Just got back from ABA’s Tahoe trip over the weekend. In a nutshell, the retreat was tons of fun, a breath of fresh air, and also physically exhausting. But overall, I had a blast, hung out with a bunch of awesome people, and enjoyed the time off from a busy midterm season.
We rode over to Tahoe on a nice coach bus Friday night with no delay. Stopped for dinner halfway and arrived at the retreat house in the evening. It was the same house as last year’s, but I wasn’t complaining – this house was new, nicely furnished, had three bathrooms, lots of space, and a wonderful view of the lake.
Played some ice breakers, watched a scary Korean movie, played Bang, and finally went to sleep around 4:30. Woke up early the next morning for the main event of the retreat – our day of snowboarding at Homewood Ski Resort.
After taking care of tickets and rentals, I went up to the mountains for the first time since winter break. It was a great feeling, but my first run didn’t end up too well (lots of falls). Gradually, I picked up carving and improved enough to be able to board without any major incidents.
Michael, Jay, and I ended up on the other side of the resort, so we had to follow a series of ski lifts to get to the top (Rainbow Ridge) in order to snowboard all the way down to our original meeting place. That run was so much fun – just pure carving and lots of speed.
Stopped at the lodge for a quick lunch, then headed back out with a larger group to snowboard down a mix of green, blue and black diamond slopes. By the end of the day, I had gotten comfortable enough to go pretty fast, and despite plenty of spills here and there, I had a lot of fun. Plus, I landed my first several jumps (along with some failed jumps, too).
We went back to the house, exhausted. Dinner was great (good ol’ spaghetti, with LOTS of ground beef this time around). I played Bang, studied a bit for my midterm on Monday, then dozed off around midnight.
The Sunday drive back was smooth, and everyone had a good nap on the bus.
I had a blast at retreat, and I’m looking forward to snowboarding again in the near future. Might even get a season pass some day.
Quick vlog about snowboarding below:
Tahoe at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com.
