Weekend Recap: Yosemite (CA)

El Capitan

Saturday morning we drove to Mariposa to prepare for a day in Yosemite on Sunday (we had considered trying to do a day trip into Tahoe to ski, but the snow wasn't really cooperating with that plan). We were going to boondock at the county park and ride, which is a really good spot for this. You can stay for up to 48 hours, its only about an hour drive to the valley floor, it has a bus stop for the bus into the park, and the town's small main street is a short walk away. However, we discovered that there had been a rockslide on the highway into the park and it was closed. Due to this we pivoted to moving half an hour south to Oakhurst. This is on one of the other two highways into the park and has a Harvest Host there. So we hitched back up to the camper and managed to get a spot at the Yosemite Wine Tails tasting room, parking in their back lot. It's not big enough to turn around and we pulled in headfirst, meaning we were going to have to back on onto the road to leave.

The wine tasting at Yosemite Wine Tails was good and the host was very friendly (including telling us not to worry about rushing back from the park to get the camper out of the lot by any specific time). Taking one of her recommendations, we walked to the nearby Oakhurst Grill for dinner. We really enjoyed their mini creme brulee cheesecakes.

Bryn enjoying the Oakhurst's decorations

Sunday was our Yosemite day. We came in via highway 41, so our first glimpse of the valley was from the tunnel view. It's an excellent view of the valley, and the snow made it a very different experience than when Shawn visited years ago in September.

Yosemite Valley

We drove through the valley floor, making short stops at a lot of lookouts as well as Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately we only got to do very minor hikes at these falls, as the main trails were closed for a combination of restoration and because they get too icy during winter. We stopped in Yosemite village for a quick lunch, and then checked out the museums (Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite Vistor Center, and Yosemite Museum). 

Bryn and a very old redwood

After lunch we did the Mist Trail up to the Vernal Falls bridge, though because of plowing restrictions we did have to park a mile away from the trailhead. This 0.8 mile trip up the bridge is actually the same trail that started Shawn's John Muir Trail hike back in 2014. However, this time the hike ended at the bridge, as further on the trail was closed for winter. The path up was covered in snow, and we had to go slowly at points to avoid slipping. Once we arrived at the bridge, we had a view of Vernal Falls about 3/4 of a mile upriver.

Mist Trail

After our hike we continued with some scenic drives around the valley floor, stopping to gape at the views. It's been Shawn's favorite park for years, and even without being able to ascend Half Dome again it lived up to the hype.

El Capitan, Cathedral, Sentinel

El Capitan

Weekly Recap: Shawn In Sacramento (CA)

Bryn spent the majority of this week back in Boston for a work trip, so Shawn focused less on tourist activities and more on work and camper maintenance.

The Monday following the San Francisco outing was Martin Luther King Day, so Shawn had off from work. The plan had been to drive up from the Bay Area, through Sacramento, and stay at timeshare RV park partway between Sacramento and Tahoe. They offer a 5 day stay for free to try to entice you into joining their membership. However, a snow storm rolled in just as Shawn started getting close and then the highway was closed down about 10 miles before the park. They refused to move the reservation date, and also had an issue with the fact that Bryn wasn't going to be there. With the unexpected stop in Placerville, Shawn brought the RV to a mobile RV repair man to look into the propane heater/fridge issue. After taking the unit out and testing it, he confirmed that the unit's motherboard had died and needed to be replaced. While he was working on that, Shawn parked the camper in a nearby Walmart and got a haircut. Eventually the repairman came by to reinstall the working unit, and it fixed the issue (but cost almost $500). While he was working on it, a man walked up talking about how great the camper looked and how "he hasn't seen one like this in years!" It has been serving our needs well, but this is not a luxury camper or even relatively new so it was very strange to hear such praise. The guy weirded out both Shawn and the repairman enough that instead of boondocking there for the night, he moved about an hour closer to Sacramento and spent the night in a Sam's Club parking lot instead.

The next morning he walked over to a nearby Starbucks to work through morning meetings until it was close enough to check-in time at the next campsite. After the timeshare place fell through, he found a backup location right in Sacramento at the fairgrounds. The Cal Expo RV Park is on the ground of the Cal Expo and State Fair location, but open all year. The price was very cheap, particularly for being so close to town. The spot was also surprisingly level and all were very large pull-thrus. However, they were much stricter than any campground we've stayed at before (they inspected the trailer for age, took copies of the registration and insurance, no refunds if you shorten your stay, need a physical key for the bathrooms, etc.).

After working from the camper for the rest of the day, it was errands time. The truck needed an oil change, as we last did it in Rapid City and have put on a lot of miles since then. After getting that taken care of, Shawn added on a car wash/vacuum and grocery run. This was the first sunny day in a long while.

The next day was again mostly just working from the camper and doing trip planning at night, but a bike path runs right next to the campground so Shawn went for an evening run on it. There were a lot of closed sections/detours from flooding due to the unrelenting heavy rain, but it was still the best running route in weeks. It has been a bit of a surprise how unfriendly the west has been to running outside. Percy took advantage of Bryn being away to claim her chair for himself.

Percy loving boys week

Thursday was another busy work day, but added the first disc golf outing in months. The John Mackey Disc Golf Course is in a city park only a few miles away from the campground. It was pretty well maintained course, though again the recent flooding had some of it closed off. Shawn's game has definitely deteriorated in the long break since the fall. 

John Mackey DGC

On the way back from the course, Shawn stopped at Home Depot to pick up some supplies for more camper repair. First was refastening the side panel that had been torn off by the wind back in Orick. This was a pretty easy fix with longer screws than we had on hand, and was instantly so much firmer mounted than our previous temporary fix. The next job was significantly more involved. The grey tank (waste waster from sinks and the shower, but not toilet) had developed a small drip near the beginning of the trip. We managed to stop it with some steel epoxy, but that fix failed when the grey tank pipe froze sometime during our Idaho or Nevada cold snaps. The expansion caused a crack to form in the epoxy, and now further attempts to epoxy the leak failed. So we went with a full replacement of the PVC elbow. At home this would be a pretty minor job, but on the road out here we don't have a saw or PVC cement on hand. Additionally, campgrounds pretty much all have policies against doing repair work on your campers (let alone a campground this strict). Shawn purchased the supplies needed to do this, including a small hacksaw, and then did it under the camper after the office had left for the day. At one point he did have to turn off his flashlight and wait, as a security truck does regular patrols of the campground at night. But it was still a reasonable sized job, although a pair of couplings were unfortunately needed to go only about an inch each.

Repaired grey tank

Friday was another work from the camper day and run along the nearby bike path. Heading in the opposite direction proved to have fewer detours. The grey tank fix was confirmed to be holding! At the end of the day, Bryn returned from her business trip. We caught an Uber into the downtown portion of Sacramento, which was only about a 10 minute drive away.

Urban Roots Brewery

Our first stop was Urban Roots, a brewery with barbecue offerings. It was some of the better barbecue we have had outside of the south. After dinner we walked to the nearby dive bar B Side. We got a couple of seats at the bar and accidently got sucked into watching all of Mars Attacks, which they had put on just as we walked in. The ridiculously stacked cast sucked us in, and was a huge juxtaposition to the quality of the film. We kept saying "How did this come out the same year as Independence Day?!" 

When the B movie ended, we moved onto a recommendation from one of the bartenders, the nearby Shady Lady. This was a much more swanky bar, and made some excellent cocktails.

Very pretty and delicious cocktails from the Shady Lady

Weekly Recap: Bay Area (CA)

So that first week in California wasn't all we were hoping for. 

But wait: it got worse! 

Bryn was feeling a little under the weather, so Shawn drove from the Testa vineyard into Sonoma, to another Harvest Host: the Mayo Family Winery. It has a really nice spot tucked into the vines, but you do have to back up through the entire parking lot. Bryn still hadn't recovered, so Shawn did the wine tasting by himself and guessed which ones he thought Bryn would enjoy. He ended up getting a couple of bottles for us to have later.

The Bundra and trailer at Mayo Family Winery

Bryn tried taking a nap to get over her nausea, Shawn watched football in the meantime. However, it just got worse. At this point we changed the diagnosis from intense hangover to food poisoning. Our assumption was the shrimp pasta from the previous evening. Originally, we had planned to spend the afternoon going into Santa Rosa (to visit Russian River Brewery and the Bonneau Wine tasting room), but with Bryn's struggles we skipped it for the day.

Monday morning Shawn worked at a Starbucks to get through some morning meetings, and then we drove from Sonoma to an actual campground in Vallejo. We checked in and set up, finally connecting to power for the first time in 6 days! It was so exciting to have full electricity again. Almost everything in the fridge/freezer had to be thrown away and it took a lot of cleaning to get rid of the smells (normally the propane system should have been able to run the fridge in the absence of an electrical hookup, but that had already failed back in Reno...). We also got to do laundry for the first time in a while, as we couldn't at our previous campground due to the power. Unfortunately, Bryn continued to have digestive issues but started improving in the evening. We managed to schedule an appointment with a mobile RV repair company to come look at our propane furnace.

The next morning is when we finally figured out what was really going on. At this point Bryn's symptoms had abated (though she was still very weak from not eating or sleep well), but Shawn began showing the same symptoms. We had to revise the diagnosis again. It wasn't food poisoning, it was norovirus. There was an ongoing outbreak, and it was even partially connected to oysters...

Realizing that it was norovirus, which is HIGHLY contagious, we had to cancel our propane fix and lockdown for several days until our symptoms/contagious period passed. We spent a couple of days in the camper listening to the rain.

Finally Friday rolled around and we had reached the end of our contagiousness window. Sweet, sweet freedom! We worked a half day in the morning, and then headed off towards Santa Rosa. Originally our plan had been to head into San Francisco in the early afternoon, but since the norovirus had prevented us from getting in our other stops earlier in the week we decided to cut into our city time. On the way through Sonoma we stopped at the Bonneau deli/gas station in for lunch. They used to do wine tastings here as well, but that apparently stopped just before COVID. We still got sandwiches, and they were very good.

Long lost relatives

We arrived at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, and it was excellent. They have a flight that contains every beer they have on top (20 when we were there). We got one to split. Shawn really liked the Robert. Bryn really liked the Intinction Sauv Blanc. Of course, Pliny the Elder was great. We weren't hungry so we didn't get any ourselves, but the food that others had around us looked and smelled great. We got several bottles both for ourselves and for some friends that Bryn will see when she is back in Boston for work.

Russian River megaflight

We then went to the nearby 4th Street Cellars, a tasting room in Santa Rosa which includes several brands, one of which is Bonneau Wines. This is from a very distant (i.e. hundreds of years) branch of Shawn's family. He tried to visit on his last trip to San Francisco, but a rental car break-in got in the way. We did a tasting of the Bonneau wines they had on hand and purchased several bottles, both for ourselves and for Shawn's sister who was running low on stock from them.

A very happy Shawn

Once we were done with the Bonneau tasting, we rushed back to the camper to start our San Francisco outing. We set Percy up for a stretch without us, grabbed our bags, and then caught the 6:40 ferry into San Francisco. It was a 1 hour ride and provided some nice views of the city lights as we pulled into the port. We made the somewhat foolish decision to walk the mile to our hotel, thinking it wouldn't be too bad. SF really is that hilly, especially when you have a suitcase full of wine/beer and spent several days sick earlier in the week. By the time we realized how bad our mistake was going to be, it felt foolish to take a bus or Uber 1/3 of a mile, so we suffered through the rest of the hike up to the hotel. Shawn's family had gotten us 2 nights at the Fairmount as a Christmas gift. We checked in and discovered we had gotten a room upgrade! After stashing our stuff, we went to a nearby Italian restaurant, Nob Hill Cafe, and got a lovely late dinner without having to leave the top of the hill. 

Coming in on the ferry

On our way back to our room, we stopped into the hotel's basement bar, Tonga. This is a tiki bar that has an entire pool with boat stage in the middle of it. A live band was playing from the boat while we were there. We found the drinks overly sweet, but the atmosphere is definitely worth checking out.

A boat on a pool in a bar under a hotel

Saturday morning we got room service for breakfast, as we had some food credits due to American Express Platinum benefits. Then we used the hotel's gym to weightlift. It was better stocked than Planet Fitness, and it was so nice to have actual squat racks and trap bars instead of Smith machines. After a workout and shower, we had worked our appetite back up and headed down the hill to Chinatown. We got dim sum at Osmanthus Dim Sum Lounge. It was pricey, but great. We got an outdoor (but covered) table, which was a nice bonus.

So many dumplings

We checked on a tour of Alcatraz, but had waited too long and they were sold out for the day. Instead, we decided to walk down to the water and along the bay to Fisherman's Wharf. We looked for the sea lions at Pier 39 and found a whole bunch of them flopped on the wooden decks. After wandering through the touristy marketplace, we popped into a bar to wait out another batch of rain. After a while we gave up and called an Uber to bring us partway up the hill to the Cable Car Museum. Cable cars are an iconic San Francisco staple, and the center for the system has free access every day. The museum has a viewing section where you can see the cables operating underneath the adjacent streets, plus the main motors driving the entire system are visible in the center of the building. We definitely recommend this as a quick stop (maybe an hour) if you're nearby, especially for the price!

The museum was near our hotel and we weren't hungry yet, so we took a short break back in our room. Once we could see ourselves eating again, we walked over to Mensho Tokyo SF, which is a very well rated ramen shop that Shawn's sister had recommended to us. It's a very small place, and it took us about an hour to get through the line, which was about 15 people when we arrived. It was well worth the wait, as the food was excellent. Shawn got the Blaze, which was very spicy--don't underestimate it. Bryn got the Tori Paitan, which was so rich and creamy. The dishes are quite large and come out very fast, so don't worry about an appetizer. We also recommend getting in early, as the line was almost 3 times longer than when we arrived by the time we got in.

Blaze on the left, Tori Paitan on the right

We hit a couple of bars on our way back to the hotel, breaking up the walk back up the hill. In the morning we got another American Express credit breakfast, and then parted ways. Bryn headed to the airport for a business trip back to Boston. Shawn walked back down to the ferry terminal to head to the camper and Percy. Once he confirmed that the truck's windows had not been broken in a smash-and-grab, we officially declared the San Francisco weekend a success. Our stomachs were still a little sensitive and our bodies were feeling fatigued but we managed to have a nice weekend. Hopefully our luck is turning!

The flopped sea lions reminded us of someone...

   

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures

But How is Percy Doing?!

Percy on "his" ottoman (full of his treats and toys)

Percy is a very good and very bad boy. He can be extremely stubborn and will fixate on certain things to chew on. It is almost impossible to make him stop! Most of the time he is behaved and focuses his energy on rabbit-safe treats and toys, or the cat-scratchers we give him.

Flower covered apple sticks

Since we began our journey, Percy has settled in well to camper life. He LOVES having both his humans around all the time and really enjoys the space we've set up for him. Unfortunately, he is also a bad boy who enjoys tearing up the carpet fibers in 2 specific areas of the trailer. Therefore, we blocked him from the carpet with plywood. He was determined but has not been able to cause more damage. In October he managed to chew through his soft carrier (his 3rd in three years!) and we purchased a hard case. It's indestructible and solid, so Percy has not managed even a scratch on it. It does make petting him in the car difficult, but he seems to like the hard, supportive bottom more than his soft carriers and has even started eating hay while we are on long drive days. This is something he never used to do, as he hates eating while driving. In November we finished off the hay bale we had brought from Shawn's parents farm, and switched him to store bought hay. He was clearly a bit disappointed at the change.

Being a law-abiding citizen (for now)

While he does tolerate his carrier and driving doesn't stress him out, he is clearly overjoyed when he's let out in the trailer. He usually does a few zoomies and binkies once he realizes he's free for good. 

Percy Perch

When we are sitting in bed at night watching a show, we will allow him to jump up for pets. He has a bad habit of marking his territory on this particular bed (but not our bed at home) so we restrict his access when he's not supervised. Since the start of winter, we've put a heated blanket under our fitted sheet to keep us cozy and Percy is a BIG fan. He will jump up for pets and, if the blanket is really warm, he will flop over and press his body against the bed.

Getting all his surface area on the heated blanket

He really enjoyed the grass in South Dakota. We were there when it was starting to dry up and Percy liked munching on it. His favorite spot in the trailer is on the seat cushions of our dining chairs. He will flop on them for a nap throughout the day and sleeps on them for most of the night. He particularly likes when they are pushed in under the table. The extra coverage makes him feel safe. 

Assuming his night time position

His second favorite spot is very peculiar. We brought along an adjustable dumbbell set to use when we're far from a Planet Fitness. The carrying/storage case is a hard, black plastic and Percy loves loafing on it. We have no idea why, but he's obsessed. 

Why does he love this? We don't know.

We've let Percy explore outside in quite a few places along our travels. Most recently, he experienced the beach and the Pacific ocean! He is tolerant of his harness because he's learned it means he can hop around a new place and go where he wants. On the beach, he spent almost 10 minutes exploring beach plants, rocks, sticks, and sand before running over to his carrier and crawling in. We love seeing him explore so confidently! 

Our intrepid explorer on the beach in Orick, CA

Weekly Recap: Redwood National Parks (CA)

Pretty much the entire week was raining, so we aren't going to mention it individually.

We woke up on January 2nd and while the situation had not improved in the campground itself, the highways had improved significantly. The tire chain restrictions had been removed from I-80, but the upcoming forecast had more snow for the next 7 days. If we were going to make it into California before mid-January, it had to be today.

Our camp breakdown was the hardest we have had yet. With all the rain, switching to snow, and then temperatures in the teens, ice was a big issue. All our wheel blocks were frozen and had to be carefully hammered free. When we tried to hitch the trailer to the truck, our jack blew the fuse twice in a row. After the second time, we switched to trying to lower it with the manual crank. It was so stuck that the crank itself started to bend instead. We realized that ice had gotten into the shaft and frozen the whole thing in place. After 30 minutes of melting it out, we got it spinning with the manual crank again, then put in another replacement fuse. It worked and we were able to connect the truck up, then had to tow the camper out of the campground through almost a foot of crunchy snow until we reached the plowed part of the parking lot.

Once on the road the conditions improved drastically. The plows had had plenty of time to clear off the roads, especially the highways. We traveled up over Donner Pass (named for the infamous Donner Party who got stuck in it during a 1840s winter) and crossed into California with the camper for the first time. It was a long downhill out of the mountains, but uneventful. At our first gas stop, the camper was absolutely pouring from the snow and ice melt due to being in the warmer temperature of lower elevation.

We had originally planned to go north to hike at Crater Lake on this work holiday, but due to the snow trapping us in Reno an extra day decided to skip it and to come back to Oregon some other time. Instead, we used the day to make it all the way the northern California coast. It ended up being a very long day of driving (though with some of our best towing gas mileage from all the downhill and friendly wind conditions). We got a campsite outside of Orick, just south/west of the Redwood National and State Parks. We had a back-in spot, which was a little annoying since we arrived after dark and the gravel was not particularly distinct from the grass. We set up camp pretty late and were happy to have finally made it to the portion of our trip where the weather should stop being a risk factor.

The next day we worked from the camper and took our all our ski equipment in from the truck bed to dry it out. The campground has a herd of wild elk that live nearby, and we realized we could see them from our camper door while we were doing this. It was a cool moment, and one of the better campground "amenities" we've seen on the trip. It was a very windy night, approaching what we felt a few days earlier in Reno.

On Wednesday we traveled a ways south into Eureka, the biggest town along this section of the coast. We searched for a café to work in for the morning, and found it surprisingly difficult. We went to several before finding one that offered WiFi. Eventually we settled in at a local spot called Ramone's, which was also a bakery so it was not a surprise that their pastries were fantastic. After a few hours of work, we headed to the local Planet Fitness and got in a lift before lunch. After our workout, we went to Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe for lunch and more work on WiFi. At the end of the day we transitioned to Redwood Curtain Brewing Company. Their power had been out earlier in the day due to wind/earthquake damage so they closed a bit early, which was a sign of things to come.

Redwood Curtain last call (early due to the power issues)

After a big grocery run, we returned home to find our own power not working. Initially we thought it was a problem with our camper as we discovered that the wind had pulled the side panel with the connector off, but after inspection we couldn't find any damage to the cables. Then we realized we could hear a couple generators running nearby, and that the only lights we could see we were from vehicles. The whole area actually had a power outage! Since our propane furnace was out of commission, the power outage meant we were totally without heat. Fortunately, the winter temperatures in this part of California hover in the 50s.

The next morning we woke up and were disappointed to find out that they had not restored the power. We decided to go for a few hours of scenic driving while waiting for the power lines to get fixed so we could get back to work, taking whatever PTO we needed to make up the difference. We brought Percy with us and stopped at a nearby beach, taking him on his harness. It's the furthest west he's ever been (and probably ever will be). He was uninterested in the ocean, but did enjoy running around the sand and nearby grass. We also realized that he's never seen the Atlantic, despite living for years in our house 2.5 miles from it.

Percy sees the Pacific

After Percy's beach frolic, we continued driving into the Redwood National and State Parks. Unfortunately, every one of the side or scenic roads we tried to take were closed due to trees that had been downed by the wind. After driving into the park for a while without finding any solid views, we turned back. Sadly when we got home the power was still out, though the electric company had made progress on reducing the number of people affected by the outages. We played some Gloomhaven while continuing to wait and managed to complete two more scenarios.

At one point in the afternoon Bryn went outside of the camper and realized there was an elk about 10 feet away from her. The herd had moved right into the campground itself! It was really cool to see them so up close. They spent about 10 minutes nearby before they had made their way out of the campground. We made a tasty pasta dinner since the propane stove was still working, and went to bed early so we could head back to Eureka if we still didn't have power in the morning.

Power is out for a few hours and the animals invade...

No luck on the power Friday morning either, so we headed back to Eureka. We went straight to Planet Fitness for a workout and shower. We tried to use a Starbucks for our morning work session, but they didn't have a single outlet in the seating area. We found Eureka's trend of no work friendly cafes odd. We rushed back to Ramone's and worked there for the morning again. While we were working, we finally got an estimate on the power restoration from the electric company: 2 more weeks! It was quite annoying that they couldn't have just told us that immediately, as we would have cut our stay short and driven south to another campsite where we could have power. We got a pair of their sandwiches to go, and headed to the county Public Library. We ate lunch before heading in, and worked the whole afternoon there, with access to both free wifi and outlets. Our public library work days have been really convenient.

After work we went to Humboldt Bay Provisions for a pre-dinner drink and so Bryn could get some oysters. She really enjoyed them, but in retrospect we would have been better off without them (more on that next week).

A delicious mistake

For dinner we moved over to the nearby AA Bar and Grill. This is a small venue with a decent beer selection and a lot of cuts of steak. Shawn got buffalo wings and onion rings, while Bryn got a steak. The food was all quite good. We headed home fairly early to prepare to start heading southwest in the morning.

Saturday morning we got up and drove out of the elk campground early. It had been a disappointing stay, though not the fault of the campground itself. We drove south to a Harvest Host, Testa Vineyards, located about halfway to Sonoma. Along the way we popped off the highway to take the scenic Avenue of the Giants instead, although several stretches of this were closed due to more downed trees. We did at least get to see some redwoods despite nature working against us.

Avenue of the Giants

Testa had just opened a new tasting room a few miles away from their vineyard. The Harvest Host setup was a bit tricky, as they haven't really adjusted to this yet (it's only been 3 weeks and it is the offseason, so we may have been their first Harvest Host guest since they opened the new tasting room). After some careful maneuvering we parked and checked in. They gave us the gate code we needed to park at the winery itself and we did a tasting of their wine. Shawn really liked their merlot and Bryn really liked their white blend, so we bought a bottle of each. We headed over to the winery itself, actually parked the camper for the night and spent the afternoon watching Star Trek in the trailer and drinking the wine. Even though we still didn't have power, at least we had cell signal! It was a good place to park, but the offsite check-in location was kind of annoying. We walked to the nearby Club Capella Restaurant for dinner. Shawn had a really solid French Dip sandwich and Bryn enjoyed the creamy shrimp pasta she got. They were already closing up for the night when we left just before 9, even though it was a Saturday.
We went to bed feeling uplifted about our move south (and towards an electrical hookup!) and excited to sleep in Sunday morning before continuing our journey.

Weekly Recap: Reno (NV)

Reno was really a mixed bag for us. The morning we were transitioning from boondocking to our campground was rainy and we wanted to work for a bit in the Subway at the Walmart where we were boondocking. The Subway didn't open on time and had no outlets. There weren't many other good options around. We ended up driving to the Boomtown Casino, next to our campground, and using their Peet's Coffee. It had spotty wifi and outlets but we managed to get some work done. 

Friday was sunny and mild, with temperatures in the high 40s. Shawn worked but Bryn had the day off and decided to ski Northstar. It was a long day. The shuttle system for Northstar was hectic and Bryn ended up waiting 40 minutes for a shuttle to the mountain from the parking lot. It was packed! The mountain was nice, with pretty views and good snow despite it being warm. After an après beer, Bryn had to wait 1 hour in line to get the shuttle back to the lots and then sit in mountain traffic for the next 30 minutes. By the time we reunited, we were both extremely hungry and ready for dinner. Shawn found a Mexican restaurant, Dream Tacos & Cantina, that ended up being one of the best meals we've had on our trip, and certainly one of Bryn's top Mexican meals ever. We forgot to take photos but take our word for it, if you ever find yourself in Reno, go to Dream!

Saturday, Christmas Eve, was another sunny, mid 40s day. We drove about an hour to Heavenly and parked on the Nevada side. We were in line for first chair which meant we got quite a few runs in on fresh snow. We loved it! The mountain is very large, with varying terrain and plenty to keep you occupied. We loved the Pinnacles on the California side and Mott Canyon on the Nevada side. The views of Lake Tahoe from the California side are absolutely gorgeous! 

After a day of skiing we were ready to après. Bryn got a great recommendation from a woman at the winery Harvest Host we stayed at back in November (La Uva Fortuna) for a pizza restaurant called Base Camp Pizza in South Tahoe. We put our names on the list and went to grab a drink across the way at a tavern. Safe to say we were READY for food when we were seated at Base Camp. The pizza looked incredible. We ordered the Garlic Parm Fries, then split a large between the Base Camp and Pear & Gorgonzola pizzas. It was a delicious feast. We highly recommend Heavenly, South Lake Tahoe, and Base Camp Pizza. 

Christmas day was beautiful and sunny. We had a very low key day, working out midmorning and eating charcuterie for lunch while watching sports. It was a very relaxed day of TV, Jaws of the Lion, Star Trek, etc.

We both had Monday off of work for Christmas, but we messed up pretty badly on our Epic Pass blackout dates this day. We drove almost two hours to Kirkwood thinking that Dec 26 wasn't one of the blackout dates, and discovered after our warmup run down a groomed black that it was a blackout date as the lift attendant scanned our pass to get back on. She was kind enough to let us get a second run in, but we had to pack up after that and leave. The two runs we did were good, and the terrain we could see across the bowl looked awesome.

We got to see a great sunrise, though.

To salvage the unnecessary driving, we stopped in Carson City on our way back to the camper. This is a very tiny city and the capital of Nevada. First we went to the Nevada Railroad Museum, which was a fairly small museum focused on the impact of the railroads on the US and particularly the state of Nevada. A large portion of the museum was about the trans continental railroad. It took us about an hour to see. Next we grabbed lunch at the Fox Brewery and Pub, then walked across the street to see the state capital building. It was... underwhelming. Not worth a trip on its own, but worth the 2 minute walk. We scrapped our plans to drive here for a workday later in the week.

We worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday from the trailer, with turbulent winds and heavy rain outside limiting our adventures, then made a trip to In-n-Out for dinner. It's a west coast staple that everyone raves about. We have both had it before, but are still trying to figure out what the hype is about. Shawn got a double-double animal style with animal style fries and Bryn got a cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate shake. We were left with the same feelings we've had before: the burgers are fine but nothing notable and the fries are very bad (unbelievably soft and completely unseasoned). Bryn's shake was quite good. It wasn't a completely terrible fast food meal, but we still can't understand all the people raving about it.

Bryn enjoying the best part of our order

Less than enthused about In-n-Out

Aside from our great day at Heavenly, Thursday was perhaps the most fun of our days in Reno. We went early to Cafe Capello which serves up delicious coffee and a killer vegan breakfast burrito. From there we headed to work out at Planet Fitness, stopped at Costco for gas, and got a nice booth at The Brewer's Cabinet for the afternoon. This was another recommendation from our Harvest Host friend (by now we will go out of our way to find places she mentioned to Bryn!) and we loved it. Great beer selection, good food, wifi, outlets at the tables, etc. We had a very nice afternoon eating and working. 

After Brewer's we walked over to The Basement which is a cool space with a barbershop, nail salon, florist, and speakeasy. We drank some cocktails and wandered to see the Reno sign and be tourists for a minute. For dinner we went to Pignic, hoping to go upstairs to the Revision Brewing Taproom upstairs. unfortunately there was a private party so we ate and drank on the first floor. It is an incredibly cool spot! Just a regular house converted to a bar with a rotating food truck outside. What a vibe.

Friday was another very windy, very rainy day. High winds shook the trailer all Thursday night and somehow we got a wet spot next to Shawn's side of the bed, but the surrounding carpet stayed dry! We couldn't figure out where the water was coming from. We were holed up in the trailer all day but anticipated a fun Saturday night for NYE so we didn't mind. Plus, we cozied up with our heated blanket and got to see some stellar Percy flops.

Late Friday night, the rain turned to snow. We had already decided to workout at Planet Fitness before diving into our planned brewery hopping for NYE, so we decided to test the road conditions and headed to the gym. The roads were horrendous. We realized we had to cancel our plans, which was very sad because we enjoyed our day out in Reno and were excited to see more! Instead, we popped into a Chinese restaurant for a quick lunch, trying to make the day festive, and headed home. We picked up some beer and vodka at the gas station near the campground and drank in the trailer while watching Star Trek.

After we were properly tipsy, we booted up and trudged over to Boomtown, the casino and hotel next door. We had a fancy dinner at their steakhouse and a few more drinks before the midnight countdown. They handed out champagne flutes for midnight which was quite nice. 

Sunday was a bit of a mess. We were supposed to leave, but couldn't due to the road conditions. The campground didn't plow the snow, either. We discovered our propane ignitor for our heating system was broken, somehow, which turned into an emergency when we realized the temperature was dropping to 12 degrees that night. We bought a second space heater and turned up the heated blanket. Not the best end to our stay in Reno/Tahoe. Though Percy was very happy that we spent all day inside, and flopped with us a ton.