Pat and I went to California for nine days to visit family and friends and play in the snow at Lake Tahoe. The occasion was a family meet-up. Our daughters Alice and Anna, their spouses Jenn and Brian, and friends Kyle and Gina and their two-year-old son Kian would spend several days together with us.
Sacramento
Instead of using a car rental company, Pat had decided to book a car thru the Turo website, which is like AirBNB for cars. The owner had left the car for us in an airport parking lot. A lockbox was hooked to the window with the key inside of it. Pat took “before” pictures of the car and sent them to the owner, and we were ready to go. It was a Honda CR-V like ours, with four-wheel drive; but it was a hybrid with both gas and electric motors. When she started it some indicators on the dashboard lit up but we didn’t hear anything. It was a bit of a nuisance not being sure whether it was running or not. When moving, the car made a faint musical humming sound. Now and then we could hear the gas engine start when it needed more power to charge the battery or climb a hill. The car accelerated well, and the electric motor and battery didn’t seem to take up any interior space.
Next morning I walked over the levee behind the motel to the Sacramento River. Some trees were in the water, but the levee had lots of height to spare. We picked up Anna and Brian at the nearby train station. Anna knew a great place to get lunch; Mendocino Farms Restaurant. A statue of a blue cow stands outside the entrance. Later I discovered that part of the ceiling is a meadow of green grass with little upside-down cows grazing. We gave our orders at the counter and found a table. I scanned the QR code on the table with my phone. This took me to a website where I keyed in the receipt number. A few minutes later a waiter showed up with our food. I had a wonderful baked chicken sandwich with mustard and barbecue sauces.
Lake Tahoe
We headed up the 80 to Lake Tahoe. (Californians prefix highway numbers with the word “the,” and Anna has adopted the habit.) In the mountains the snowbanks were so high that Pat sometimes had trouble seeing up the adjoining roads at intersections. Just before Truckee we turned north into a maze of roads; this was Tahoe-Donner, a private ski resort at an altitude of 6,500 feet. Houses protruded from the snow with immense loads of snow on their roofs. Being struck by snow falling from a roof is a hazard in this town.
Our mountainside house had three levels. At the top was the garage. Stairs led down to a cloakroom and beyond it a great-room with a franklin fireplace surrounded by couches and armchairs, a long dining table and a large kitchen. More stairs led down to four bedrooms and a game room. The house had decks and balconies, and an outdoor hot-tub that Jenn took charge of. Snowdrifts around the house were 8 to 10 feet high. Alice and Jenn made a fancy salad bar for our first supper together.
Cross-country skiing
On Thursday we drove to the Alder Creek Adventure Center. When I rented skis and poles, there were no skis with metal edges, and the shopkeeper insisted on giving me 140cm poles. We took the skis to the patio and climbed portable steps four feet up to the top of the snow. My ski boots have a little steel bar inside the toe that snaps into the ski binding–if the boot and binding aren’t stuffed with ice, and I align the boot just right, and I’m lucky. Alice spotted for me until I got them on and we headed up the hill together. It was clear and sunny; the mountainside was very beautiful. My poles felt wrong and soon my upper arms were aching. I took them back to the rental shop and got 130cm poles. Then I had to put my skis on again, but with practice I was getting better at it.
We headed up the hill again. The shorter poles were much better. But the temperature was just above freezing, which is always troublesome because the bottoms of skis get wet and then snow freezes to them. Suddenly my right ski stopped moving and I fell over. A brick of snow had formed on its underside. I took off my skis and coated the bottoms with glide wax and Alice helped me get them on again. By this time Brian and Anna had skied out to a viewpoint and back.
We decided to climb up to a high point and ski down, making a loop back to the lodge. Skiing uphill was no problem, but at the top I had to renew my glide wax. Alice found a warming hut that was nearly buried in snow. We headed back down; the snow was heavy and icy, and without metal edges I was out of control. I tried to bust thru a ridge of snow on the trail, but tripped over it instead and did a faceplant. I cleaned snow off my glasses and struggled on down the hill, skis spread out and dragging my poles for braking. We ate our lunches in the lodge. The kids were up for more, but I turned in my skis and called it a day.
Pat and I made dinner; polenta with walnut-shitake mushroom sauce and steamed chard.
Snowshoeing
Next day, considering the poor snow conditions, Pat and I decided to rent snowshoes. Putting on snowshoes is like putting giant sandals on while wearing shoes. In the center of the snowshoe is a hinged section for your foot. One strap passes behind your heel and three more cross the top of your foot. The underside of the snowshoe has a row of metal teeth around it, and the hinged section has teeth at the toe. This arrangement lets you walk almost normally while preventing slipping and spreading your weight so you don’t sink into the snow. I used two ski poles; they’re handy for balance and for climbing up or down steep spots.
Snowshoes aren’t welcome on ski trails because they tear up the snow. Instead we followed a snowshoe trail up into the woods. It was another clear day and very pretty, altho we never reached the viewpoint we’d picked out. An icy wind was blowing, so we returned to the lodge after a couple of hours. Kyle and Gina made delicious fajita bowls for dinner.
On Saturday, Pat and I took our snowshoes to the park that Kyle and Gina had found. We wandered into a zip-line area where people much younger and bolder than us were sailing thru the treetops, howling with delight. Meanwhile Kyle and Gina were helping Kian sled down a hill.
Anna and Brian presented sweet-potato curry stew for dinner. Ranger Alice built a fire, and we played Scrabble and Deacon (Anna won all three games).
Sacramento again
On Sunday 4/2, Alice and Jenn headed back east, and Kyle’s family returned to their home near San Francisco. We took Anna and Brian back to Sacramento and had lunch at Mendocino Farms again. Then we dropped them off at the train station to return to Oakland and we were on our own. We missed everybody! But we had a good time in Sacramento. I’ll tell you about it in my next post.
Travels, tinkering and thoughts 