Reno to end the Season!

For our birthday weekend we decided to head to Reno to meet Ashley and Matt for one last weekend on the slopes!  We headed out Friday afternoon to head to Reno with our Alee girl in the car.  Kristin had to be in Sacramento for work that day, so it was a short 2.5 hour drive over the pass.  Before the trip (after cleaning the car seats NUMEROUS times for Alee's fur), Kristin decided to make a "car blanket" - basically a 2-layer fleece blanket with elastic straps to connect it to the headrests.  The goal: keep Alee's fur off the car seats and give her a more comfy ride.  Alee seemed to really enjoy it...

Alee's new car blanket

Once we got to Reno, we picked up a backpack for Alee (see the pack in action in the next post!) and looked for a pizza shop.  We drove by this place called Blind Onion which boasted being the best pizza in Reno...we figured it was worth a shot.  Turns out this place was AWESOME!!!  GREAT pizza, awesome beer, relaxed environment and games to play while you wait! 

Enjoying a beer while playing Connect 4 while waiting for our pizza

Afterwards, we met up with Ashley and Matt for a quick visit at Grand Sierra Resort (which thankfully accepts pets) and headed to bed to prepare for snowboarding. 

Saturday we got up bright and early to drop Alee off at Pet Play House for all-day fun.  This place is really great, offering kennel-free playing all day and night!  If you opt for a "suite" there - it's definitely NOT a kennel!!  Alee only played during the day, but we're bringing her here for 4 days while we're in Vegas in May!

One of the suites at Pet Play House

With Alee taken care of, we were off to the slopes with our new boards!  We decided to check out Homewood Mountain Resort - it's a smaller resort on the westside of Lake Tahoe.  We chose it because, frankly, they were just running a super cheap deal on Liftopia.  We were very thankful for the cheap tickets because this place was great!  There was hardly any one there, no lift lines and great conditions for April.  We had some really great runs, but by noon things started to melt and get pretty sticky.  Ed and Matt wanted to "tough it out" on some hard runs while Ashley and Kristin were content with a beer in the lodge.

Ed heading down a run

Kristin and Ashley in the Lodge

The weather was great for snowboarding, but not great for photo ops.  We still tried to grab one along the side of Lake Tahoe near the resort.

Lake Tahoe!

After a great day of boarding, we checked out the EXPANSIVE El Dorado Buffet and hit the tables to try our luck.  Ed came out a few bucks ahead but Ashley made it BIG by trippling her money!

Waiting in line at the El Dorado Buffet

Sunday we tried to go to the GREATEST BREAKFAST PLACE EVER (Hash House A Go Go) since they just opened up a new restaurant in the Hardrock Cafe Casino in Reno.  Unfortunately when we arrived there was a large sign saying "coming April 27th" - grr!!!  We were just a few days too early!  Oh well - we opted for the very wonderful Old Granite Street Eatery in downtown for their delicious dishes.  After a great weekend, we headed home to prepare to see Ashley and Matt again the next weekend in San Francisco.

Alee...always sad when we have to leave...

Beach and Waterfall Weekend

For those of you who don't know, our trips have been rather limited over the last 2 weeks because Alee was spayed on April 4th.  The surgery went fine, but she was up and ready to go within 24 hours!  Although it was nice to see our girl feeling better, she unknowingly ripped a stitch through her muscle by either a jump or a stretch at some point on the second day.  As a result, she had to go BACK to the vet to have surgery again and we were under STRICT instructions to limit her activity till this past weekend and even after that to not let her exhaust herself till today (when she got her stitches out!).  SO - the past couple weeks have been filled with lots of chew toys, bones, car rides and naps for Alee and this past weekend she got to enjoy herself a little for the first time!  We knew we couldn't do too much with her, but we got the "ok" from the vet to play with her on the beach and do a little hiking/walking.   As a result, this weekend we headed out to Coos Bay for a little fun!

On the way to Coos Bay, we stopped at Abacela Winery for a tasting and a picnic lunch in their gazebo.  The temperature was warm enough to eat outside, but the rain made it a little less than ideal.  The winery had a beautiful view though!

Abacela Winery along the way to Coos Bay

Alee waiting patiently for us to enjoy our lunch...

Once we got to Coos Bay, the weather was awful!  So we decided to grab a seafood dinner at Hide Tide Cafe and then head to our hotel room and wait out the rain.  Sunday the clouds were still out, but the rain was gone - so we headed to the beach!

Alee playing in a little hut on the beach

Here's a video of Alee getting into the cold ocean water for the first time...I don't think she was pleased...

After the beach, we headed home via the scenic route on Hwy 138 to see some waterfalls.  Before the waterfalls, we stopped in Glide, OR to take a look at "Colliding Rivers" where the North Umpqua River and the Little River collide head-to-head to form the Umpqua River.  The place where they joined was intense!

Alee checking out Colliding Rivers

 A little after Glide, we stopped off to hike up to Falls Creek Falls - a waterfall that we hadn't checked out yet.  April is the best time for waterfalls because it's when all the snow is melting and creating the highest flows of the year!

Falls Creek Falls - Alee was not happy about getting wet from the spray...

Ed standing on top of the beginning of the Falls

Ed and Alee hiking back down to the car

After the falls the rain decided to catch up with us so we headed home with a slightly tired pup for the first time in weeks!  Now we can get ready for our next trip: Reno!

Ashley Visit!

This weekend Ed, Kristin and Alee got a special treat - Ashley and Reeces came to visit!  Ashley made the long drive up to Klamath to see a little of Oregon.  Friday night they enjoyed a new favorite restaurant in K-Falls: Pho Hong!  This is really the best Vietnamese we have ever had and the staff is so friendly and nice!

Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed to Bend for snowboarding, good food and some sightseeing.  After dropping Alee off with SYM, we hit the slopes...and we literally mean "hit" - it was all ice!  Really awful conditions!  The weather at the bottom didn't look so bad, so we headed to a lift to try out some blues and greens.  At the top of the lift...TOTAL WHITEOUT!!!  We literally couldn't see ANYTHING!  The crazy part is that people were jumping off the lift and flying down the mountain at full speed!  We luckily got a ski patrol to guide us out of the cloud to where we could see trees and variations in the snow.  Even out of the whiteout, conditions were icy and rough.  We soon headed out to enjoy some more of Bend...which had absolutely beautiful weather off the mountain!

We did a little shopping with the pups at Pet Express and explored some fantastic deals at the Columbia Outlet store before heading to 10 Barrell Brewery for some great beers and a fantastic dinner.   There was a little bit of a wait, so we enjoyed some beers out on the patio with Alee! (They allow leashed dogs on the patio!)  Dinner was fantastic so we'll definitely be back!

Patio with Fire Pit

Ashley and Ed enjoying local brew - "Irish Red"

Dinner time!

Sunday we tried to hit up a waterfall on the way back to Klamath Falls but our trail was covered in snow!  We could hear the falls and see the river, but couldn't find the falls...we'll try again in June!

After the failed hike, we headed to Crater Lake to show Ashley the beautiful site of former Mount Mazama!

All 3 of us at Crater Lake

Kristin and Alee next to a snowbank near the Crater Lake Lodge

Ashley and Reeces!

Once we got back to Klamath, we had to say good bye to Ashley so she could make the long drive home to San Fran.  It was great to see her and Alee was happy to have a little doggy friend for the weekend!

South Lake Tahoe!

This past weekend we took a weekend get-away with Mike, Laura and Mike's brother Derek to South Lake Tahoe!  We rented a cabin in South Lake Tahoe that had a hot tub and a nice fenced in yard for Alee and brought all the fixins for great home-cooked meals.  When we arrived Friday evening, they were getting 3 inches of snow per hour!  Luckily we had our Subaru so there were no concerns on our part, but we definitely saw lots of people struggling to get up the pass on the way there! On the way down we stopped at the Reno REI and saw they had some garage sale remnants left. (Because REI has a 100% no questions asked return policy, they sell their returned goods through a "garage sale" twice a year.)  Boy did we get lucky - Ed and I both got "almost-new" snowboarding boots for $9.95 each!

Saturday, before we headed to the mountain, we dropped Alee off at Tahoe Best Friends - a no-kennel doggie day care!  She started playing right away!

By about 9am we hit the slopes at Sierra at Tahoe - a resort with a nice variety of runs for all our skill levels.  Ed and I checked out the 2.5 mile long green run - Sugar and Spice.  There was 2 FEET of fresh powder on the grounds, so it made falling a little softer!  There were a lot of people falling down in the powder so by the afternoon the slopes looked like golf balls with little holes everywhere.

 The drive up - TONS of snow!

 The Slopes - heading to the top of the mountain

 On the lift!

Lake Tahoe in the distance

After a lot of falling and some pretty cool moves, we headed back to get Alee and go back to the cabin to make dinner - hamburgers, potato salad and Tres Leches Cake!  Of course we had to sit in the hot tub a little to start recovering...

 Alee helping to cook...

Relaxing!

Sunday the forecast was calling for heavy snow so we decided to head out a little sooner than expected.  There was so much snow we couldn't even see the lake, but we headed to a little park to try and get a group shot.  With so much snow there was no place to even rest the camera - so we have a "2 part" group shot!

 Alee was sad to leave the cabin...as we all were...

 Group shot Part 1...

 Group shot part 2 - even with Alee!

Cloudy and snowy Lake Tahoe

We said good bye to Derek in Reno after a fantastic lunch at the Wild River Grill and then finally headed back to Klamath Falls on perfectly dry and clear roads.  Great weekend!

Another Fun Weekend!

Since our last post we took 1 rainy weekend off to relax and clean house and prepare for the next several snowboarding weekends!  This past weekend we started off with the Run for the Music 5K!  This was a local K-Falls race to raise money for the music department at Klamath Union High School.  The high schoolers actually ran WITH their instruments!  (Although they didn't play them...)  It was quite fun watching 3 band students running while pushing a "mock" piano down the road! (not the real piano thank goodness!)  We didn't get any photos since we were busy running (along with all our friends who ran it with us!) BUT I pulled this from the local running group's blog:

 One of the students carrying a tuba...

We ran with Mike, Laura and Mariah: Mike impressed us all with his time around 28 minutes! Laura came in behind him at 30 minutes, Ed made a new PR with 31 minutes and Kristin and Mariah did better than they expected at 38 minutes.  Not bad for very little running this winter!

After running our hearts out, we headed up to the WONDERFUL City of Bend on Saturday to enjoy some of the City that hadn't seen yet.  We checked out a local winery (Maragas Winery) who had a Pinot Noir that we loved!  They also had some fantastic Tapas food for gourmet snacking!  Next we let Alee play her heart out at one of the local dog parks before heading to our hotel with some great local pizza and a new bottle of that fantastic Pinot Noir. 

Sunday we dropped Alee off at Strutt Your Mutt for some back country hiking and headed to Mt Bachelor again!  Ed and I really got down our turns and switching from front edge to back edge.  With this under our belts we're ready for Tahoe next weekend!

Mt Bachelor and Hogsback again!

This past weekend we had many high hopes of hiking some of our unique volcanic peaks here in Southern Oregon, but unfortunately all the roads to get to the trailheads were snowed in...so we chose the old faithful Hogsback Mnt for Saturday with Mike and Laura.  When we arrived there were even some other pups there for Alee to play with!

Hiking around in the snow...

Alee!

"Lone Pine" at the top of Hogsback...well...near the top at least!

Alee and the other pups fighting over a stick!

My good lookin' husband!

On Sunday we headed to Mt Bachelor again for more FREE snowboarding!  We started learning to link our turns where we switch from front edge to back edge without stopping...lots of falling, but we're getting it!

Ed and I showing off our new goggles from Sierra Trading Post (super discounted!)

The Mountain Crew!

Wyatt's First Backpacking Trip!

This weekend we made the long trip to head out to Houston to be a part of Wyatt's very first backpacking/camping trip!  Wyatt is the new Gosling family member and he is only 3 months old! When we arrived we gave Wyatt a present from Auntie Kristin and Uncle Ed - his first camping outfit!

In case you can't read it, the outfit reads "My 1st Camping Trip"

Of course we had to play around a little with Wyatt before taking off...

Happy baby!

We headed out to Lake Somerville State Park for a nice 3 mile hike-in backpacking trip.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s!  We hiked to our campsite along the lake and enjoyed some of Ed's famous tuna quesadillas for dinner.

 Momma (Christina) hiking the trail with Wyatt AND her backpack!

Wyatt was definitely ready for dinner...

The next morning we relaxed and had some pancakes and "ghetto mochas" (instant coffee mixed with instant hot chocolate) and enjoyed showing Wyatt a little more of the wilderness.

 Our tent site

Ed playing around...

 Wyatt lovin on his daddy

Dad hiking with Wyatt AND his pack...

Lake Somerville - only 90 min from Houston!

After backpacking we did a little shopping and then said goodbye to mom and dad (Christina and Paul) and Wyatt and hello to Christy, Rohit and Eshaan!  We enjoyed a fantastic dinner of Lupe Tortilla (yay for good Mexican!) and really enjoyed catching up.

Monday morning we left the 70 deg temps of Houston and headed to the airport to take the long flight back to Reno and then the even longer drive back to Klamath Falls. 

Back in our winter wonderland!