Classic Lake Tahoe 4th of July

We had a really fun three-day weekend on Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July. Days were packed with an early morning waterski session, then breakfast on the lake, then wakesurfing, then lunch on the lake, then parties, and then fireworks on the lake again. It was so fun. Thank you to the Matthew's and Dan Haas for providing the boats!!

Early morning waterski session on Tahoe on July 3rd.

Katharine carving it up!

And again.


Dan Haas arcing a sweet turn.

Katharine and Sarah enjoying a nice breakfast on the Haas's dock...great way to start the day!

Craines, Katharine, and Cary enjoying some beer-garitas on Dan's boat.

Sarah and Ellie, our trusty boat dog! Isn't she cute?!

Thanks for all the wakesurf driving Dan!

Kat and Dan soakin' up the sun.

A down puffy in July?? ...Only on Lake Tahoe!

Katharine surfin' it up!

Time for round 2 of the Beer-Garitas!

You must slap that bag before you drink!!

Fun little 4th of July surf session...did better today, surfed before the beer-garitas!

Katharine arcing it up!

Sarah and Cary at the Matthew's 4th of July BBQ.

Katharine and Sarah chillin' in the Red, White, and Blue.

Sayer and John Maymar playing a little Cornhole.

Jonathan, Craines, and Sarah rowing out to the Chris Craft.

Cary and Katharine, smile and say cheese!

Here comes the cocktail cruiser!!

A little Jack anyone?

Now that's how America celebrates!

Mike Craines models his all-american M.C. Hammer pants!

Heading to the Haas' dock to pick up the rest of our crew.

And the crew prepares for the sunset/fireworks cruise.

Thank you to Jonathan, our sober boat driver.

Katharine and Sarah, the girls of summer.

Katharine, Dan, the full moon, and a beautiful evening on the lake.

Cary modeling the gorgeous sunset.

Dan, Sarah, Katharine, and Jonathan enjoying the cocktail cruise on the Chris Craft.

Sarah never told us she was an expert pole dancer...

You just can't have a 4th of July with out a full moon pee off the back of the boat while holding the American Flag!! Classic!

Katharine, Sayer, and Craines trying to stay warm and snuggly while watching the fireworks.

Uh, that was just a little scary...?

Yumm, late night beer-garitas out of a salad dressing container!!

Hike to Five Lakes

Sabrina, Markus, Niko, Megan, and I headed out for a great hike up to Five Lakes in Alpine Meadows. It was Niko's first big hike where he did quite a lot of walking on his own...very impressive. Markus was also very impressive, shouldering the rather large weight of his 2 year old son for the main uphill parts of the hike! We all swam in one of the lakes, and it was actually warmer than I expected...quite nice after the hot hike up.

Markus and Katharine taking a dip.

Sub and Megan stealing the camera!

Niko found a few friends to play with.

The old crew back together...Kat, Sub, and Meg.

The girls and Niko, what a chick magnet he is!

A Little Mt. Lassen Backcounty

I headed up to Lassen National Park this weekend for a little camping and backcountry skiing with John, Ryan, Stacia, Hunter, and Parkhill. It was raining the whole drive up, and pooring even harder once we got into the park, but for some reason there was a little pocket of lighter rain over our campsite so it wasn't too soggy, and it totally stopped raining the second we got out of the car. And it stayed dry the entire trip until we packed up and got back in the car the next day!! Yay, lucky us. And it turned out to be an awesome trip with 3200 vertical feet of the most perfect corn snow turns!!

Stacia and Eldon, our Great Pyrenees guard dog.

Ryan and Stacia, relaxing by the grill and cookin' up a fat tri-tip.

Katharine and Ryan, just chillin'.

John, getting his camping on.

Hunter, happy to be a part of this year's awesome crew.

The whole gang enjoying the raging campfire.

Uh oh, I've got an announcement to make...cap's in the fire and its time to drink some whiskey!

John and Stacia getting cozy by the fire.

Ryan has another announcement to make...cheers!

And another cap, this time some Bailey's, tossed into the fire...except, oops, looks like somebody missed the fire!

A little nightcap of Bailey's and hot chocolate anyone?

And what do you know, the brew crew, as usual, outlasting everyone by the campfire!

John, Katharine, Ryan, Parkhill, and Hunter ready to go, bright and early at the trailhead.

John and Katharine posing for a quick shot on the hike up.

John is almost to the summit, and just in the nick of time because it looks like the clouds are rolling in.

And here comes Hunter too.

Awesome view looking down from the summit!

Never underestimate the A-Team Brew Crew, summitting Lassen in top form even after the late night of whiskey announcements!

And this is what we skied, 3200 vertical feet of perfect spring corn...probably the best snow we've ever had at Lassen!

Hunter and John, hiking out the bottom after a great run.

Back at the parking lot, relaxing and stretching.

This is one happy crew! Thanks for a great trip!!

Fun with Jen in Bend

Took a little spin up to Bend, OR to visit my friend Jen Coughlin over Memorial Weekend. We had gorgeous weather the whole time, which was awesome. Did a bunch of hiking, mountain biking, dining, and relaxing. It was quite the necessary respite from a hectic work week last week. Thanks Jen!

Went to this really great restaurant, The Blue Olive, sat in cozy deck chairs, and enjoyed a delicious meal and gorgeous view.

Jen, Jeff, and Katharine posing in front of the awesome view.

More views!

Friends!

Think this must have turned into a model session rather than a meal!

FOREVER!

Took a big digger on my mountain bike and face planted into the dirt.

Better view here, in case you couldn't see how dirty my face was!

A little PBR can fix anything...except the pain in my shoulder that also manifested from the fall.


Jeff was more than a little amused with my new look.

Lizard's Birthday Bash

I had a marathon trip down to San Francisco yesterday for my friend Liz Kenny's birthday bash. It was quite the feat...worked a twelve hour shift on Friday, drove down to SF, picked up Chelsea (who flew in from Jackson Hole to surprise Liz) at BART, navigated the crazy SF streets and sidewalk parking situation, joined the gang that had already accumulated since earlier that morning, slept on a hardwood floor, spent the entire day at Great America riding rollar coasters and standing in line in 80+ degree weather, drove back to the city, had dinner, drove back up to Tahoe through the I-80 construction detour nightmare, in bed by 1:30 am, and now up at 6:30 and back to work for another 12 hour shift at the hospital...agghhhhhhh! I'm getting too old for this! But it was fun. And how could I say no the helping Chels pull off the "Big Surprise?"

Lizard, the birthday girl, after a fun day of wine tasting at Grgich Hills Estate in Napa...wish I could have been there for that!

Megan and Katharine, enjoying the Bay views and early morning sun from the roof-deck of a sweet SF apartment.

Whoa, did you see that...?


Yay, Chelsea's here!

Ouch, I'm not to flexible! Maybe its time for a little stretching??

Lake Cushing Crossing

The last weekend at Squaw was full of fun and excitment, including the 19th Annual Lake Cushing Crossing. This year I dressed up as "Flapper Kat," a flapper costume from the Roaring 20's, complete with my bottle of moonshine. The entrance into the lake was a rather large drop this year, making it a bit of a challenge, but I made it all the way across the pond and out the other side successfully!

Ski boots and a flapper dress...always a good look on the slopes!

Hanging with the gang from Graham's after the crossing.

Sarah Jones, dressed up as the "Cookie Queen," was a crowd favorite as she tossed fresh chocolate chip cookies to everyone.

And click here for a video of my lake crossing (skip to minute 6:24 to see me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfUb18AdNKc

Summer Remodeling with the Bears

The bear broke into my house last month while I was out of town on Easter Sunday. He busted down my back door, attacked my brand new fridge, and totally cleaned out the freezer (that was the only good stuff he could find...there was no other food or trash anywhere else in the house worth eating)! It was quite a mess. Luckily I had my nice neighbor, Mike The Bear Slayer, to come to the rescue! He cleaned up the mess and put up my new plywood door. Then a week later the bear came back in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and broke the plywood door down again. He made quite a racket and woke me up in a flash. Luckily I was able to make enough noise to scare him off before he came back in to do more harm! But he broke my new plywood door, and we had to reinforce it with a 2x4.

The spray paint is all part of the new "look" I'm going for with this summer's remodeling session.

The snowblower is even part the new "defense zone!"