so we hung out with Michael at McP's and had dinner at Base Camp Pizza. We should get a big storm tonight!
Thursday Lots of rain overnight, and at 9:30am it turned to snow! We had a great breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe, and toyed with heading on to the mountain but it would be cold and soggy and not many runs are open... so we hunkered down in town. We did a little shopping, and lunched at Azul Latin Kitchen. That night we took advantage of a free lasagne dinner at the Stardust and watched The Manchurian Candidate. What a great movie!
Friday Powder day!! Overnight we got 2+' and so after another great breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe, we jumped on Heavenly's Gondola and hit the slopes! It was snowy with limited visibility early in the day, but that eventually dissipated.
A few runs in, we decided to go down a run that ended up being tons of deep powder. Unfortunately I got stuck a bunch of times... exhausting. But it was a great day!
We topped it off with a marvelous dinner at Azul Latin Kitchen (with margaritas) after trying to go to the Tahoe Adventure Film Festival at Montebleu, but it was too smoky in there and my asthma told us to Get Out!
Saturday The crowds have certainly hit South Lake Tahoe! Breakfast at the Driftwood Cafe was very busy, which reinforced our decision to drive to Kirkwood for the day's snowboarding. Very fun day, the roads were good and the crowds were pretty light!
One odd little incident - there was a little mouse hopping around in the snow at the top of one of the chairlifts at one point. We think she might have had a baby gripping her back... couldn't figure out how to help her, and by the time we got back, she was gone.
It snowed a bit here and there, made for a gorgeous winter wonderland.
By the time we got back 'home' the crowds were crazy, so we picked up a pizza at Base Camp Pizza and watched Pan's Labyrinth. Odd movie, but good.
Sunday We got up early and headed down the to the valley so that we would miss the brunt of the new storm, and had brunch with Butch at Bodines. The weather was a bit gnarly so we headed to the airport early, played some cribbage and relaxed before heading home.
Great trip!
