california day3 and 4* cuda

DAY3: MARCH 25th 2008

Again the day starts with the breakfast buffet. I was the first one up at 630am. Pretty much just waited for everyone to get up get ready for our 4 hour long road trip: Lake Tahoe. This was the part of the trip all of us were looking forward to. Strange that this was kind of a last minute thing we decided on before leaving on the trip.

The road trip there was really fun despite what I was initially thinking. Thought it was going to be dull, worn out, and just plain boring. Instead, Logan played DJ on the newly acquired iPOD Touch with his speakers blaring out songs from Avenged Sevenfold to Journey and Chicago.

We got to cross some bridges and pay tolls too! The traffic that it causes is pretty bad too. Imagine if they had that in Hawaii to add more to the traffic? Wondering exactly how the "fast lane" works on that too.

Ended up TRYING to play "Snaps" with the family but they didn't get it. Played "Questions only" also. I totally owned them in the game. Haha. Was great to just do some site seeing, before the car got quiet and we fell asleep.

I don't remember exactly when I woke up, but the first thing I remember seeing for the very first time was laying on a patch of ground on the side of the road as we continued up the mountain: SNOW! (1st blessing of the day) No longer could I say that I've never seen snow before! What an awesome site it was too, when in fact it was just frozen water on the ground.

We stopped on the side of the road so that we could just look, touch, and walk in it. It was COLD! I was wearing a shirt and a long sleeve with sweat pants and jeans and it was still pretty darn cold. The first thing Lindsey does in the snow, is step in it, only to sink immediately all of her boot! The first thing Logan does, is pick up some snow with his bare hands and throw it at me! No surprise.

We finally get to the hotel we were to stay at: The Horizon Resort and Casino. After checking in, we went ahead to "Heavenly" which is the name of a little shopping place to eat. There were many places to eat, but we ended up eating at some pizza joint called Blue Dog Pizza (2nd blessing of the day). Why? Well the guy who was working at the place, Andy, was real nice to us. Even gave us the BEST advice about us wanting to go snow boarding: Rent equipment the day BEFORE you want to go snowboarding. Forwarded us to a place called the "Boardinghouse" where we met his good friend Alex (Hehe his name is Alex). He got all our gear together and gave us the best things he could for what we payed for. Funny thing is that the boards that he recommended us to have COMPLETELY matched us. Lindsey got a PINK TOKIDOKI board, Logan a got a RED board, and I got a board with TECHNOLOGY on it or something. Alex gave us a 20% discount to, for no reason at all (3rd blessing of the day).

We headed back to the room and took a little nap before going to eat at a 24 hour restaurant in the hotel we were at called the "4 seasons" The best part? A $15 prime rib special that tasted WAY more than the $15 spent. The food and service was really good too (4th blessing of the day).

My brother and I went to check out the arcade in the building, which wasn't the greatest thing, but we ended watching "Knowing" at the theatre instead. It's a pretty good movie, scary concept but a VERY good movie.

I gambled for the first time at a slot machine. No blessing there :(

Tucked in for the night!!!!


*****


DAY4: MARCH 26th 2008

Got to sleep in, and after much anticipation, got ready to go snowboarding! I don't think I've ever worn that much clothes at the same time: two long sleeve shirts, a waterproof jacket, sweatpants, jeans, and waterproof pants. Surprisingly I wasn't that hot hahah.

We ate a quick breakfast, got our gear and headed up the Gondala. The trek took 12 minutes to get up the mountian, and it was pretty scary going up that mountain SO up high in the air (I'm not very fond of heights). There was a first stop we got off of to site see and to take some pictures. The three kids insued instead in a heated battle of snowball fights. I got the best of them though with two huge amounts thrown at them with them throwing right back at me. Logan likes to PACK the snow and they HURT when they hit.

Finally we reach the very top of the mountain. The best way I can describe it being much like a beach, with people just going around and doing their own thing, except it being very cold and with snow instead of water.

We were directed to the "small" hill, which to me didn't look very small at all called the "Big Small". It was a challenge to get on the lift itself with only one foot attached to the board. It's a very weird feeling the first time on a snowboard. I can't exactly describe it.

Now on the the most memorable part of the whole trip.

The three of us get to the top of the lift, and LINDSEY being the scrub that she is, panics and falls down, of course bringing me and Logan down with her. We eat it HARD as SOON as we get off the lift, me flipping over a few times, Logan tumbling, Lindsey falling FLAT on her back, arms flailing, legs pointed up to the sky and boards fumbling in the air... in front of about 476509234659325 people. I was cracking up at how funny it was. Logan didn'te really care, but Lindsey looked like she was about to cry (having hit her head on the lift too).

One guy behind us saw me laughing asked, "You guys ok?"

"We're fine," I laughed.

"You guys fell pretty good from what I saw!"

"It felt like it!"

"I'd pay to see that again!"

"I probably would to!"

After straping in and sucking it up, we took a deep breath to head down the slope. The "Big Small" consisted of one small hill, some flat ground, followed by a long slope. It took us 30 minutes to get down to the flat ground area. It was hard to stand up and to control the board. Most of the time it was us slidding slowly down the hill on our arms for support. Logan made a really good point: "It's so tiring and we're not even doing anything"

Lindsey is furthest down the hill, me next, and Logan closest to the top. Then something amazing happens. Logan just BOMBS the hill courageously. I was thouroughly impressed. Lindsey was like "whoa..." as we stared in awe as Logan hurled down the mountain getting faster and faster and faster.

Now at this point I'm thinking, wow he's got some guts and he's going pretty fast, but....

"Does he know how to stop?" Lindsey asked.

"I don't know..." I chuckled. It was funny, that I didn't laugh at all.

He was at the very bottom of the hill headed towards a rope blocking off a certain area and he tried to turn out of the way. Because of the laws of physics, you cant exactly turn instantaneously while going very quickly in a straight line, so while Logan tried to turn right, he still went straight, falling to his hands, flipping twice like a ragdoll and coming to a stop facing up flat on his back. Though I was far up the mountain, I could see his sungalsses fly off his face and a glove go into the air.

Me and Lindsey did the thing any other sibling would have done. We laughed. There we were, laughing our butts off, on the ground, cheeks and abs hurting, as Logan struggled to get up.

If I seriously could record and show you I would, because it was pretty damn funny :D.

Anyway, we spent the next 4 hours trying to figure this snowboarding thing out. It's a lot harder than it looks, but I think I did ok. I still am unable to turn backside...

Returned our gear and headed back towards San Francisco, stopped by some Outlet Mall area where I got a pair of shoes :) Ended up eating at an L & L. RICE and good rice too!

Other than that, there was nothing else that I can remember as we headed back to our hotel.

My body was aching though as I went to bed.

Dang it Francis, my legs STILL hurt from that P90X thingamabob stuff....