Will and Ina’s Blog

    As much as Will and I were enjoying the warm spring weather in the East Bay, we were determined to make a trip to Tahoe to ski before the end of the season.   Will booked us a last minute weekend package to Squaw Valley ski resort and then we were off!  The drive wasn’t too bad…a mere 3 hours from Oakland on an early Saturday morning. 

    I had forgotten what ‘cold’ felt like until about 30 minutes away from Squaw we made a stop to get gas, and it was 35 degrees at about 5,000 feet.  It was a sobering moment or two, remembering our last few cold moments in Chicago from a few weeks ago, but at least we had most of our ski clothing on already.

    The weekend was beautiful – sunny and in the upper 30s most of the time at Squaw.  The snow was a little crunchy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon, but still pretty nice.  As part of our weekend package, I got a 2-hour lesson and was able to get some coaching on my turns.  I did muster enough courage to try a blue run on Sunday with Will and got rather comfortable on that run.  Eventually I started to look up and enjoy the scenery too while skiing.  This main photo is at about 8,000 feet, right before I was about to go down a run.  In the distance you can see Lake Tahoe itself.

Olympic House building

  Squaw Valley was host to the 1960 Winter Olympics.  There are still remnants of the games there, including the lit torch and various Olympic signs.  Apparently that is still a big draw for the European crowd.  My ski instructor mentioned that business was down this season, but many western Europeans kept business going this winter.

Not only were the mountains impressive, but also the trees and rock formations.  Here are a few photos of the slopes area:

 After a challenging day on the slopes, do as the locals and tourists do – partake in apres-ski.  Will and I sat out on the patio of a bistro in the village, and enjoyed the crisp sunny afternoon.    —I   🙂

I experienced my first earthquake on Monday morning while at work in Pleasanton.  I suddenly felt very dizzy sitting at my desk staring at the computer screen, and then people started talking about a shaker.  It was centered just south of San Jose.  Below is the official read-out from whatever agency tracks these things.  Not sure though what “Quality” of an earthquake means…”good”?   ——- I  🙂

http://scedc.caltech.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40234037.html  
 
A light earthquake occurred at 10:40:29 AM (PDT) on Monday, March 30, 2009.
The magnitude 4.4 event occurred 17 km (11 miles) N (10 degrees) of Morgan Hill, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 6 km ( 4 miles).
 

Magnitude		4.4 – duration magnitude (Md)
Time		Monday, March 30, 2009 at 10:40:29 AM (PDT) Monday, March 30, 2009 at 17:40:29 (UTC)
Distance from		Morgan Hill, CA – 17 km (11 miles) N (10 degrees) San Martin, CA – 22 km (14 miles) N (357 degrees) San Jose City Hall, CA – 25 km (16 miles) ESE (104 degrees) Campbell, CA – 29 km (18 miles) E (90 degrees)
Coordinates		37 deg. 17.1 min. N (37.285N), 121 deg. 37.2 min. W (121.620W)
Depth		6.2 km (3.9 miles)
Quality		Good
Location Quality Parameters		Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=7 km, Rmss=0.08 sec, Erho=0.1 km, Erzz=0.3 km, Gp=57.6 degrees
Event ID#		nc40234037
Additional Information		map || waveforms

For more information, see http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/

Will’s college buddy, Rob Nachtwey, is back living with his parents in Berkeley after living in Tahoe for the past few years.  Living with your parents isn’t so bad when you have this pad.  Will was so excited to check out the oranges in their yard.

  Just down the street from our house is Sibley Volcanic Park.  It is on the site of a volcano that was active 10 million years ago.  There are a ton of trails which will make you huff and puff (it’s hilly).  Apparently there is free-roaming cattle in that area, as well as warning signs about rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

This past weekend was phenomenal for a Chicagoan.  70s in Oakland can’t be beat.  We had breakfast on our deck.

We both did some weeding and trimming in the front and side of the house.  Check out the crazy blooms next to the driveway. 

Week 2 at work and Ina gets to go to Vegas for the GlobalShop trade show and then flies to Charlotte and back to SFO.  Here are photos from the Ross Vegas strip store.  Check out the glitzy signage specially made for this tourist-driven store.

Forgot to insert the gratuitous deer photos from our backyard…

 Moving from the Chicago urban jungle to Oakland may not sound like such a drastic change, but when you’re up in the Oakland hills, it sure is.  Check out pics from our after-work walk from last Friday.  Oh the flora and fauna…eucalyptus trees, interesting rock formations, and deer. 

A Brand New Day…For Ina and for Ross Stores (that’s Ross’ new advertising jingle).  For those of you who do not know, Ross Dress for Less is the nation’s 2nd largest off-price retailer behind TJX (who is the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods).  Covering approximately 27 states, but missing the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, Ross is tearing it up on the stock market these days, and was hiring, so Ina joined their team.  After eight-and-a-half years in consulting, Ina happily made the leap to industry. 

Our arrival in the Bay Area was relatively painless.  The first weekend on the ground (March 13th) the Jetta arrived in one piece, to Ina’s relief.  She was proud to see the Jetta with Illinois plates roll-off the flat bed onto California soil! 

What made that weekend really painless was a day trip to Sonoma and Napa that Sunday.  Here are some photos from wine country…including a wine club event at Louis Martini and lunch at Taylor’s Refresher.