So I thought that in the USA it would be a lovely fluffy land blanketed in WIFI. I could wake in the morning and blog my adventures, but no! haha! So far it’s been, busy, busy busy and if you’re lucky enough to get wifi in the hotel … it’s probably pretty rubbish! So I am a little behind on our adventures, but better late than never.
Marshall has been kind enough to organise a bus in San Fran for his guests to get to Tahoe! We grabbed our bags and took the walk to the pickup location in the AM. On our arrival, it was so nice to see some familiar faces! Marshall’s parents were the first we saw and we got a lovely warm welcome. Poor KC has been very unwell in the lead up to the wedding so Marshall has been running around doing a lot in the lead up. In our Skype chat he mentioned that they had a few decor bits and pieces for the wedding, but when we arrived for the bus I could see that was an underestimation …. boxes and boxes and boxes of things for the wedding. This just built the anticipation – I cannot wait to see what they are creating for the day!
Bags and boxes all packed on the bus, and we are on the road. Met a few of Marshall’s friends, and saw poor KC who put herself in a little isolation pocket on the bus so she didn’t get anyone sick AHAHA! poor thing!
Headphones on, reading a great book and we are speedily travelling to our destination. We stopped at a shopping mall on the way through for some lunch. I gotta say it, it was such a strange place. HUGE expensive retailers, Gucci, Kate Spade, Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren … probably a load more but it was a bunch of shops separated by a GIANT car park, you could barely see what they had to offer unless you walk through the parking. The shops were huge. It would take you a really long and kind of awkward walk if you wanted to visit all the stores. The weirdest thing about the place was how quiet it was. The only people we saw while navigating through it, were Marshall + KC’s guests! haha! We saw a building to eat. There was Taco Bell, and a burger place, Sweet burgers it is! I get to the counter to order a burger and a guy walks over and says “It’s closed” … uhh ok… so the only option in this giant ghost shopping area is Taco Bell? no thanks haha!
We decide to make our way over the road as I can see a Carls Jnr Sign, and that is something I can deal with. It’s a lot like Hungry Jacks (Burger King). The lady serving us was adorable and loved her job! I adore people that love their work! (yes we tipped well) and we got our delicious burgers. Kirsten ordered a $5 meal .. it had a burger, fries, hotdog, drink + a cookie! like what the heck??? $5.
Something I have found in America over our adventures so far is there is huge disparities in the value of food. You could pay $5 … and not possibly be able to eat the HUGE portion you get … or you could make the mistake or going to Starbucks …and pay $40 for a small muffin and a coffee (screw you Starbucks)
Kirsten and Scott decided to be daring and not bring any fancy clothes for the wedding and buy clothes in the US. Which sounded like a fun idea, until we were two days away, and couldn’t find anywhere. So thanks to this weird stop, Kirsten found some great dresses (I bought a couple things too) however Scott clearly felt optimistic, as he didn’t even look at the mall and never found anything pre-wedding HAHA! So he was a slightly casual wedding guest. HA! Good one mate!
Back on the bus and we are on the last leg of the journey. We can feel the altitude as we start ascending into Tahoe. A beautiful drive.
We get to the Ridge Resorts and before we even get off the bus we can see the wind is fiercely blowing around. We step off the bus and it was like a smack in the face! We are 7500ft up and you can feel it. I can’t breathe. I can’t tell if it’s the wind, the cold or the altitude but I look around and all of us sickies are struggling. Scott worst of all is wheezing. I jump inside the reception quickly and the relief is immediate. This place is well heated! Thank goodness. Go to check-in. Really looking forward to having our own rooms here, and then BAM. The super uninterested reception staff inform me that we only have ONE room, I booked two! I was careful to do so .. but they didn’t seem to care … I am told we can fold out a couch and there are no other rooms available in the whole resort, sigh. I take the key, and resign myself to the idea of the couch.
We help load up Marshall’s car full of boxes to take to our building as there is 5 weddings this weekend alone, so there is no room to keep the gear in the reception location. We get our bags and walk down to our hotel building (there are quite a number of them at the Ridge) By the time we get into the lift, Scott is wheezing pretty badly, and really doesn’t look well.
We walked into our hotel and the adjoining door was open. SAY WHAT?! So the reception staff were obviously wrong, and we were right!! We have two rooms!! Thank goodness! I am going to need a good rest, as I am photographing Marshall + KC’s wedding!! (This also goes wrong, read the next blog for more haha)
We set our bags down and settle in. Scott is really not well, so he goes straight to bed to rest. My chest was tight and it was horrible to not feel a full intake of breath, but I am trying to not give it too much thought. I open the fridge and there is a free banana bread in there with a note “FREE GIFT from the Ridge” WINNERRRRR! I slice that puppy up and share it around and delight in the joy of this banana bread! All hail the banana bread (you know there will be more to this story, keep reading) Marshall came up to touch base with us and we had a good chat, a few laughs and then we start making plans for dinner.
There are restaurants in the resort, so we head back up to the main lodge to have our dinner. In our building foyer, we bump into KC + Marshall’s family and we are all headed to the same place, so we decide to get a big dinner and all eat together!
The food was DIVINE! The service was almost comedic. Lovely people, but they had no filter. Spoke every word that went through their brains, which had Kirsten and I giggling.
Everyone at the table was talking amongst themselves and I hear the words “banana bread”. So I call out “oh man! The banana bread! How good was it?!” – Loudly, to the entire table of course, as I am not the quiet type. People didn’t respond as I expected, their faces crunched up, there was confusion and almost disgust. So I say “uhm … whats up with the banana bread?” … and each person at the table announces one by one .. that their banana bread was VERY mouldy …
My mouth drops.
Kirsten turns to me like “WHAT DID YOU FEED ME?!” and I lose it laughing. Tears are running down my face with laughter and the entire table starts to lose it laughing too. This of course turned into me trying to recount my steps. It was like some movie playing back events at a fast pace and the final shot is a zoom of that damn banana bread in the fridge with the note “FREE GIFT from the Ridge” …
Note to self: Free Food isn’t always good food. I reassure myself with the fact that I am indeed an adult, and surely I would have seen the mould (hmmm)
Definitely an ice breaker at the table and it was a fun night. After all the laughter, we felt like more wine was in order, so one of the groomsmen came to the bar with us and we ordered a couple bottle wines and had plenty more laughs.
One of the staff at the ridge came and joined our chat, and all of a sudden we look outside, and there is SNOW!! SNOOWWWWWWWW! So Kirsten, Rhys, Jackson and myself run to the lobby then run outside into the freezing cold and the awful wind (with our unfinished wine) and bask in the, albeit sleety, snow, but snow by our definition. Considering the predicted 20 degree weather we expected, we will take what we can get!!
We scored a shuttle to our building (thank goodness) and decided to explore the property. Theres a jacuzzi and sauna on the top level! YASSS! We finished our bottle of wine up there and parted ways to have a restful evening ready for more fun tomorrow.
E
[e] 