We went to South Lake Tahoe for president's day long weekend 2017. My initial plan was take my daughter to snow place and get her experience the real snow and take her to ice/snow activities of her interest to make it as nice pleasant winter trip.
We started late in morning, before noon we are on the road towards South Lake Tahoe, CA. instead of taking I50, i wanted to drive from south on HWY 88/89 join to I50 at the every beginning of Tahoe. everything is very clear till Iron Mountain Sno Park. from there i can lot of snow on both sides of the road. we stopped at one place where we can get very powdery snow at flat like snow playground. I accompanied Arshiya to middle of snow, even Arshiya leg also buries an inch to inch and half into snow. SnowMan was already built by some one, seems it was very recently built like couple of hours before we stopped. She played with snow man for time and played on jumping on snow. it was her first real snow experience it was worth watching her excitement. Then i stopped at kirkland for a bit and took few snaps of Arshiya.
Finally by the time we at hotel, i reserved on one of the hotel on main HWY which ever is available, i reserved at very last minute. I didn't want to stay inside from I50 as There was a snow storm forecast in next few days. Before i leave Snow storm forecast was around early Tuesday or Late Monday(late night). I thought i can by Saturday stay till Monday morning, Leave Tahoe very early in the morning.
Arshiya tried ice skating on rink in heavenly resort, it was first time for her. As she was in INDIA for more than an year and came back few months before the trip, she is still catching up with local pronunciation. She was not quite following her skating teacher instructions, she fell a lot on ice and it hurt a lot. As soon as she is done, she complained she don't want to do alone next time, expecting either me or Lakshmi to be there. It is going to be very interesting in next year's visit as neither of us know skating.
Next day,Sunday, we went to bottom of heavenly resort. we were told within next few hours they are expecting heavy window at higher elevations not recommended to go for site seeing. So we dropped the idea of going on on rope way, immediately i drove to Paradise Golf course i knew there is a tubing and snowmobile snow park. We rented a tube for Arshiya, it was lot of workout for me and Lakshmi by carrying tube to slopes and dropping. we took the turns helping Arshiya to enjoying tubing. Initially myself and Arshiya were doing tubing, later she alone started enjoying. But she needed help to carry tube to top for next round.
towards the end of our 2 hours window, snow fall started and we wanted to be in hotel room before it catches up heavily. We were in hotel just after sunset and were there in room till next morning. As it very cold outside, Lakshmi and Arshiya preferred indoors. for night i order togo for dinner from near Chinese restaurant.
Somehow i missed this forecast before i leave the hotel. just within half an hour of driving we came to know we need chains to be put on to vehicle. Just after junction 89 we put on chains. But just before our car (may two to three cars are ahead) Patrol office stopped all vehicles for planned avalanche activity. As soon as i came to know this, i returned back stopped at gas station to fill the tank and for some food for all for next few hours(i was not sure how long it is going to take to clear the traffic) so ensured extra food sources just in case. we were in gas station parking lot for more than an hour, we can guess how rest of the day was going to be. just really fun i enjoyed just sitting in car for long hours. Finally Traffic started to move at around 3. From echo lake to twin bridges. in normal times, it might be 10 mins or little more than 10 mins drive. with Heavy snow and slow traffic it took an hour. by the time we fully came down to normal elevations heavy rain started picking up. we drove in the heavy rain for more than an hour by the time we are about to reach Sacramento everything was OK.
we drove non-stop to home with just one break for quick burger for Lakshmi and Arshiya, I am not interested to stop one more time before i reach home.
