Ski Kirkwood

Spring skiing season officially arrived at Kirkwood on April 1st. Sensing ski season was coming to an end, I decided to go skiing once more with H.

H is a much better skier than me. She was kind enough to share with me her secret: "Breakthrough on skis" by Lito Tejada-Flores. We watched the first DVD together the night before and I took mental note of the exercises I should be working on.

Since this was a 2 day ski trip, we left the Bay area at 6am. The drive via route 88 took a little more than 3 and a half hour, as there was some light snow on the ground.

We started skiing at about 10am. H accompanied me on Squirrel Ridge, a green slope at lift #7 to start the day. The first section of the slope was a quite steep and I instinctively reverted to wedging. Sensing my discomfort on that slope, we went skiing on lift #9 instead. The three green slopes: Funny Bunny, School Run and Graduation were more appropriate for me:)

I was mainly working on skiing on one leg. Of the three slopes, Graduation was less crowded and had more powder, so I skied that slope most of the time.

After lunch, H skied with me on Funny Bunny. She noticed I had made some improvement and suggested we go up on lift #5 and try Mokelumme, a blue slope. I was able to come down with mostly parallel skiing. We also tried Lower Monte Wolfe, which had more powder and less slope. These are probably the steepest slopes I had ever skied, and I am happy to report I am making small improvements.

At about 4pm, we headed out of Kirkwood towards Carson city, where we checked into City Center Motel. After a quick shower, we headed out the door. Since both of us are not the gambling type, we decided to get dinner at JT Basque Dining room in Gardnerville.

There was a 40min wait for table. We strolled around Gardnerville while waiting, but most shops were closed. It was also getting cold. JT was buzzing with people and H was bothered by the noise. We were ready to leave and have dinner at another restaurant when our table was ready.

The food made the wait worthwhile. JT offered "all you can eat" side dishes with one main entree per person. I would classified the cuisine as comfort food. We started with a simple tomato based vegetable soup with orzo, served with bread and butter. Next up, a simple tossed green salad dressed with oil and vinegar that was more tasty than it should. There was also sides of baked beans, beef stew and fries, sprinkled with paprika. Finally, the best part, was the free refills on red wine. The wine itself was sweeter than what we preferred, but still quite good.

We chose the Basque scampi and Basque chicken as our entrees. The Basque scampi was a stir- fried onion and green pepper shrimp sitting in a tomato-based broth. It was delicious! The Basque chicken was similarly prepared, using boneless, skinless chicken breast steak instead of shrimp. The chicken was cooked just right, but this entree paled in comparison to the shrimp.

After dinner, vanilla ice cream and almond chocolate ice cream was served. It was a satisfying end to dinner. Read more about this restaurant on Yelp!

We decided to call it a night after the meal, since I had wanted to wake up early and experience freshly groom snow.