South Lake Tahoe

My best friend, Bailey, and I have all of these aspirations to travel together and go on all of these trips, but with COVID going on everywhere, we realized that we might have to halt our dreams for a bit – or at least our international dreams.

A ski trip in South Lake Tahoe was the perfect medicine that I needed right before the holidays, and even better than my friend’s family had a house there for us to stay at. We got together a small group and booked out ski rentals, plane tickets, and snowmobile tours all on the same day.

Our early morning flight to Reno, Nevada was full of excitement when we realized we were going to a wine tasting as soon as we drive off the airport area. A very weird, but needed activity for us to begin our trip at a random guy’s house trying his wine that was named after his fraternity. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the wine and cheese, and it the perfect start to the adventure. We all packed into the 4Runner and drove to South Lake Tahoe to the cabin where we were going to stay.

The drive to the lake was beautiful, and it reminded me a bit of when I drove to Sedona except it was snowy here. The mountains and snow was a view that I will never be able to get over because it is just unlike anything I had seen before.

Most things were still closed due to the pandemic, but we were able to get dinner at the Lone Eagle Lodge – where the food was amazing. Bailey and I enjoyed an espresso martini to wake us up, which was not good at all. I don't know why I ordered it because I don't like coffee, but it sounded like the right thing to do at the time. We split some pasta and the delicious seabass, but we were too exhausted from the travel day to fully enjoy it.

The next morning, we woke up at about 6:30 a.m. to make breakfast and get ready for a day of skiing. We drove to the mountain, got our gear on, and got in line for when to ski lift opened. Everything about skiing on a mountain was such an unexplainable experience for me. I was constantly in awe of my surroundings. When you were on the ski lift, you could see the mountains and the completely stunning lake, and then skiing down the slopes you would be in trees and seeing new mountains and the lake – it was all just so utterly beautiful that I feel like I could talk about it for hours.

Bailey and I quickly figured out that we couldn't keep up with the boys when we got stuck on a blue slope, so we went on our own to the easier places. The entire day was completely tiring, but it was such a sensory overload of all of the brand new things which made it worth all of the pain of falling.

The next day we did it all over again. We felt a lot more confident in our skiing abilities but still stayed behind on the easier slopes. One of the coolest places that we saw was a slope that when you looked to your right you could see the desert and then to the left was snow. The views down this slope were indescribable, and Bailey and I got lost and onto a black diamond trail at the end of it. Needless to say, I tried to go as slow as possible while I see Bailey in front of me do a nosedive into the snow off of a ramp. This was the last day that Bailey and I would be skiing and it was one of the most fun and hardest that I have laughed in such a long time. There’s something so funny about watching your friend not being able to stand up after a hard fall on skis that still brings joy and a smile to my face.

For our final day in Tahoe, the boys did another day of skiing while Bailey and I had planned a snowmobile tour for the day. We got hot chocolates at a local diner and made our way to the snowmobile station. One of the best parts about this tour was that we were able to be on a completely different mountain than the one we skied on – and it was just as beautiful. Driving through the different trees and views was unexplainable and such a fun experience that was worth it.

We got dressed for dinner and explored the city when the boys were done skiing. We took a visit to the lake, around the stores, and then went to an outside bar for drinks before dinner.

The boys stayed behind while Bailey and I dined at Friday’s Station for a steak dinner. Aside from the waitress not believing we were 21, this dinner and atmosphere was such a great end to the much-needed vacation. We shared a bottle of wine with an amazing crab cake. We both enjoyed steaks and shrimp and were so stuffed from our meals – or we thought we were. We got the dessert menu and one of the items had the description of a brownie sundae coated in toasted meringue shaped like a Lake Tahoe pinecone. Although we were full, the dessert was finished and it was so tasty, just as we suspected.

The trip to Lake Tahoe was a reset that was much needed as we leaned into 2021. I’m excited that I was able to go to California for the first time and try out a lot of things that I haven’t done in years.