I still remember the first time I saw snow actually falling from the sky when we lived in Seattle. I woke up one morning to find the garden all white and the pot with my shiso plant all fluffy :-) Then, of course, there was sledding in the Cascade Mountains ... the air is just so crisp and clean, and the contrast between the fresh white snow and the dark green of the forests is breathtaking.
Our plan? Drive up to north Tahoe, and then proceed down the eastern edge of the lake on the Nevada side before looping back to California via South Lake Tahoe
Crossing over and under lots of bridges as we make our way from the bay through the delta
First stop just before the pass to Lake Tahoe ... the little cabin where Ian used to live when he worked at Sugar Bowl !
The gondola to Sugar Bowl ... such a cute little area. You have to take the gondola which spans the valley to reach the cabins and ski slopes
Very quiet and quaint ski slopes/cabins here at little Sugar Bowl compared to the huge mega-resorts around the lake
Looking over Donner Lake ... slowly winding our way down the mountain
Looks like we're driving on a frozen lake!
Glass-like Donner Lake
Reached Lake Tahoe after another hour or so ... this is the view looking southward along the eastern edge of the lake (we are now on the Nevada side).
Lake Tahoe from the Nevada side, looking towards California
Hard to not blink when the sun is in your eyes! >_<
We stopped by T-mesquite's BBQ in Incline Village, Nevada for a deliciously roasted lunch of tri-tip and pork tacos. Little hole-in-the-wall place serving up some seriously good BBQ
Continuing southward along the eastern (Nevada) edge of the lake
Cute little round rocks with perfect, untouched snow
When we made it down to Stateside, Nevada, we stopped at Harvey's (gotta love NV's gambling laws, haha) for my first time throwing some money down at the casino ... A couple hours later and $10 short (we are such high rollers!) we were back in the car and headed back to the city via south tahoe. It was nice to be able to just drive up for the day for the fresh air and return to the city within the same day. I can only imagine how pretty this area is in the spring/summer, but I still think I'm partial to the Pacific Northwest in the summer. Maybe later this spring we'll take a trip out to Yosemite to see all of the waterfalls
In further news, I've actually decided to withdraw from the GAMSAT and sit the MCAT instead. There are better resources to help me study here in the US (compared to the GAMSAT), and it will give me a little more time since I will be taking it on April 5th. Still, two months really isn't a lot of time to study all of the material that the MCAT covers :-/. Worst case, though, I'll just delay entry for a year and have more time to study, but who knows, maybe I can land a minimum score at least within the next two months? I'm self-studying from a set of Kaplan content review books rather than signing up for an expensive prep class.
No more sleeping 10+ hours/day like I've been doing ... time to really buckle down and put in at least 3 hours per day, every day. So far I'm feeling a new sense of focus and optimism ... let's do this!
