Arrival in King's Beach

Well, what a day! Paul wretsling with the landlord's dog in the sunshine after packing up our stuff to move north, two skype video calls to the family in England, and a gorgeous drive up to King's Beach to find our new home for the next three weeks. Three floor condo, two bedrooms and a bath on the entry level/ ground floor. Upstairs to the main living area with another bedroom and bathroom. Then up to a loft with twin beds in; this place will comfortably sleep 7 virtual strangers. Paul and I poached the large bedroom for ourselves: downstairs queen room- hope nobody minds!
The bedroom on the main living level is also a queen but quite a bit smaller, so we chose the lower one.
Then a drive across the mount rose pass to Reno to return the sewing-machine on wheels and have lunch at PF Chang courtesy of the Miller family. Then back to the airport to get a north tahoe express shuttle across to King's Beach again.
Only problem is, next one to OUR part of the lake not til 930 pm and it was only 5pm. But there was a bus to incline village and crystal cove, so we did that, intending on taking a taxi from the CalNeva.
Our driver was great and took is all the way to our condo in king's beach so we gave him a very generous tip.
Met our first condo mate, Al, from Wisconsin, who drove out here. He is 21 and brought his electric guitar with him, but he's good about volume and when he plays, so I think it will be fine.
So. Sitting on the bed, watching rubbish tv as each bedroom has their own tv as well as a huge flat screen in the living room!
Not bad for three weeks, but we'll see...

Headed to King's Beach

Well, it's getting repetitive, but its another beautiful sunny day today!! This is why we moved here!! how refreshing! How inspiring, and how simply gorgeous!!

we're headed to the North of the lake today to stay in King's Beach for our three week training course up at Northstar.... hopefully sometime they will get a bit of snow so we can all work on the ski slopes, but it will all be fun and informative, anyway. We will be sharing a 3 bedroom condo with the other 'new' instructors for this time, so it will be strange, as we have not yet met any of them!!

But I'm sure it will be fun... wish us luck!!

Another Beautiful day in Paradise

Well, here we go again. Another day with blue sky and sunshine.

I went for a 5 mile walk in the neighborhood, looking at all the lovely houses and the lake and keys and lagoon. It's just such a gorgeous part of the world!

And people are so friendly, too! everyone else walking, running, walking their dogs, working in their gardens, mowing the lawns, they all stop to say hi, or good morning!

What a wonderful place to be!

Post Turkey day

Well, I am still full!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day welcome meal with our landlords... with plenty of lovely wine to accompany! We have decided NOT to go out and brave the shops on black Friday, but if necessary will play online a bit later!

We will, however, go out for a bit of a walk, as once again, another bright, sunshiny day! Hard frost overnight, so the mountain has still been making snow!

However, only one run open, and they want to charge $59 for the privilege of skiing that one run. Once I have my season pass, I will be skiing continuously, but until I officially start work, no-go for me. :-(

I think I will end up getting my fill of skiing this year though!

8-)

Have a great weekend everyone! we move to the North of the lake on Sunday for our three week training course, so I may not update too much, but I will when I can!!

And Heavenly Opens tomorrow!!

according to Heavenly's website, they finally open tomorrow! Yesterday's snow was enough to top it all off!! http://www.skiheavenly.com/mountain/conditions/

Happy Thanksgiving, Skiers and Riders! We’ve all got something to be thankful for! Heavenly will be opening tomorrow for the 2008/2009 season! You’ll be shredding the deepest snow pack and finest surface conditions in the Tahoe Basin on our signature Nevada cruiser, the mile-long, Orion’s Run! So head up the gondola and burn off all that turkey and mashed potatoes! Visit our season pass offices at the Gondola or the California Lodge to purchase your 2008/2009 Season Pass now! Lifts open tomorrow at 8:30am.

So - it will be a great Thanksgiving, anyway, but even more reasons to give thanks! Skiing in the sun!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Well, it has to be said, so... Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am thankful for the opportunity to live in an area as beautiful as this! and share it with the man I love.... (sorry, I'll stop being soppy)

But, hey waking up to another beautiful blue-sky day with sunshine, overlooking the lake and mountains, I can't help it!

So - last night we had our first 'dinner out' at a new friend's house. This house is amazing, and absolutely stunning! It is a large, log house, which was build by the hands of the original owners. Our hosts last night are the second owners of this house. It is nestled in the woods, and fits in like it was made to be there!

Last night we met the entire family, well some of the in-laws and the kids too, since they had come up to celebrate Thanksgiving! They are very welcoming, and had loads of entertaining stories to tell, about bears raiding neighbors kitchens, termites (in a log house, that is serious business!) and snorkeling!

But anyway, it was one of the first nights the jet-lag was not so harsh and we managed to stay up and have a great night, finally dragging ourselves home around 10.30pm!

Unfortunately, somewhere yesterday the snow turned to rain, and the ride home was a bit, well, WET, and there's no snow to show here in the valley, but we're hoping it was still snow up on the mountain! But, hey. It's Thanksgiving, and I can't complain about the weather!! A real change, after the wettest summer on record (or something near to it) in England!!

So - that's where we are at the moment... enjoy your day!!

Photos (for your reference)

OK, I was going to add the photos to the blogs, where they belong, but I got fed up with trying to move around the format, so here's a separate post with the photos, so you can actually see what we are doing!

Here's the HUGE beast:




Here's the Sewing-Machine-on-Wheels:























The view from our window:
























Tahoe; We LIVE here!! :























The view at the Millers in Washoe Valley:























Here's the snowmaking they are going crazy with, since Mother Nature is playing hard-to-get!

no snow yet.....

but the sky is heavy with clouds, and it's only 4 degrees above freezing here in the Valley..... Maybe later today??? That would be nice!

and it's almost Turkey Day!! I would love to be able to give thanks for the 'fresh snow' if I could!
:-)

update: 0920am.....

It's SNOWING over the mountains!!!! Yee Haah!!!! not snowing in the Valley yet, but it's snowing in the mountains, where it counts!!

yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Clause!

Getting rid of the Big Car

Ok, well you know we had a HUGE car to get everything over the mountains from San Francisco....

We did not need that big a car after that, so we headed over to visit the Millers in Washoe Valley, to collect the ski gear we left from our earlier trip in October. We stayed and had a lovely supper, spent a bit of time with those who were around, and then spent the night (huge car lurking in the corner of Garage 4)

Sunday morning, another beautiful day, and we head out to Reno-Tahoe airport in Reno, to swap cars from the Huge Beast to the rather more demure Sewing-machine-on-wheels. We still opted for 4 wheel drive, as when it finally snows around here, chains, 4 wheel drive or snow tires are required... sometimes all at once!! Of course, much like carrying an umbrella to keep it from raining, I think we have cursed this place for snow by taking another 4 wheel drive!

We moved the ski gear from the Huge Beast into the terminal in Reno, as THIS car we actually rented from Dollar..... So we went to the Dollar desk, and they have a rather cunning system which is all computerised, so no going through and adding your initials to everything on a silly piece of paper... the screen comes up with all the items you take or decline (CDW, SLI etc) which you click OK on, then you sign on the touch screen. All very easy. Of course that was when we were allocated the Sewing-Machine-on-Wheels. A bright Blue Dodge Nitro. Quirky, smaller than you would think, in terms of fitting skis in (for a 4 wheel trive!) but it DOES have Sirius Satellite Radio!! What a brilliant idea!! like an ipod shuffle built in!

Once more over the mountain, with a spot of shopping at WalMart and Costco on the way to stock up our kitchen!

But still no snow....... Heavenly have taken the forecast opening day off the website, as they don't want to over-promise anything..... and they're making snow like crazy, so it hopefully won't be long before they actually open! 2 runs, Dipper and Comet (or something like that) are forecast until some real snow falls.... so a trip up the Gondola will be necessary to get to the snow!

So the next task is getting California Drivers Licenses. Why? I hear you asking.... well, as Paul had to come in on a Green Card, he is considered a resident, and residents must apply for a local license within 10 days of entry into the USA. So, with the California DMV handbook duly downloaded, off we head to the South Lake Tahoe office of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Three staff work here.... which means one on break, on serving paper-handling customers, and one doing the driving tests.... so it was busy with people queueing, and long waits. But we eventually get up to the desk. Paul pays his $28 fee and heads off to take his written test, which he passes. Next for him is a driving test, scheduled for 22nd December!

As for me...... well, who would have thought I needed to update Social security with my married name before I could apply for a license!! I have been duly filling in tax returns all these years when living in the UK, but never actually let the SS office know I had changed my name in my passport. So, I found our nearest Social Security office, which is back over the mountains in Placerville (an hour's drive). As they would not have been open if we left after Paul's successful test results, we headed home for a lovely dinner!! Small kitchens take some getting used to, but Paul is managing brilliantly!

So - new morning (where snow was mentioned as a possibility overnight??!!!) and some clouds (way up high) and no snow. We head over the mountain, with Paul driving using his new temporary California License as practice before he takes the actual driving test! The scenery was jaw dropping and still just as stunning as anyone could imagine! We found the Social Security office without any problems.... and took a number, and sat down to wait. About 20 minutes later, I was called forward, and with the paperwork I provided, I was duly updated, handed a printout, and promised a new SS card posted in the next 4 weeks. With my new printout, I was guided to try the Placerville DMV.

Finding the DMV in Placerville was easy, and it was amazing the difference here compared to the South Lake Tahoe office! There must have been 15 staff, all multi-tasking, keeping everyone appraised of what was going on - we did not have an appointment this time, but they gave me a number, and I sat down to wait again. No more than 10 minutes later, and I was in front of a lovely DMV agent..... who advised if I could provide details from the Vermont DMV (the location of my most recent US license, before I let it lapse when attaining a UK license) I would be able to just take the written test and be the proud owner of a shiny new California Drivers License!

But - apparently the Social Security system takes up to 72 hours to update, so once again, I get sent home without taking the test and without a new license. But at least with the hope I can get to it sometime soon! *(Next week????)*

so - trip back over Echo Pass, this time with me driving so Paul could appreciate the view..... and it looks like the clouds are lowering.... so please, we need some snow!

(of course, its still too warm to snow, so its more likely to rain..... we need a deep freeze too!)

Now just clarifying our plans for our first Thanksgiving at Tahoe!

Arrival in California

Well, how does one actually start a blog..... having never done one before!

Guess I'll just jump right in.

Paul and I arrived in San Francisco on the afternoon of the 20th November, with 5 pieces of checked luggage, as close to the maximum allowance we could get our hands on! This was, of course, including Paul's Golf Clubs, in case the weather allows for him to play.

After a bit of pushing and shoving of bags onto luggage carts, we trundled along the blue route to the car rental area, to queue for Dollar (only to realise I had actually booked Alamo for this one!! - DOH!!)

Once actually at Alamo, we decided the large car we had booked would just not be big enough to carry all the cargo we had yet to pick up, so opted for a buy-up to a larger car. Apparently, you cannot actually reserve the huge cars in advance, and they are only available as a buy-up option, and only if they are actually available!! Anyway, after some deep negotiations as to the price they were going to charge me, we drove away in a large, white beast of a car, to try to find the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Trying to use up some of our roll-over minutes from out AT&T contract set up in October, we realised that we were just too tired to go out to eat, so we thought a brief nap would help. (this was at 4pm)

4AM - wake up hungry!! Nap turned into overnight sleep, so I guess jet lag was hitting pretty hard at this point. However, as we had moved out of our house a few days earlier, we had not been sleeping overly much before the trip anyway, so I guess we just needed the extra hours of sleep!

So - after re-packing our things to make a bit more sense, we trundled down to have breakfast (which was actually pretty fantastic!! The Crowne Plaza's little restaurant serves a fantastic breakfast, with FREE REFILLS of fresh squeezed orange juice, as well as coffee)

Then, after checking out and packing the car with the bags as far forwards (and the seats all down) as we could get them, we headed out to find the JAL Cargo building to recover the cargo we had sent over on the 19th. 15 pieces of cargo!! How was it possible???

If you ever need to find the cargo area in San Francisco from a Virgin Atlantic flight, it's in the North Cargo area, or North Field Road.... it was hard to find, as the sun was low in the sky, very blinding, and the address wasn't hugely helpful for the Garmin. The airport map wasn't much help either, but after circling the airport about twice and two rather stressed phone calls to someone with a rather strong Japanses accent trying to explain where they were, we found it!

$25 later, we were given a receipt and three forms and another map. It appears we were going on a treasure hunt before we were allowed to be reunited with our cargo. Off we traipsed to the other side of the airport (and the West Cargo area) to find Customs. We got stuck in a queue of traffic waiting to go onto the taxiway (yes, we got misguided again....) and we found the Customs building, hiding away in a little corner. Three forms later, explaining we had shipped personal effects over, and we were handed our papers back and sent to find our way back to JAL Cargo. Luckily, this was easy, as I had then been there before!!

Back at JAL, returned forms duly handed over, we were handed a SITA print out which we had to sign saying we had received our cargo in good order (although we had yet to actually see it!) and after signing this, we were directed to the loading dock, where the forklift drivers appeared to be doing a ballet, moving pallets around, spinning around in place and rushing off to get more pallets and move them around again. Eventually, our goods appeared, and DID appear to be in good order, nothing missing, nothing dented.....

We managed to load the car with the 15 extra pieces of cargo (bearing in mind we already had 5 pieces of luggage, one of which was golf clubs!!) Although I could not see out rear window of the car, the side mirrors were adequate, so needed to just remember I was in a HUGE car, which was very heavy and I could not see out the centre rear-view mirror! We navagated out of the airport and headed out on 101 North towards San Francsico.

Very little traffic, and we headed across the Bay Bridge (no stopping in San Fran for me today!) and looking across the bay, it was beautifully clear and the Golden Gate looked stunning against a bright blue sky and the Pacific Ocean!! However, driving a HUGE car with less-than-perfect sight-lines did not allow for loads of gawking at the scenery!

Clear run onto I80 northbound. Paul duly decided he would try to phone Julie, as it was a milestone birthday for her, but we found out at this point that our prized iPhones would not allow international calls outbound!! So - a little detour was taken, for Jamba Juice and a little visit to an AT&T store. We met two staff who were fantastic, and with their magic fingers, sorted out our little international calls incident (and removed an unnecessary add-on for text messages... unnecessary as it did not include international texts, so we would never use enough to make it worthwhile!)

Back on the road again, although this time Paul was driving. (and the phone call to Julie was a success!)

Through Sacramento (state capital..... waving at the Governator..... although I'm sure he's in the south in LA....) onto highway 50 towards our new home in South Lake Tahoe!

The day was lovely, clear blue skies, warm weather, the leaves still red, orange, russett and gold, it was a perfect way to come into the area.... as we crested Echo Summit (over 7300 feet!!) and came around the corner, the first view of the lake was visible (and a rather unnerving drop over a cliff on the right, into Christmas Valley) and I could not help thinking.... "We LIVE here now!!"

We arrived at our lovely new home for the winter in Tahoe Keys, and started the rather daunting task of unpacking...... we unloaded the car, and I took the 'clothes' bags and Paul took the 'household goods' boxes. by 7pm, we were unpacked!! PHEW!!

So - Long story short, we woke up to another beautiful blue sky and warm day, looking out to the lagoon and up at the mountains..... with the niggling thought.... isn't it supposed to be snowing yet???