Jan 12 Tahoe trip in review (part 2)
Day two started off with a jolt as I awoke from a weird ghostly dream to a blaring sound and a flickering white apparition in front of me. The blaring sound was the alarm clock. The white apparition was the light from the alarm clock projected on the ceiling, flickering as Shao's hand attempted to stop the infernal noise. I was too tired to get up, suffering from a fitful sleep, complete with Billy's snoring and Shao's teeth grinding. Shao was first in the shower, and eventually he was done and I got up. We went through the usual morning drill, waiting for everyone to clean up, and packing up the luggage and sleeping bags.

The first stop was for the relatively cheap gas in Reno. The second stop was McDonalds. It seems like McDonald's at any tourist location is bound to have incredibly slow service. We went back to Truckee to pick up snowboards for the ones that didn't go the previous day, and we got to Northstar at around 11am. Luckily, we got the last pay parking spot (quite worth it since we parked right in fron of the entrance), and hurried up the gondola.

The air was cold on Sunday morning, I couldn't go with just the sweatshirt. However, compared to the previous day, the slopes were barren. The huge asian crowds had disappeared. Shao and I headed to warm up on a few blue runs, while Xun accompanied Sinyee and Johnny on the easier runs. Shao and I had lunch at the lodge, since we couldn't find anyone else. I should learn to bring my own skiing lunches, although that involves carrying it around. The morning was pretty good; there were no lineups for the lifts and we got quite a few runs in. The only sad point was that I couldn't find the crew from PBC.

Shortly after lunch, we managed to page Xun on Billy's FRS Radios. We didn't have much luck the previous day, given the limited range, and the fact that every channel we tried was already occupied. Xun joined Shao and I, while Billy and Johnny stuck with the easier slopes. I actually have no clue where Sinyee was at that point. A went a few runs with Xun and Shao, then took off to try a few steeper hills on my own.

There's something grand about chasing the shadows down a steep snow face, with the sun slipping away behind you and the wind nipping on your ears; starting from the top of the mountain and just riding it out until you hit the absolute bottom. It takes you twenty minutes though you know you could make it down twenty-two hundred vertical feet in three minutes. You're still rather glad that the mountain is there to slow you down.

We left Northstar at 4:20pm, in a rush to make it back to San Francisco by 8:30pm, to make Billy's reservation at the Slanted Door, a chic urban Vietnamese restaurant that we've so far been unable to get to. We made it to Truckee to return the rental equipment soon enough, but ran into traffic shortly afterwards on the highway down the mountain. The sun set quickly as we crawled through the foothills of the Sierras, the orange clouds bright against the deep blue and violet sky. The snow-covered mountaintops around us blushed warmly, kissed by the last glimmering rays of the weekend. At 6:30pm we were approaching Sacramento, and unsure of the traffic situation in San Fran (where we faced a good 45 minutes of stiff traffic across the Bay Bridge on the last Tahoe trip), we decided to call ahead and push the reservation back to 9:00pm, since the restaurant had a $10/per person late or no-show policy.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, except that the traffic was clear on the Bay Bridge. With Billy's spectacular driving, we ended up in front of the restaurant a half-hour before our original reservation. Unfortunately, they didn't have a table for us until 9:00pm, so we decided to pass instead of waiting for an hour. Instead we went over to Tokyo Go Go for some fusion sushi. After a short wait at the bar with a glass of water, we were seated in a small booth that snuggly fit the six of us. Dinner passed by quickly, with a series of small dishes. With what seemed like plenty of time left before our 11pm rental minivan return time, we went for dessert as well.

Overall, it was a decent restaurant, and rang us up about $25 each. We quickly dropped off Billy at a light, an intersection away from his loft, right by the entrance to highway 280. It took us about 45 minutes to reach San Francisco and drop off the minivan, unfortunately without refilling the tank. We realized later that they charge $4.65/gal (as opposed to $1.19 out on the street). Won't be making that mistake again.

Somehow, the next morning it was back to work...