Thanksgivings trip

K organized this trip entirely for thanksgivings holidays. 9 of us went on a trip together and it was fun. I don’t remember the last trip when I had enjoyed this much. This was our first trip with friends after marriage. K had booked a cabin near Lake Tahoe for 3 days. The group consisted of Me and my hubby, K and his wife A, P and his wife D, S and his wife Si and Sa who is still a bachelor. Everyone except for us left on wednesday evening itself and stayed at the cabin on wednesday night. We left on thursday morning and reached there at around 8:30 in the morning. There was hardly any traffic and we reached within 3 to 3 & 1/2 hours.

DAY 1

Donner Lake

The cabin was right in front of Donner Lake which looked so beautiful. When we came in the morning, it was completely covered with fog and we could not see even the water. View from the cabin was mindblowing. We left after sometime and visited the lake up-close and the scenery was breathtaking. After taking some pics and touching the water, we left. Water was very cold so there was no way we were going inside.

Truckee River

We left Donner Lake and picked up lunch on the way at Subway. I ate mine on the way itself, since I was so hungry. We then headed towards Truckee city downtown. Downtown had some pretty shops but almost everything was closed for thanksgivings. We spent sometime admiring the railway track and then went in search of the Truckee river. The river did not disappoint us and it was time to click some more pics with it.

Squaw Valley

After that there was some argument as to where we should head next. Finally it was decided that we will go hiking. K found a nice trail in Squaw valley and we went in search of it. When we arrived at the destination according to GPS, we could not find any trail-head. We did some discovery and started climbing a hill which was covered with snow and was pretty steep. Some of us gave up halfway and demanded to go back, since it will be very difficult to get down as it was slippery because of the ice.

Then we saw a family come back after finishing the hike and we asked them about the trail. Finally we found the trail and started the hike. It ended up with a beautiful falls and a stream. People were trying to hike up the falls from the side and hubby dear went alone and beat them to the top using a different path. We spent a lot of time at the rocky area and the falls. It was about to get dark and we decided to get back to the cars.

We then went to the Squaw valley ski resort to check out ski lessons/packages for next day.

Reno

Evening we headed straightaway to Reno’s Grand Sierra Casino & Hotel. I was so excited about gambling after such a long time (almost 3 years) 😀

Once we were in the casino, everyone went their own way to try and make some money. Hubby who has never been to a casino was just wondering what all those machines were. I started playing or rather losing money. But he kept encouraging me to continue playing. I lost about $65, when I realized that I had enough of it. Then P took us to this another machine where you could play for less $. Hubby asked me to try my luck one last time here and voila, I won like $30 here in the first game that I played. He urged me to continue playing but I did not want to be greedy. I atleast recovered some part of the money that I lost. I stopped playing and we went to have dinner at the Casino restaurant.

DAY 2

Skiing at Northstar resort

Early next day we went to Northstar for skiing. This was the first time all of us were skiing except for K and Sa. We went and rented those horrible shoes, which are so heavy! I got a wrong size initially and that literally broke my leg. We went again and exchanged them for a bigger size. It was like tying an iron rod to my feet. I could hardly move my feet. And then on top of that, you have to carry those heavy weight skiis. Hubby carried my skiis too and got the title “Gentleman”. It was terrible! Getting into the gondola itself was so difficult, since the gondola doesn’t stop for more than some seconds and with those shoes on your leg, climbing is another big task. We got onto the gondola and it took us to the top of the mountain. Walking in those shoes was literally hell. I am in search of the person who invented them.

We had taken beginner lessons and the instructor came. He made us walk with one ski on the right leg and then with the left leg (which made most of the people fall). And then he made us put ski on both legs and to try skiing. It went well for me. I had not fallen even once when people kept falling left and right. But the main problem was I did not know how to stop. Once you start skiing, you will keep sliding forever on that snow. The technique to stop was something that the instructor did not bother to teach, even when I asked him to. Hubby perfected the art very easily. He was skiing so well and encouraged me to try myself too. I did and fell somewhere in a very crooked position. He did not notice me falling and was searching for me in some other direction. Thankfully a lady came and tried lifting me. She was unable to. Some guy who was passing by commented – “how did you manage to fall in this position?” and laughed. Yeah right! Getting up once you fall is probably the toughest part of skiing. Somehow the lady was able to remove my skiis from my leg, which even I tried hard to but couldn’t remove.

After the great fall, I had enough of this sport. My knees were hurt so badly that I couldn’t move them. I then sat and took rest for sometime, when hubby joined me. After sometime, we gave few more tries at skiing but somehow I just kept falling. Hubby was really good at it and he seemed to have mastered the art of skiing. He was skiing so nicely as if he were a pro. Probably it is an art and not everyone can do it. Or probably the instructor was bad (which is what I would like to think :P) I do want to give it another try sometime in the future.

After skiing was closed for the day, I was so cold, hungry and tired that pizza was the thing on my mind. We sat for sometime near the ice skating arena watching other people fall 😀 Then we picked something for dinner on the way at a Mexican restaurant and headed home.

Once we were in our cozy cabin, people wanted to play something. We played dumb charades (boys vs girls) for sometime and it was so much fun. Watching K dance in order to enact something was the funniest part. We laughed, laughed and laughed. Then we played cards for sometime. It was couples team and it was even more fun. We were playing bluff and hubby was against me bluffing. He wanted me to be an honest person there. But I did bluff and between us and Sa, we won the game at the end.

DAY 3

Lake Tahoe

The last day at the cabin when we had to vacate it. We headed to north side of the lake. We spent sometime at the King’s beach and then headed to south Lake Tahoe. We went to the Emerald bay, which gives the best view of the lake and then went to an Indian restaurant for lunch. After 3 whole days we had Indian. It felt so nice. After the lunch, we came back and the trip was over. In a way, I did not want the trip to end. But thinking about all the work I had next day, I was glad we were back early.

This is one trip that I will remember for a very long time to come and one more item from my bucket list has been ticked (skiing).