| Monday, April 21, 2008 |
12:57 - Thar be black diamonds off the port bow
http://www.sierraattahoe.com/events.calendar.event.asp?eventid=closingday
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Looks like Sierra-At-Tahoe (my favorite ski resort, as readers might remember) is closing for the season today. Here's something I sure never would have extrapolated from first principles:
Avast there matey! The sun is setting over the yardarm of this winter season! Arrrghhhhh!
We will uphold our 14-year tradition by hosting “Customer Appreciation Day” on the final day of winter operations for the season, April 21, 2008. Skiers and riders of all ages can purchase a lift ticket for $20 and bid farewell to Sierra™ Resort until the snow flies next season. In support of a grassroots movement that began among Sierra Resort passholders a few years ago, all guests are encouraged to dress as pirates on the final day.
That must be something to see, right there.
And I could have, if I'd stayed another day. See, I'm back in California for a week or so, reacquainting myself with my old haunts and friends. True, it hasn't been that long that I've been gone out east, but chances are I won't be able to visit again for a while, so I have to get in what I can.
We drove up to South Lake Tahoe for a Blue Öyster Cult concert on Saturday night, where I caught the pick hurled into the audience by guitarist and keyboardist Richie Castellano. The four of us had dinner in the upscale restaurant at the top floor of Harrah's, and I hereby assert that Bearnaise sauce is dangerous stuff when applied to a filet mignon. Plus the view can't be beat.
 
We spent the whole night listening to 35-mph gusts of wind whipping around the sides of the tower while temperatures dropped to the mid-teens. The drive home was in freezing temperatures. I spotted a few pirates on the slopes, but it didn't look like that much fun this late in the year. Still, I was impressed that winter was hanging on with such tenacity. But, naturally, this being California, summer had all but taken hold already back down in the valleyland, and the air was so clear in Sacramento that one could see the snowcapped ridges behind the city skyline if one were properly equipped with a good telephoto lens, which naturally I was not. But that just forced me to concentrate all the harder on making my mental photographs count.
I've never been ill disposed toward this place, and absence—as the proverb suggest—isn't helping matters.
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Brian Tiemann
