Snow Trip 2010 – A Great Trip

There was always a desire to do a overnight trip to Tahoe with KV gang. But where to stay was a question. We would not fit in one house anyway and it was a bit expensive getting 2-3 houses next to each other for just 1 night. I am glad to say the Tahoe Inn worked perfectly fine for the overnight stay and at a reasonable price compared to other North Lake Tahoe Hotels. We got 4 rooms next to each other and 2 a little bit far away. These 4 rooms had connecting doors between every 2 rooms. So we could open the door between Jaideep’s and Jeinay’s room and gather around for some late night medavo and fun. It was a decent hotel and I have no complaints about the rooms.

Thanks to Kalpa for doing the Hotel co-ordination, Thanks to Tushar for managing the pizza-ordering over phone, Thanks to Jaideep-Kalpa, Jeinay-Honey for the use of their rooms for gathering and thanks to everyone else for some good natured fun.

Our family started at around 4.45 am and reached Boreal by 8.00 am. We would have reached a little earlier (around 7.45am) but we were slowed by some snow on road due to which we had to put on chains for the last 2 miles. But we drove non-stop. so its possible to reach Boreal in 3 hours (driving non stop) provided the day is good and the roads are snow free. Kudos to Dimple for some excellent driving in the slightly snowy conditions. Others who started a bit late (5.00am / 5.30am) got stuck in traffic for last 10 miles. So moral of story is always start early for Tahoe. Reaching early also means that there is less queue for whatever snow activities you want to do.

It was our first time to Boreal and I really liked the resort. The Skiing slopes are good for beginners. Kairavi had a good lesson. And I can say that Boreal is the resort which made my skiing fears vanish away. I will ski more often now. For tubing, you have to walk or drive a little bit away since its not adjacent to skiing. (its the same parking lot though). However its 20$ for 2 hours or so. No one from KV did it. So we cannot say how good or bad it was. Boreal had a good lodge/cafeteria for us to dump our stuff on 2 tables. Lot of seating available. Boreal may not be as good as Soda Springs for kids < 4 who are not skiing. Soda Springs has play areas for kids but not Boreal. Now onto Soda Springs. The prices for planet kids have gone up to 25$. But that include ski rentals and snow board rentals as well. So if your kid can make use of them then its definitely worthwhile. Otherwise its a bit of too much price to pay. Along with Kids ticket for Planet kids they give you 2 guardian passes for you and your spouse. Planet Kids has the tube carousel, the snow tubes (with magic carpet to take you up), a snow mountain to climb on. For adult tubing they have more lanes for tubing now. So less waiting. Also have a magic carpet to take you up. But the lanes are not as exciting as Leland SnowPlay and are slower paced. Thanks to Kalpa for taking up the difficult task of co-ordinating for group discount on tubing. I had given up since i thought it was too much hassle but Kalpa managed to bring KVites together and in the end we bought 29 tube passes at 15$. [caption id="attachment_1848" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Lunch time at Soda Springs"][/caption]
Lunch time at Soda Springs saw KVites capture 1/4th of the indoor eating place. :-). There was so much delicious food all around. Thanks to all the food-preparers for the yummy food. It felt like a feast.

In the end everyone converged at Planet Kids (They dont check the ticket) and we had a good time climbing the mini mountain (Once Mita reached the top she would not vacate the spot :-)) and had a snow fight too.

Overall our family had great fun in this snow trip. Its safe to say that the 2 day snow trip should become a staple event in the KV lineup. Thanks to all those who made it for giving some great company. I believe this was the largest snow gathering ever (51).

We drove back non-stop too but due to traffic took 4 hours to reach home. This is the first trip that we drove non-stop both ways. 🙂

Full photo set at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dimprash/sets/72157623649081280/

KV at Snow Trip 2010