Tahoe, Yo!

Last weekend I went to South Lake Tahoe for March Madness (and skiing) with a group of 7 friends. Oh yeah, it was St. Patrick's Day too. We tried this for the first time last year and the trip was such a success we decided to make it an annual event.

This year's trip started out great before we even left Seattle because we thought we were going to get to fly on the WSU Cougar airplane. Alas, it was just an excellent photo-op.

A proud day for Cory

We were all good boys and girls the first night and went to bed right away. Seriously.

Day 1: The girls (Laura, Melody, Brittany, and I) all got up early to ski Heavenly. It was a blue bird day and parts of the mountain had been closed due to a storm that came through earlier in the week. We found some fantastic snow, especially once Killebrew and Mott Canyons opened just before lunchtime.

Bluebird Day at Heavenly - Lake Tahoe

We also found some tree wells. Laura backed into one accidentally. I had a slightly more dramatic - but equally painless - tumble into one.

Oops! - Have fun getting out

The boys stayed in Harvey's Casino and bet on the basketball games.

It was also St. Patrick's Day and we went to hear a live (and very non-Irish) band play at place called Mc P's Irish Pub. It was crowded and Laura managed to find herself in the middle of a bachelor party for the majority of the night. She was handing out the little plastic babies from the baby shower we helped host the other week. It was the perfect compliment to the golden condoms the leprechaun bachelors were distributing.

I'm pretty sure everyone came out ahead today.

Day 2 - Friday entailed sleeping in, a fabulous bloody mary from the Stateline Brewery, and more basketball. Laura and I called it an early night.

Pickle = Yes!!

Day 3 - Laura's friend from Steamboat Springs, who now lives in the Bay Area, came up to meet us and drove us to Kirkwood on Saturday morning. It had snowed 2 feet overnight and even though only half of the mountain was open due to wind, it was worth it. This is by far the deepest, freshest snow I have ever skied. I had a few minor incidents:

• getting hit by the chair lift while unloading and falling over
• getting stuck in the powder and falling over (this occurred more than once)
• nearly completing my first 180 off a small lip and falling over

Actually the last was a near-triumph.

Here's Andy, Laura's friend, jumping off of a cliff at Kirkwood. It's much more impressive than my almost 180:

Look at all the snow! - Kirkwood

The other group made it up to Heavenly and had an equally awesome day. Powder for all in Tahoe!

The craps tables, however, were not so soft and fluffy.

Day 4 - We contemplated skiing Heavenly on Sunday, but the upper mountain was closed due to winds and it was snowing a lot. We still had to drive to Reno and we weren't sure about the road conditions. After watching UW lose and grabbing a bite to eat, we set off.

We made it to Reno with plenty of time, so we saw the movie Limitless (decent) and ate at In N Out (not to be missed).

Melody found a boyfriend at the movie theater

Then it was time to hit up the airport and say goodbye to the Nevada/California state line...at least until next year.

I attacked a cougar at the airport