Lake Tahoe – Another day of camaraderie

Camaraderie is good, even sometimes when it is forced camaraderie.  Today was our annual team-building exercise and there is always a lot of anxiety associated with touchy feely, forced time with others, in groups not of our own choosing.  Today wasn’t any different, we met early and 44 of us left to become better communicators and a better team.  Of course as we went through the “adventure challenge” we experienced a lot of other emotions too that stem from the team dynamics.  Was our navigator keeping us on track. Did we get the photo records that we had to do…were they creative enough.  Were we listening or were we all marching to the beat of our own drummer?

For the most part we all started off with our own drum beat and tried to meld it to the jungle sounds of our group.  More to come on the team-building later.

The other highlights of the day included lunch and dinner with our friends.  We went with Lisa & Brandon on the gondola to Heavenly Valley to eat lunch.  We stopped at the midway point to look back into the Tahoe basin, walk around, become tempted by the snow nearby and wondering what would come from a snowball lobbed at Lisa.  There isn’t an answer to this one since I controlled myself.  We then went onto the top and had cheeseburgers at the top.  The view and experience was unforgettable (the cheeseburgers for forgettable). 

Tonight Lisa and I went to Kalana’s in Heavenly Village with Brent, my coworker, my mentor and my friend. The meal was outstanding and we all thouroughly enjoyed it.

More to come on this trip in the near future.

Tahoe Travels

Well we are traveling again and loving it (except for the time change which is always hard).  We are in Lake Tahoe at Harveys.  We are here until Sunday and we will travel back to Reno before traveling home on Monday. 

We are in Lake Tahoe for my work.  It is a fun/challenging long weekend or educating our new board members and updating the returning members.  There is a team-building exercise put on by Teamworx tomorrow and other than being really cold it will be a lot of fun.

Some of the ski runs are still open in Heavenly, but most have closed for the season.  We have some members who are going snowmobiling again a little rough in spots but still fun.

What a day! Getting ready for our event.

Wow, what a day.  As we get ready for our retreat in Lake Tahoe later this week, it has been crazy at work.  It is the typical too much to do with too little time.  However, I will survive this week.

We are staying at Harveys Resort Lake Tahoe for the week.  From sessions to team-building exercises it will be fun.  There was a record snowfall this year (over 300 inches) so skiing is still open in Heavenly Valley.

We leave on Wednesday morning, so hopefully we will get everything done in time.

Quick trip to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

Today wasn’t going to be a day that kept us inside…it was just too beautiful outside.  Yes, there was work to be done, but neither one of us wanted to stay indoors on such a wonderful day.  We decided that we had to run down to the coast to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to see if we could see any birds, turtles, alligators or bears (Lisa really wants to see a bear in the wild).  I don’t think she would be very happy if she was outside the car and the bear was nearby!

We were able to see some birds, jumpging fish and of course alligators.  We had a great time walking and talking together.  We sat at the point near the lighthouse and watched the boats, the water and other people.  As always when you are with Lisa – the freaks come out!  Today wasn’t an exception.  Not a great freak watching day, but there were still a couple to be seen.

The trip down and back was so relaxing.  We drove slow through the park to see if we could see more wildlife, talked and held hands (like we always do).  We should have taken Zoey (the Z) with us because she would have liked being outside.  As we drove back we decided that she deserved to get out too.  So we picked her up – she would probably say that we rescued her from her jail.  We went to Tom Brown Park and let her run around for a few minutes.  She really enjoys running around without a leash, but she really doesn’t like the dog park.  Too many nosey dogs for her liking.  However we are going to start taking her to the park more so she will get used to it and maybe make new friends besides her buddies from MoJo’s Backyard.

It was a GREAT day spending time with Lisa, seeing the wildlife and avoiding our work!