Tahoe

"home in old Medora
home in ol' Truckee
Apalachicola
home I'll never be"

We rolled into San Fran about 5 hours late, loaded all the ski gear and luggage into a 4WD SUV (snow was reported heavy at Donner Pass) and we headed east towards Tahoe to hook up with friends who had recently moved to San Fran, taking Samuel's best friend with them.

Heavy rain the whole drive out comin down in buckets as we crossed said pass. Slowed to tell them, yes, we had 4WD, then proceeded downhill very cautiously towards Truckee and 89 South. Lots of water all over the road, trying to wash awaya the snow, but there was too much white stuff for that to happen...Rolled in very tired around 10:00 at night...

Still raining the next morning, the parking lot at Squaw was deep and wet. They closed the mountain due to avalanche dangers. Back at the A-frame that afternoon, there was a load pop of a transformer and the power goes out in the neighborhood. House wasn't warm to begin with so now all we have is the wood stove. And we're not sparing any wood... Power came back on late the next day.

So the snow wasn't light and fluffy, but it was good to get out their on the skiis. I'd say that we did pretty well living, essentially in one room, with eight people for the better part of a week. Amazing the electronic toys. At least half of the people (adults and kids) are playing games or checking their email at any given moment.

The weather wasn't ever great and clear, but at least we saw no more rain. And the 7 - 12 feet that were predicted never materialized either.

A couple days of skiing, then headed back to San Fran on Thursday. A little Chinatown sightseeing and a visit to City Lights. Nice beds at the Sir Francis Drake and then it was a painless flight back to Philadelphia. Free bump to First Class never hurts. Pick up the dog on the way home from the airport, home by 9:30, then wrap presents until 2:00. Fortunately the kids don't get up as early as they used to...

All in all, not a bad trip...