Storm? What Storm?

This past weekend was tons of fun. John let me know where we were going when we got north of Paso, because we then changed routes and started heading East. He thought I would have guessed where we were headed, but there was no way! I still thought we were going to Vegas, Tahoe, or Napa! The only clues he gave me were that the location was max 6 hours away…and then the day before we left he told me we would be heading North.

I was so excited when I found out it was Yosemite. Neither of us had been there and we had both talked about how we wanted to go there. We actually stayed south of Yosemite Valley in Fish Camp, and we made it there in less than 3.5 hours! We stayed at Teyana Lodge and it was really nice.

I had no idea what to expect but it was an all inclusive lodge. You really didn’t need to leave for anything. They had tons of actives for families too…snow shoeing, horse drawn sleigh ride, sledding, ice-skating, and a pool. I was really impressed.

When we pulled up there were TONS of cars! I couldn’t believe how packed it was. Once we got into the lobby we noticed the following sign:

So then the amount of cars made a bit more sense.

When we got there we had a few hours to kill before bed so we headed to the bar…where else would we go? I had one of the best drinks I’ve ever had… a Lava Flow! It was so tasty and sweet.

The next morning I finally got to see where we were staying in the day light and it was so beautiful! I just love the snow and it makes everything so much prettier.

We decided to start the day with some room service…why not? I was officially too old to make it downstairs to the restaurant. Did you know 31 is the official age for that? I guess that is one benefit to getting older…getting more people to wait on you.

After we ate, we headed on to our snowshoeing adventure. The trail we were going to go on was actually the same road as the horse sleigh ride. There was also a guided snow shoeing tour starting at the same time, and let me tell you I was SO glad we opted to go by ourselves. It was a HUGE group with a huge variety of athleticism…hence one lady who totally got left in the dust. She was barely moving. She was moving so slow I actually thought she was standing still. As we got a little closer she had turned around and decided that snowshoeing was not her thing.

The guided tour went on a ‘nature trail’ that was just a small loop off the main road. Once they veered off on the trail it became so quiet and peaceful. The only times we ever got interrupted was when the sleigh ride would come by. We did get one video of it…well mainly the little doggie that lead the pack. He would bark to let all know that they were coming through. He was super cute!

Here is John showing me his mad snow shoeing skills. If a bear were to appear, I’d have no fears that he could out run him.

Here is a vid of me trying to walk down a hill. Ok…so it’s a total mini hill, but it was WAY steeper in person! John says I was walking like a penguin because of my baby steps…however my muscle right near my hip was starting to really hurt when I’d lift up my leg…so that is half of my excuse. The other half is that I really did not want to fall while the camera was rolling!

Once we turned around we decided to take the ‘nature trail’ that the guided tour took. By the time we made the loop and back to the main road we were pretty wiped out. I think we were gone for about 2.5 hours.

Once we got back to the lodge we cruised around the premise to check out the ice-skating rink and the sledding area. Here we encountered ‘The Blade.’ Named for his awesome sled and his death defying sledding skills. After his first few impressive runs, (one where he went 3 feet and then ran into the side fence), I decided to whip out the camera to capture his next run. (Yes that is John chanting in the beginning).

After lunch and a few more lava flows we headed back up to our room to relax before dinner. We wanted to drive into Yosemite for dinner, but there was a big storm coming in that night and the lodge staff told us it could take us 1.5 hours to get into town. Uhh…no thanks. I was not in the mood to spend 3 hours in the car that night. We decided to head south instead as the valet guys said we shouldn’t need chains.

On our way back from dinner it was definitely snowing harder and the road was getting more and more snow on it. We almost made it back, but we started to slide at one point so we pulled over to put the chains on. Man! That was an unpleasant experience and I wasn’t even the one getting my hands dirty! Due to the extra time that took we were unable to go ice skating when we got back. That was ok though since we headed to the bar so I could get a few more lava flows. I couldn’t help it! Who knows when I’d get one again? Plus we were on a mini vaca…cut me some slack! Here was my final lava flow, and my birthday dessert. It was a chocolate chip cookie pizza....or a chocolate chip sundae.

We found out from our waiter that we were able to take our last round of drinks up to our room if we wanted, so we did. However as we walked through the lobby we kept getting all these evil eyes from all the Christan ladies!

When we got back to our room we checked on the snow storm. Some of the valet cars were parked beneath our room and the snow was getting higher and higher. Here’s a vid John took. You may need to watch this twice to appriciate my interfearance of this video and to hear my director skills.

The next morning we woke up to a fresh 2 feet of snow on the ground. I don’t think I have ever seen so much snow after one night in my life!! I saw these two valet guys working on one car for an hour to get it out of the snow and put chains on it. It did not look good…but then I saw a couple locate their car and then proceed to drive their car out of the snow. The woman started brushing the snow off of the windshield with her hand, which wasn’t that successful. What does the husband do? He gets out of his car and takes a photo with his phone!!

The lady then wised up and grabbed an umbrella out of her car. Still not that good, but it would do. I had to take the flowing video of the scene...please note that I am not drunk in this video as I know my comentary implies it.

I decided to call the front desk and ask if a bellboy could bring up a luggage cart. She tells me that it will be a 3-hour wait along with a three-hour wait to have a valet get our car out of the snow. Ummm 3 hours?? I don’t think so! I told john that I thought we’d have to dig out our car. I don’t think he really believed we could do it, but I had confidence after watching that other couple.

We head down to get our keys and the guy told us what lot the car was in and said good luck. But before we left I knew we were going to need something to scrape off the snow on the car, (and I knew we did not have a long umbrella). I told John to grab a snow shoe for the each of us in hope that we could use those as shovels. (All the lodge's shovels were already being used).

We headed into the parking lot and John reminded me that the rearview mirrors were blue. That was the only part of the cars that were visible. I actually spotted the car pretty quick, but didn’t think it was it, because it looked HUGE with all the snow on it. So the digging began. As you can see John is thrilled!

We actually un-dug the car and packed the car in about 40 minutes! We totally impressed ourselves. I was almost ready to offer my services to other guests for $50 a car, but realized I needed to get back to watch the game.