A much needed extended relaxing long weekend!!!

A panoramic view of Donner Lake on a lovely Friday afternoon

This all started last week Wednesday.............I had one of the most amazing weekend (or extended weekend) I have had for a while.......................Work was put aside mostly........and Fun was all in place

Wednesday: I took the morning off to clean my room and run some errands, then I was in "nice dinner" mode. BTE suggested a few days before to take me out to a nice dinner for my belated bday celebration since i was in Lake Mead back then. Anna and I spent perhaps a good two hours the night before to pick out an amazing outfit for the night. I have always wanted to try this American tapas bar BITE in Incline Village, so BTE took me there.

I am not sure what American Tapas is but they definitely followed the theme of small plates. They are famous for their slider (small burgers) so we ordered the Ahi sliders and that was pretty tasty. Although I would suggest that they should bake their own buns.



Then we ordered couple others small plates. Kaffir lime leaf crab cake with a tarragon and cucumber emulsion, Tequila garlic prawns with cilantro creme fraiche and Sweet potatoes fries with creole maple mustard.


We had a couple of drinks, two desserts and a lot of wonderful conversations that night.......but of course I forgot to take a foto at the restaurant so we had to do it at home



Thursday: I had to work in the morning at the Keys. The water was so cold but the lake was calm and nice. I was checking my temperature loggers and my hydroacuostic receivers all morning. With the water level so low, it was really hard for us to go around without getting caught with milfoil and other objects, but we managed to get everything we wanted to do by around 3pm. Afterwards, BTE took me to this amazing cabin in the woods. It is called the Lost Trail Lodge. (sorry forgot to take picture again, but they have a pretty good website). The lodge is amazingly beautiful. It was Twin Peaks, a catering company based out of King Beach, annual party. There was lots of good food and great music. Thanks BTE for inviting me and Mike and Liz for having me there :).


Friday: After a much needed sleep in and some wonderful breakfast provided by Mike and Liz, BTE and I said our goodbye and headed for Donner Summit. Yes, Climbing!!! I am not sure if anyone read a post I had a while back about my accident on the slope, but we decided to try again and this time we headed for Donner Summit. The weather was perfect for climbing. There wasn't a lot of people there which was great for slow climber like me cause usually there would be. I tried two route but did not make any of them. Well next time I tell myself, I will only get better :)

BTE repelling down after setting up the top rope

Saturday: We woke up real early this morning to get ready to head to the ski swap!!! Everyone that i have talked to has told me that if i don't ski or snowboard in the winter, I will be bored to death. So Anna, BTE, Brad and I headed to the ski swap in hopes of finding some affordable equipments for the winter to come. I was so glad that BTE was there cause I have no clue in terms of what to get and he was the master. So i basically just walked around in circles while BTE picked out all the stuff I need for me and all i had to do was pay....and Pay i did..... I dropped $600.... Can you believe that??? Anywaz, 3 hours and 600 bucks later, I am now the proud owner of 2 pairs of ski, semi-new ski boat, poles, gloves and some warm socks. I guess all I have to do now is to get a ski pass and learn how to ski

Sunday: The Do stuff crew which that day consist of MW, JS, JM, K?, AS and Me went hiking from Spooner Lake to Marllete Lake. The weather was so nice. I couldn't believe that it was already late Oct. The hike was about 4.5 miles one way with some slight uphills. It was full of fall Aspens along the trail. The only thing I would complain about was that we had to share the trail with horse riders which means that there was alot of horse deposit on the ground :(.





It was so hard for me to get back into work mode on Monday.... but work must go on!!! And i guess it is those busy days that make the not so busy days so much fun and enjoyable :) Looking forward to another long weekend like this :)

Lake Mead-- An invasive species party

I know I have disappeared for about a month.... Sorry, that also implied that I had an extremely busy and eventful month :) which was awesome!!!

Well first of all, in the beginning of Oct.... It was our lab's long awaited Lake Mead trip.... which means we headed to Les Vegas!!! Well yeah for work not for fun.... It was fun too but work was hard.

A little background on Lake Mead.....It is the largest man-made reservoir in the U.S.. It spans across two state, Nevada and Arizona. The water is impounded by the famous Hoover Dam......

Why were we there??? We wanted to collect some quagga mussels to run some survival experiments.... Our question was "Can quagga mussels survive in Lake Tahoe water?".

How did we collect those quagga mussels??? We rented a house boat, yes a HOUSE BOAT (with a water slide at the back) there for 10 days and just pull ponars like there is no tomorrow.

** a little side note. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I did get a new camera but I lost all my Lake Mead picture while I was trying to download them onto my laptop... I am really sad :(, so all photos in this post are generous donation from Dr.MW **




Here is our main crew- minus MW and JU trying to figure out where we should park our Deluxe house boat



I have to say, Lake Mead is an invasive species party! We found Quagga mussels growing on live Asian clams... with New Zealand mudsnail motoring around them..... The foto above is a perfect example of little quagge mussels growing on big quagga mussels




During the trip, it was also my bday...... ( I wonder why I looked so mad in this foto??? ) MW and AC made me a cake!!! I was so happy. We went out to the strip one night (sorry lost all my foto) and I have to say what they did to Vegas is incredible none the least, but how wasteful......all the lights, water and resources................I just can't quite understand.


Anywaz................at the end of this.......................I have to say I love my job...........I am grateful for the opportunity to see the world....................

Some random field fotos

Field Pride (the LeConte is on the left)



Invasion..............................





A perfect picture of the Keys



A baby Sculpin




Some Corbicula for breakfast?

Best of the West Rib Cook off.....

I am a loyal reader of Yum Sugar..... that is pretty much the first and last website i check everyday and night.... and one of my favourite part is the listing of all the food related event happening around the States......However, living in Toronto before I never actually had the chance to attend any of the listed events... until this past week!

Well I guess is also because I now live in the States :)......

anywaz, I went to the Best of the West Rib Cook off this past week..... well the reason i wrote this past week is because i actually went twice :P..........Well partly because i love ribs... but it is also because I went with two different group of friends and they all wanted to go and I just can't say no to that :)

I have never seen so much meat, BBQ sauces and bones piling around like that...............it was totally a carnivore's heaven or as BTE would say..... "It is the burning man of ribs!!!"..............In combination of the two days of my attendance, I think I managed to taste about 8 different store..... I think my personal favourite for BBQ sauce was Famous Dave's devil's spit and my favourite rib was Rasta Joe I like their Island Fire BBQ sauce too....but the celery seed addition in the Famous Dave's sauce ultimately won my heart.......

I have this say I was a little overwhelmed by the experience.... the big crowd at a hot summer reno/sparks night......but if you like some messy, sticky finger experience and lots of meat.... I definitely recommend it. However, if you can try to go on a weekday..... way more enjoyable, I have to say

Sorry about the pictureless posting lately..... still on the hunt of a camera...... hopefully I will find one soon :)

TBC...............a preview

As Marion (the person who took this picture) named it...........Food angels being born........



To be continued with the recipe...........I can't put it up because my computer is still in the shop...it has been two weeks ~~~~>.<~~~~

First outdoor climbing trip

Before I realized, the end of summer is moving near...........and one thing I told myself that I need to try when I knew I was moving to Tahoe was some REAL outdoor rock climbing.......

I have been waiting for this for a long time and finally this past Sunday I was able to go out............

Being a city climber (i.e. indoor gym climbing), I have never climbed outdoor before...........OK be that one time in high school...........but that was it, so I was really excited and nervous at the same time!

After some practice at the little gym in Sparks last Monday.... I thought I would be ready for some real climbing, but.....................


Sunday Morning:

Bright and early, BTE and I left KB and headed for Truckee River Canyon (see link).........There are so many places you can go in Tahoe, but BTE wanted to check out my skills and stuff so we picked this place where there are less people so I can get some practice......

It took us a little while before we found the place...........and when we looked up..........we knew this trip would take us longer then we intended :P

Imagine hiking up some pretty steep terrain mainly composed of big and small Basalt....and some major bushwhacking in FLIP FLOPS.......... Yeah, that was how we did it.............I have to tell you, I will never ever forget to bring shoes when climbing ever again!!!

And on our way up to the cliff..............a little accident happened..........I was holding on to some rock to balance myself and of course, stupid me...............I grab one big rock that was just barely sitting there..................and what happened when I pull on it?..................It fell..............on my chest and then continue its way down the mountain.............Good thing was, I didn't fall with the rock but it sure was scary ~~~>.<~~~

So before we actually started climbing..........I already have one bleeding chest......and two scratched-up legs........

By maybe around 11:30, we finally managed to set our rope down and get ready for some toproping (well when i say we, i really meant BTE cause I have no idea how to do all that........but i was there to learn!!!)...............It was running late as both of us need to be back home in the afternoon. However, we still managed to squeeze in a few climbs before we had to go..................

I have to say real rock climbing is hard.................and it is really different from the gym.................I didn't do very well at all but it was sure really fun............Plus BTE is a great instructor.......informative, patient and really encourging........so I guess that made the experience really enjoyable

Too bad I don't have a camera anymore, or else i would have taken some pictures.... Oh well, next time.... I am sure or I hope we will go again sometime soon :)


To all the city climber out there, (e.g. Natasha and Pete)................you guys should really try to get yourself out there.............even better, you two should come to Tahoe and join me :)


Anywaz, for the time being............i will have to tend my chest so I won't be scar for life.......and await for my next climbing trip

One only? Shakespeare on the Lake

I went to Shakespeare on the Lake with the TERC crew this past Tuesday...........well this rendition of Mid Summer Night's Dream was interesting...............or may I say "INTERESTING"......... What was more interesting was how Anna and I were greeted at the Will Call desk.......

We had our tickets on hold for pick up at Will Call and when we went up to the lady.....she asked for our last names and looked for our tickets. When she found it, guess what she said?..........."For ONE only"................yes, that was what she said!!! Well I guess people only usually go to these events as doubles or families, instead of singles........but it was just so funny that she said it out loud to both of us. So the two of us were like......."Oh we are together.".............Then a lady behind us was like " Oh, you girls are such a cute couple".................

Well here it is...........a post to my "lover" Anna................I heart you!