Me and Mayuma.

I just got back from a weekend trip in South Lake Tahoe where I snowboarded at the Sierra resort. Two days worth of snowboarding!

On this map, I drove to Fremont Bart station in Fremont, then took the BART to Embarcadero station to meet a friend there. Then, we drove in his dad’s Volvo S40 station wagon over the Richmond bridge, which means I’ve gotten on all five bridges around the Bay Area—the Golden Gate, the Oakland Bay, the San Mateo-Hayward, and the Dumbarton bridge. Cool! Then, through Sacramento on I-80, then US-50 to South Lake Tahoe.

Wow, Lake Tahoe is a huge lake! Definitely lots of area to be explored around there.

Big thanks to my friend, Mike, for driving us.

Man, what a trip that was. It’s impossible to describe everything what I’ve gone through or experienced but I’m going to sum it up into a list.

Mountain View, CA:

The trip opened with bad plane delays in Dulles, VA. Supposed to arrive in San Jose at 7 pm but finally arrived at 11 pm and checked into a hotel by midnight. Grabbed a burger and fries at IN-N-OUT. Was absolutely worn-out.

Woke up at 7 am to get ready for the tour/visit to a group of deaf students from CSDF. Gave a welcome presentation and another one about my job. Had a lunch with them. Funny, they couldn’t decide which cafeteria to go to since Google has 11 of them! with three more cafeterias due to be open. I enjoyed giving a presentation, ofc, in my native language, ASL.

Met Joseph Davis for a short time at Ohlone Community College in Fremont. Interesting campus as it’s on the hill. Was rainy and cloudy at that time. Had to catch a plane at 6 pm; sped down the highway. Caught my flight in time, whew.

Salt Lake City, Utah.

My first time being in Utah! Bak and Anthony picked me up. Went to University of Utah’s ice arena to watch Canada play against Sweden. Canada was beating them pretty badly. Then, we went to this bar called Port o’ Call. Saw many people there like Blake, Erwin (my old classmate), and the Arizona boys (entered same year at Gallaudet.)

Then I got myself a beer mug. When I was halfway through the mug, I hardly felt anything, then suddenly remembered that Utah limits alcohol content to 3.2% in every bottle. So, basically, I have to drink two mugs to get one mug’s worth. Ugh. Wish I could have brought my own flask with some rum to make up the absence of alcohol.

Park City, Utah.

After the bar, we drove to Park City, Utah where we’ll be staying for the next three days. A pretty nice town, obviously built for skiers and snowboarders. We stayed at this nice cozy ski cabin. The next day, we got up early and went to Park City resort. Huge resort. They had like thirty lifts. Not to mention, lift passes were expensive. They were supposed to be $77 dollars but with the Deaf Winter Olympics ongoing , they offered a discount to $55 dollars.

I tagged with Anthony while Bak needed some refreshing on his snowboarding skill since it was his first time back on the board since last year in Colorado. So, Anthony and I rode together. Then we kept wanting to get higher on the mountains, switching lifts till we got on the highest lift provided by the resort. We got all the way up to 10,000 feet! The view was absolutely beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life since I grew up in the cornfields in Illinois. I understood how some people couldn’t live without mountains. It was really breathtaking.

The snow wasn’t that great since it hasn’t snowed in a week but it was not that bad, not too icy but one deaf female Canadian we met at the top said she was disappointed with how snow had turned out. Oh well. I later found out she was a renowned athlete, being the only Deaf athlete to compete in the Sydney Olympics for Tae Kwon Do and former top athlete at Gallaudet University.

We rode for like seven hours straight and met up with some deaf friends like Blake, Charles, and Mark. Shit, they were speeders, zooming down the mountains and I tried my best to keep up with them.

By the end of the day, I was absolutely worn out by the evening and jumped into the spa behind our ski lodge. It was a perfect day.

Brighton, Utah

The next day, we got up early again, ate at this really good breakfast place called the Eating establishment. If you ever got yourself in Park City, you must go there if you want to get some good hearty breakfast. We stuffed ourselves with eggs, home fries, bacons, and homemade orange juice. Boy, what an excellent breakfast.

Then, Bak dropped us off at a bus stop that would take us up to Brighton. I found the resort to be a lot different than Park City. For starters, it’s a lot cheaper, only cost us $23.50 for a lift pass with a discount for deaf people. It’s smaller but I found it to be a nice resort that has a local feeling to it with smaller paths, more trees and definitely more friendly for snowboarders like they have more jumps and parks. Park City was purely a tourist place where tons of skiers go there with huge wide paths.

We all rode hard. Later in the afternoon, it finally snowed! it was a picture perfect, with snow falling down and brushing our goggles. It was exactly what I envisioned. You know, walking up the mountains, holding a board in your hands, you have your goggle on, everything is white and watching those calm snowflakes falling. It was gorgeous. Also, my confidence kept getting better and I was riding down faster and faster. Jumps weren’t as terrifying as in the beginning and I go faster and faster on those jumps.

Needless to say, I was hooked to snowboarding. There’s nothing like riding down the mountains and carving up the snow. It was a great day of snowboarding. Lots of deafies were there. It was just awesome. We’re talking about doing this every year at different places. Vancouver (Mt Whistler), Colorado, Vermont, and Lake Tahoe. I must go to each of them before I turn 30 in four years.

Mark Farr was the one who captured this photo, using Erwin’s camera. Thanks, Mark and Erwin!

Enuff said.

Wisp resort in West Virginia has gotten seven inches of fresh snow! I. must. go!

Time to get my snowboarding equipment loaded. :-D

I would have posted pics when I got back except I was too tired and exhausted from snowboarding for about five hours straight. Bummer, I forgot to charge my camera so the battery ran out when we got to the top of mountains (hills). Nonetheless, here’s the pics. :-)

I started learn how to snowboard three years ago when RIT offered a PE class in snowboarding with a discount pass, so it was a good time for me to learn and use the deal. But I didn’t even snowboard once last year as I moved to DC, started my first real job and was basically in middle of everything that’s going on. Now I’m more settled this year and after living in DC for more than a year, you definitely want to get out of DC whenever you can. So, last sunday was a great time to be out of DC.

I was really rusty when I started the first run down the slope and I told Blake that I’d read in a mag that about 1 in 6 snowboarders get hurt and I sure hope I’m not gonna be that person. He said not to worry and just take your time as u build up confidence. As soon as he said that, he went off, zooming down the slope. I was like holy shit, he’s already gone! I gotta try and catch up. Down the slope, I fell or slipped a few times, not really used to riding the board in a long time and I felt like I was a beginner all over again. I told myself to be in control of my board and take my time without going too fast. Eventually, I was able to pick up and after a few runs, I became a lot better and able to stay with Blake but he’s way up on a different level than I am. I have a long way to go to become as good as he is. He can jump high while my jumps are a joke, barely lifting off the ground.

One big drawback about this ski resort is that they don’t serve alcoholic beverage! Instead, we got some coffee. And overall, the entire resort is pretty small but is the nearest resort to DC. There’s a bigger resort in Wisp, abt 3 hrs from here. I’m gonna snowboard as much as I can and get ready for Colorado later this year! :-)

Life’s too damn short. I’m gonna go snowboarding at Whitetail!!!

Will post again after I get back. Can’t wait!

Mom: Are you still at work?
Me: Yes, I am.
Mom: Do you know it’s snowing in DC area now?
Me: Really, it’s snowing hard?
Mom: The Weather Channel said around 1 to 2 inches of snow expected.
Me: Ah ok, I’ll stay here till 8 pm after traffic eases up a bit.
Mom: Ok, if there’s zero visibility outside, don’t try to drive. Stay at a motel.
Me: Mom! I’m sure it’s not that bad.
Mom: You never know. If it’s that bad in the broad daylight, imagine how bad it’ll be when it’s snowing.
Me: I’ll let u know when I get home.

An hour later and we’re on VP (videophone).

Me: I got home ok.
Mom: I can see that. Were the roads bad?
Me: No, it was just a wet road and there was not much traffic as I thought.
Mom: Ok good, I’m happy you got home safely.
Me: Yeah, oh, speaking of snow, could you send me my snowboard boots, gloves, goggle, and pants. I forgot to bring them back with me.
Mom: *shakes her head* ok, I’ll tell Dad to get them. Where did you put them?
Me: It should be either in the garage or in my closet.
Mom: Nothing new; can’t remember where you put stuffs.
Me: you know me.

Dad: Ok, I found them. So, do you want it to be fedex-ed or ground shipping through PO? (my dad works at a post office.)
Me: Uh, how long will the ground shipping take?
Dad: It’ll take abt 7 days.
Me: that long? could you make that in 3 days?
Dad: Ok, I’ll put it through first-class.