The New Years Travels

It's the evening of New Years Day (which sounds a wee bit funny to write, the whole "evening of day" thing), and Cat and I are home from our trip to Tahoe and Mammoth. We had a great - if not a very funny - time. So instead of me rambling on about the details of the trip - and we all know how I like to ramble - I thought I'd just give you a few key highlights. Here goes:

1. The Workouts: Well, there were none. No wait, I take that back, there was one. On Thursday in Tahoe we went to the gym and puttered about on the treadmill for 40 minutes. The rest of the trip we pretty much just ate. Which I guess means our jaws got quite the workout. Do you need a strong jaw for Ironman? I suppose a strong jaw helps for more efficient breathing during the swim. I'll take any angle I can get.

2. The Gym: What a great gym we went to in Tahoe. The hoity-toity Sports Club LA can learn a thing or two about this gym. This joint was high class, and I mean that in the "hiiiiiiiiiiiigh class" way of saying, where you have to bob your head for extra emphasis as you say the words. All of the equipment was so clean I think we may have been the first people using it. And it was all top of the line stuff. I nearly needed a few extra years of post-graduate education to figure out how to work the treadmill. And the locker room? Whoooeeee! I've never seen a locker room as wonderful as this: individual lockers with individual locks, individual showers with individual changing areas, individual sinks with individual combs, razors and other accoutrement of cleansing. I was so excited to be there, I over-conditioned and spent the rest of the day with flat hair.

3. The Ski Rentals: You notice I say "the ski rentals" and not "the skiing". We had a bit of a Keystone Kops moment with the Ski Rentals. You see, we rented ski's in Tahoe and started to go to the mountain, but it was too late and too packed so we turned around. Then we woke up the next day all eager to go skiing, but it was raining. So with two days of ski rentals in Tahoe, we got a grand total of zero minutes skiing. Then we go to Mammoth ready to ski the next day only to go up to the mountain and have it be a white out. No skiing for us again.

4. The X-Country Skiing: The first day in Mammoth greeted us with a Winter Storm Warning. There were 30-40 mph gusts at the bottom of the mountain and 100+mph gusts of wind at the top. Snow was falling sideways, and they were expecting 2-3 feet of the white stuff within 24 hours. We definitely couldn't go downhill skiing, mostly because they closed the mountain, so we decided to go Cross Country Skiing. The fact that the X-Country rental folks said "it's brutal out there, I wouldn't go" didn't seem to stop us. Nope, not us. Even when 30 foot trees were crashing down around us, we still didn't stop. And when football-sized chunks of ice fell onto our heads, we didn't stop. And when the 30 mph winds were slamming sheets of ice into our face until we were numb, nope, no stopping. Hard core, baby.

5. The Downhill Skiing: It was a five day trip and it wasn't until the last 1/2 day that we got to actually go downhill skiing. This morning was the only time we got to spend on the slopes. But it was AMAZING! The storm had dropped about 2 feet of fresh powder, the lift lines were short and we were damn excited to be out there, regardless of the 19 degree weather and pounding winds. We went on a five day ski trip and, godammit, we were going to ski if it was going to kill us. Fortunately, it didn't (aside from maybe a couple of tired quads and sore buttcheeks.)

6. The Drive: We made the 6 hour drive back from Mammoth tonight. It was easy to tell when we hit LA - we ended up smack dab in the middle of a high speed car chase on the highway. Hey OJ! Wait for me!

7. The Family / The Laughs: We spent the Tahoe sector of our trip with my good friends from high school and their families (including my Godson). We spent our time in Mammoth (including New Years Eve) with Cat's brother, sister and brother-in-law. There are few things more special in life than enjoying these wonderful moments with people so close to your heart.

If your weekend was even half as good as mine, it was pretty damn incredible.
Happy New Year.