Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Ten tips for enjoying your Northstar holiday vacation

I saw this on the Northstar website and thought it was very useful information if you are planning to come up over the holidays. Some good tips so that you can navigate the Village and plan your time efficiently. Check it out.

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Manzanita at The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe


Well, it is now my running joke that I should just camp out up at the Manzanita restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton Highlands property here at Northstar.


All of my friends and clients want to go eat up there so it seems I have been almost a permanent fixture there. And, I have at least 8 more lunch and/or dinner appointments up there in the next 2 weeks. I am getting spoiled and loving it.


The food is amazing. A few days ago, a friend of mine said to order the "Warm Bread Salad". I said, "will do" but in my head was really questioning what a warm bread salad could be. When given the opportunity, I went for the "safe bet" Dungeness Crab Sliders and our table shared a macaroni and cheese side. (I will get back to the mac and cheese later...). The crab cakes were wonderful, my husband Brad had the Manzanita Sandwich and was in food bliss. Topped off with some Butternut Creme Brulee (yum)...we could barely walk out the door.


But, I still had to wonder. What is a Warm Bread Salad?? (Pictured on the left from the Manzanita website go to www.manzanitalaketahoe.com for more info and menu )


Well, I had one yesterday, and I can say it is like heaven. Everyone should try it. I can't do it justice to try and explain the perfect blend and array of flavors. Just trust me......Hopefully I have made you curious enough that you will want to order it. It is the ultimate taste symphony.


Oh, and yes, the mac and cheese is out of this world. I happen to consider myself a bit of a mac and cheese connoisseur, and Manzanita has made theirs scrumptious.
(On a side note, the mac and cheese at Schaffer's Camp is phenomenal as well).


I'll be anxious to hear what your favorite dish at Manzanita is....let me know! In the meantime, I will be diligently working on trying everything else on the menu.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Positive Article on Bay Area Housing Market

This was an interesting article that was in the Mercury News recently regarding rising Silicon Valley housing prices.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cheers to Northstar, Good Coffee, and a Grand Opening!



The powder day arrived...finally! Like winter in a can. Everything is covered with white gold and in the blink of an eye we are in fresh snow bliss. The mountains received about 3 feet of snow with the last storm.


Props to Northstar. I have to say, I am completely impressed. Not only have they been working tirelessly to open more and more terrain on the mountain, they were prepared for this past storm. Northstar has been diligently blowing snow and grooming the terrain that they could prior to the storm so that we could ski!! Most of the other local resorts did not open at all or had very little open terrain. Thank you Northstar. Thank you for having 9 lifts and 17 trails open yesterday, only to open an additional 11 trails today! AND thank you for having great people who are very friendly and considerate running the mountain and lifts. It is no surprise that Northstar has emerged in the Tahoe area to be the best all-around ski and resort experience.




On to the next exciting topic......new coffee place in Truckee! Elijah Bleu's opened recently in the Jackass Ridge building downtown. We had heard that they had the best coffee anywhere so decided to check it out. The atmosphere is very cool with a New Orleans twist, the food was good and the menu looked diverse to include organic items suited for the preferences of vegetarians, vegans, raw food eaters, etc... Most importantly, the coffee was amazing. I had a mocha that was magnificent. Check it out, it is fun to see a new good place in town. They serve breakfast and lunch.






Coming up....the time has come!! The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe is opening this week and it looks amazing! One more reason to come to Northstar over the holidays. This picture is of the bar at the Manzanita restaurant. Can't wait to try it out! I'll be up there several times this week and will report back to you all.


Saturday, December 5, 2009

Let it snow, Let it snow!!


I ventured out to Squaw on Wednesday to ski the lone run that was open on Red Dog and really, it wasn't bad! I will say that it does not appear that Squaw has run their snow making equipment one time this season but they are getting away with it.

Northstar is undoubtedly the place for early season skiing. They have been diligently blowing snow and opening as much terrain as possible. I believe it because the riders are sure looking happy when they come down at the end of the day.

Fortunately, we won't have early season conditions for much longer.........

There is some serious hype going on up here this week about some inbound snow. Nobody seems to be able to tell us exactly how much we are going to get. I have heard as little as 2 feet and as much as 15 feet. That is quite a swing...

I haven't made the move to stock up on survival supplies at the grocery store yet, but that may be a mistake. I might reconsider tomorrow when hopefully the weather people can decide what is going on.

We are under a Winter Storm Watch, looks like about 2 feet possible Sun-Mon and then the next storm seems to be the doozy. They say "significant snow amounts possible" (15 feet??).

Weather Vane Brad?? Regarding the next few days??

Temps will be so cold that what does fall will be of the light powdery stuff they always brag about in Utah, and Colorado thus it could pile up faster than most storms do in our area. Early estimates are 12 inches up to 2.5 feet. I know very vague but for whatever reason these changes are puzzling the experts. Because this system is associated with such a strong cold front coming out of the Gulf of Alaska if skies clear by Monday evening (which they should) we could have some record low temps for the Truckee area, easily below 0!

Wednesday brings more changes. The Jet-Stream takes aim at California this time with several systems lined up. Most are packed with sub-tropical moisture so we should see more precipitation and higher snow levels. Two model solutions out there one is colder and drier the other being warmer and wetter due to it being influenced by the remnants of a tropical typhoon. What we want is the drier solution as it will still have plenty of moisture and snow levels should remain below our resorts base areas.

Either way it all looks fun. Love the changes! Go get your fat skis and boards tuned it looks like we will need them for the next couple of weeks.