Okay, so this weekend has started pretty damn good - long flight from the West Coast all night Thursday night - that is another story entirely, the red eye is never easier, but I can assure you that working all night long really impresses folks when their inbox is full of crap at 3:00 am...hopefully they had their mobile devices on vibrate or silent, otherwise they got an earful of pings as annoying as the microwave that is going off behind me letting repeatedly know that my breakfast is warm...(yes, I am too damn lazy right now to get up and go get the SuperPretzel that is going to go perfect with my Starbucks...)
Anyway, so last weekend was great - the only other time I have ever been to Lake Tahoe was in the backseat of my girlfriends car being driven by some drunk guy that I worked with at the Hyatt Regency San Diego - apparently, Mammoth mountain was not big enough for them, so they went on an all night gambling junket to the Lake - I slept through the entire thing in the backseat of the car - sort of like the Hangover - I was not supposed to have the car up there, but hell, if I could count the number of endless things that I am not supposed to do - well then I would be a REALLY good counter...
The weather was really mild down at the bottom of the mountain, flying in late Thursday night, tired, a good week with the kids, but the schedule during those weeks makes for absolute craziness where laying my head on the pillow before 2 am becomes a wish list item - I was tired, and ready for a night of sleep - I think by the time I hit the Homewood Suites Reno, that I was more zombie like - getting to Reno from Florida is sort of like Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the new world - I had to fly from Jacksonville to Detroit to Salt Lake City to Reno - the only drawback of free tickets - all the while being told by such educated seat mates that it would have been significantly easier to get to Lake Tahoe by flying into Sacramento - don't worry, I held my tongue at this unsolicited advice, and hid very well the thought 'well kiss my ass Mr. TravelPro, and move your fat ass to your seat..." -
It was still hard to sleep that night - I was excited, not just because another exciting rendevous in an exotic location - but a ski trip and entertainment and snow and three and a half days...I woke up in the morning in my blue jeans and pullover - so apparently, reading "Things to Do in Lake Tahoe", was not enough to keep me totally awake. I was at the airport an hour early to pick up Cadence - and for me to ever get to the airport an hour early for anything is a pretty big task....
Driving the road that leads to South Lake Tahoe was, for lack of a better word, amazing - getting past the snow line, glimpses of the glass blue lake framed by icing covered mountains, the coyotes darting across the street, the small bungalows with trails of smoke wisping out of the chimneys, it was a good drive. It was a good time - those long drives with a friend and coffee and good music - those are the best of times - wanderlust is always better when there is someone to share it with - the drive back to the airport - not so much - you know, the old sinking feeling of goodbye - but those goodbyes are now short lived - I can deal with the ten days in between visits - as long as it is only ten days.
We get to the lift Saturday morning - and the air is clear and crisp and of course Cadence was beautiful. Her apprehension about being on a mountain as large as Heavenly was evident, and me, in my infinite wisdom, drag her up to about the top - where the only way down is a series of very narrow, snowboard unfriendly trails - but all the while, she was patient - not yet pissed or defeated, just patient. Selfish I guess, but then again, I have never been accused of reaching self-realization yet, and am happy that I finally made it through my anal retentive stage.
The picture above is how I prefer to remember this trip - before the first run, before the spill, before getting separated on the mountain, before the panic of trying to find where Cadence went - before finding her back at the hotel with a broken arm, in pain, and a little upset with me about the day - it is amazing when being angry goes through that progression - anger, storming off, realization, searching, reconciling, and consequence - then you sit in the urgent care center for an hour while your girlfriend refuses to hold it against you (it would have been easier if she would have been a little bent about the entire thing...) The perfect pink smile, the dimples, the bright brown eyes, the mountain serving as the a backdrop that highlights everything that is right about her, and good, and natural. Nice to be natural and feel that way...
Anyway, not much more to describe about the weekend - other than it was too short, the broken arm gave me the perfect opportunity to take care of her - and you know, sometimes it takes a broken arm for her to let me do that, but the smell of grapefruit, the sound of slot machines and comedy clubs, the chintzy horse racing game, the late mornings...always too short - but well worth the trip...
Until next time,
George
No comments:
Post a Comment