Lake Tahoe, spring 2008

[coraa]

This last weekend, the CEO of my company sent us out to Tahoe for a vacation, as a reward for our recent software product release. It was beautiful -- this late in the year, only snowy at the tops of the mountains, but mild and green-brown and lovely down near the lake, where the house was.

Below the cut: the lake, horses, and beautiful food.



This is the view out of the house's living room windows:



The lake and mountains were absolutely lovely. The first day we were there was bright and clear and sunny. We woke up late and drove to a diner for lunch, and then drove around the lake a bit. I took a lot of pictures out the window as we did, because it was so lovely:







We'd been looking for something to do -- since we got up too late for skiing to be much of an option, and anyway it was pretty late in the year -- and I found a place that did trail rides on horseback. I got all excited about it, and jmpava humored me. ;) So we went out to Zephyr Cove to go horseback riding. I hadn't been on a horse for something like ten years -- I had lessons when I was maybe eleven or twelve, and then rode a friend's pony a few times after that in junior high, but that's it. And Pav hadn't ridden before, ever, so it was an adventure. But the horses were, of course, incredibly gentle, and basically just followed the butt of the horse in front, so it was not terribly hard and really fun. I'd forgotten how much fun I have on horseback, even at a walking pace, and it was really nice to be able to get a fair ways up into the hills without having to exhaust myself on foot doing it.

The slopes were beautiful, covered in tenacious green brush and with huge ruddy-brown tree trunks and dark green pine boughs. The air had a lovely sweet warm smell, somewhere between cinnamon and cedar. We saw a lot of squirrels, and also a lot of Steller's jays, which I'm sorry I couldn't get any pictures of -- they're such a vivid blue. But it's hard to take a photo one-handed on horseback.

The horses:



Me and the horses:



The hills and the trail:



First-person horseback riding perspective:



Profoundly blurry attempt to take a picture of Pava:



Much better picture of Pava on JR, as taken by the trail leader:



Picture of me, squinting, on Bucky:



All four of us:



View from the overlook:



And another, now with more slopes:



The next day, we slept in again, relaxed, played games. (Crisis Core is fun!) I read most of Heat, and watched through the picture window as the clouds rolled in, the mist lowered until I couldn't see the opposite shore, the rain fell into the lake... and then the mist rolled back out so that the mountains gradually reappeared. Really pretty.

Then we went to a lovely dinner, courtesy of the company, with everyone else. There was great dinnertable conversation, lots of good wine (Twisted Oak does a wonderful viognier), and omg food. Food! Food! It was a three-course meal, though we really only did two and a half courses, since we split the salad. It was very fancy and a lot of fun, the kind of meal I'm glad I didn't have to pay for myself, but that was marvelous to eat.

For the first course, I had elk carpaccio -- the first time I'd ever had elk. (Carpaccio is basically raw tenderloin, sliced very, very thinly, pounded even more thinly, and lightly dressed, usually with olive oil, with fresh greens and parmesan to sprinkle over the top if you like.) Pav took a picture of it after I'd taken my first bite, which is why it looks a bit messed up:



Pava had a crab tian molded within smoked salmon:



The middle course was an arugula-walnut-pear-roquefort salad, which was marvelous although basically looked like a salad, so no pictures.

My entree was buffalo tenderloin, topped with foie gras, and served on roasted asparagus spears and cranberry risotto. The buffalo tenderloin was delightful, and definitely had a stronger/more gamey taste than beef tenderloin -- a lot of flavor. The foie gras was good, though not good enough that I'd be likely to seek it out, though I'm glad I tried it; it basically tasted like bacon mixed with blue cheese:



Pava's entree was poached shrimp and scallops, and lobster ravioli:



We finished up the meal with a chocolate sampler (warm chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate gelato), and port. I about exploded, it was so good.

We also got some pictures of the lake by evening. Me and Pav:



The lake in evening:



And again:



In the restaurant:



neonelephant by firelight:



You can see all of my pictures-of-dubious-quality in the web album.

Comments

[triath.livejournal.com]

Yay pictures! Sounds like a good time!! :]

[coraa.livejournal.com]

It was!

[eepmirva.livejournal.com]

oh, horses!!! And preety area! Sounds like a fun trip! :o)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

The horses were so much fun. :D

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

I like seeing Pava on a horse, it make the universe seem more unpredictable.

I'm sorry, I probably tuned in late (if at all-- a bit spacey this month), why were you in Tahoe?

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Oh...I went directly to the photos and kind of skipped the first paragraph; mea culpa. Tahoe because of laserland-- got it.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? He gets bonus points, too; a number of the women wanted to go riding, but he was the only SO who actually agreed to go without bitching and moaning.