We continued our nesting phase in our rented house, and hosted lots of friends and family visits. Here we are with our dear friends Sean and Paul at Lake Tahoe.
As you will notice, the lake level is low, there’s not much snow on the hills, and the trees were starting to bloom – and the photos were taken in winter.
We tell our visitors to bring slippers because the house is shoe free. Here is Sean is wearing his “slippers.”
This is not a surprise if you see them on Halloween. Dressing in drag with amazing costumes has been a 30+ year practice of theirs.
Next Pete’s brother Paul and his three kids (Jeremy, Spencer, and Abby) came to visit, along with a snow storm!
Paul hadn’t been snowboarding in years, and could really feel the altitude. But "Plow" (as he was known when he lived in Tahoe) could still ride with style.
Here is Spencer hitting one of the jumps in the terrain park.
When Jeremy hit the jumps, he liked to do rail grabs. Pete would ski beside Jeremy and Spencer, taking shots of them in the terrain park.
We especially like these sequences that shows the two brothers riding together and going over jumps one after the other.
The snow continued during our friends Scott and Melia’s visit, and we were able to enjoy cross country skiing with them.
The series of storms dumped 4 to 5 feet of new snow, turning the season back to winter and extending our skiing season by several weeks.
It is so gorgeous to see the snow covering the trees!
Of course, it did make it a bit more difficult to get to the hot tub!
We were able to cross country ski 26 days this season.
Previously we’d had to carry our cross country skis across this bridge, but the new snow made it possible to ski across.
Kristina is with her new friend Louie Bear. Notice that he has a Royal Gorge season pass around his neck, which allows him to be on certain cross country ski trails.
We rented snow shoes several times and enjoyed hiking in the snow. Here's Kristina cutting a trail through the fresh snow during one of the storms.
A week later, our friends Lance and Laura visited, and we snow shoed on Donner summit.
The sunny days quickly started melting snow, but there was still enough at Donner Summit to require snow shoes.
Here we are with Donner Lake in the background.
This is a view of Castle Peak from Donner Summit, looking back along the Pacific Crest Trail.
The gnarled tree was so dramatic.
We cooked a Japanese meal for Lance and Laura. Starting at 12 o’clock and going clockwise is oshitashi (spinach with sesame seeds), koji-marinated chicken liver with green onions, sunomono (seaweed and cucumber salad), yakitori (grilled chicken and chicken stuffed with umeboshi paste and shiso leaves), bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms and fresh wasabi. Lance and Laura brought up some of the key ingredients for the meal, including sake (Japanese rice wine).
Lance and Laura also brought us a treat: hoshigaki, which is Japanese dried persimmon. They told us about the small farm that grows them, and explained that the white exterior was naturally formed sugar as the persimmon dries.
We joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group and were able to eat tasty fresh vegetables each week.
Our brother-in-law Dale came up with his sons Sacha and Erich (right) during their spring break.
All three of them enjoyed the Squaw terrain park. Shown first is Sacha getting big air on his snowboard and doing a rail grab.
Dale did well on the jumps, exhibiting his own inimitable style.
And Erich, who only learned to ski this season, went for it on the jumps too.
As the daytime temperatures heated up, the snow started melting pretty quickly. So we started riding our tandem bike. This shot is along Donner Lake.
Pete is posing in a small amount of snow still along the side of the rode, but we didn’t really ride in any snow.
We figured out a 40 mile loop that went by several reservoirs. This ride has beautiful scenery and very little traffic so we rode it six times, sometimes clockwise and sometimes counterclockwise. It’s so nice to be back on the tandem bike!
Here is Stampede Reservoir. We’ve had 50-60% of the usual precipitation this season, so the water level is very low.
At various points along the route, hiking and mountain biking trails cross the road. We saw this clever sign at one such crossing posted for the benefit of mountain bikers.
Kristina’s folks Patty and Bill visited us, and we enjoyed some beautiful hikes.
Here we are on the Emigrant Trail, and behind us is Prosser Creek.
We had a picnic lunch at Donner Lake, and then walked around the lake.
Or in Patty's case, walked "in" the lake.
Pete and Patty even had time to clear the trail of some fallen trees.
And since the four of us had travelled together in Japan last year, Pete made some tasty Japanese dishes for us: ramen and pork belly.
Our rental house is a 15 minute drive to downtown Truckee. The historic part of Truckee is very charming.
Pete’s sister Denise and her husband Todd came to visit. We all strolled around the downtown. Here we are in front of the “Flying A” 1949-style gas station (that is now a realty office.)
This is El Vis, the snowboarding mascot of Toro Bravo restaurant. We didn’t eat there.
Instead Denise treated us to a tasty lunch at Mellow Fellow, which is known for draft beers and locally made sausages.
Denise and Todd love to play games, and we introduced them (and most of our guests) to Bananagrams, which could be described as speed Scrabble.
Our friend Mya got us hooked on Bananagrams a few months ago, and we were very happy when she offered to leave her game with us!
Then, when we thought the snow was done for the season, we got two more storms. Here we are waiting for the Squaw funitel (which is like a gondola) to open. We were not the only ones excited to ski fresh powder!
We downhill skied 42 days this season, and experienced all kinds of weather.
Our delightful friend Chris and his daughter Mira visited us. Even though Mira had only skied once before, she is a natural athlete and did great.
Mira made our first and only snowman. The carrot nose came from our CSA basket.
Our dear friends Paul and Julie (who met us in Thailand last December) joined us, and the six of us had an outstanding weekend. Paul hadn’t been skiing in almost 30 years, but Old Man Winter picked it right up again.
Paul, Chris and Mira were compatible in their skiing abilities, and they had fun skiing together.
Julie had never skied before, so Kristina gave her some pointers.
Julie did really well learning to ski! Here she is on her first run off the chairlift, rockin’ it with her snow plow.
Our delicious meals included a posole pork stew with fresh corn, Mexican beans and toppings.
We also sampled some of the different kimchis that Pete had made.
We are so happy we decided to live in Tahoe for this ski season!
Next we’re taking a road trip through parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas during the first half of May.
As you will notice, the lake level is low, there’s not much snow on the hills, and the trees were starting to bloom – and the photos were taken in winter.
We tell our visitors to bring slippers because the house is shoe free. Here is Sean is wearing his “slippers.”
This is not a surprise if you see them on Halloween. Dressing in drag with amazing costumes has been a 30+ year practice of theirs.
Next Pete’s brother Paul and his three kids (Jeremy, Spencer, and Abby) came to visit, along with a snow storm!
Paul hadn’t been snowboarding in years, and could really feel the altitude. But "Plow" (as he was known when he lived in Tahoe) could still ride with style.
Here is Spencer hitting one of the jumps in the terrain park.
When Jeremy hit the jumps, he liked to do rail grabs. Pete would ski beside Jeremy and Spencer, taking shots of them in the terrain park.
We especially like these sequences that shows the two brothers riding together and going over jumps one after the other.
The snow continued during our friends Scott and Melia’s visit, and we were able to enjoy cross country skiing with them.
The series of storms dumped 4 to 5 feet of new snow, turning the season back to winter and extending our skiing season by several weeks.
It is so gorgeous to see the snow covering the trees!
Of course, it did make it a bit more difficult to get to the hot tub!
We were able to cross country ski 26 days this season.
Previously we’d had to carry our cross country skis across this bridge, but the new snow made it possible to ski across.
Kristina is with her new friend Louie Bear. Notice that he has a Royal Gorge season pass around his neck, which allows him to be on certain cross country ski trails.
We rented snow shoes several times and enjoyed hiking in the snow. Here's Kristina cutting a trail through the fresh snow during one of the storms.
A week later, our friends Lance and Laura visited, and we snow shoed on Donner summit.
The sunny days quickly started melting snow, but there was still enough at Donner Summit to require snow shoes.
Here we are with Donner Lake in the background.
This is a view of Castle Peak from Donner Summit, looking back along the Pacific Crest Trail.
The gnarled tree was so dramatic.
We cooked a Japanese meal for Lance and Laura. Starting at 12 o’clock and going clockwise is oshitashi (spinach with sesame seeds), koji-marinated chicken liver with green onions, sunomono (seaweed and cucumber salad), yakitori (grilled chicken and chicken stuffed with umeboshi paste and shiso leaves), bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms and fresh wasabi. Lance and Laura brought up some of the key ingredients for the meal, including sake (Japanese rice wine).
Lance and Laura also brought us a treat: hoshigaki, which is Japanese dried persimmon. They told us about the small farm that grows them, and explained that the white exterior was naturally formed sugar as the persimmon dries.
We joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group and were able to eat tasty fresh vegetables each week.
Our brother-in-law Dale came up with his sons Sacha and Erich (right) during their spring break.
All three of them enjoyed the Squaw terrain park. Shown first is Sacha getting big air on his snowboard and doing a rail grab.
Dale did well on the jumps, exhibiting his own inimitable style.
And Erich, who only learned to ski this season, went for it on the jumps too.
As the daytime temperatures heated up, the snow started melting pretty quickly. So we started riding our tandem bike. This shot is along Donner Lake.
Pete is posing in a small amount of snow still along the side of the rode, but we didn’t really ride in any snow.
We figured out a 40 mile loop that went by several reservoirs. This ride has beautiful scenery and very little traffic so we rode it six times, sometimes clockwise and sometimes counterclockwise. It’s so nice to be back on the tandem bike!
Here is Stampede Reservoir. We’ve had 50-60% of the usual precipitation this season, so the water level is very low.
At various points along the route, hiking and mountain biking trails cross the road. We saw this clever sign at one such crossing posted for the benefit of mountain bikers.
Kristina’s folks Patty and Bill visited us, and we enjoyed some beautiful hikes.
Here we are on the Emigrant Trail, and behind us is Prosser Creek.
We had a picnic lunch at Donner Lake, and then walked around the lake.
Or in Patty's case, walked "in" the lake.
Pete and Patty even had time to clear the trail of some fallen trees.
And since the four of us had travelled together in Japan last year, Pete made some tasty Japanese dishes for us: ramen and pork belly.
Our rental house is a 15 minute drive to downtown Truckee. The historic part of Truckee is very charming.
Pete’s sister Denise and her husband Todd came to visit. We all strolled around the downtown. Here we are in front of the “Flying A” 1949-style gas station (that is now a realty office.)
This is El Vis, the snowboarding mascot of Toro Bravo restaurant. We didn’t eat there.
Instead Denise treated us to a tasty lunch at Mellow Fellow, which is known for draft beers and locally made sausages.
Denise and Todd love to play games, and we introduced them (and most of our guests) to Bananagrams, which could be described as speed Scrabble.
Our friend Mya got us hooked on Bananagrams a few months ago, and we were very happy when she offered to leave her game with us!
Then, when we thought the snow was done for the season, we got two more storms. Here we are waiting for the Squaw funitel (which is like a gondola) to open. We were not the only ones excited to ski fresh powder!
We downhill skied 42 days this season, and experienced all kinds of weather.
Our delightful friend Chris and his daughter Mira visited us. Even though Mira had only skied once before, she is a natural athlete and did great.
Mira made our first and only snowman. The carrot nose came from our CSA basket.
Our dear friends Paul and Julie (who met us in Thailand last December) joined us, and the six of us had an outstanding weekend. Paul hadn’t been skiing in almost 30 years, but Old Man Winter picked it right up again.
Paul, Chris and Mira were compatible in their skiing abilities, and they had fun skiing together.
Julie had never skied before, so Kristina gave her some pointers.
Julie did really well learning to ski! Here she is on her first run off the chairlift, rockin’ it with her snow plow.
Our delicious meals included a posole pork stew with fresh corn, Mexican beans and toppings.
We also sampled some of the different kimchis that Pete had made.
We are so happy we decided to live in Tahoe for this ski season!
Next we’re taking a road trip through parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas during the first half of May.
