Bastard and Friends: Vacation had to end...

What more can you ask for? A vacation from a vacation. Right after our Las Vegas trip, Sharon and I decided to extend our plans out for another 5 days to get away and clear our minds, if you know what I mean. So, we decided to take a trip out with the family to blissful Lake Tahoe. A place located in the Sierra Nevada mountains known for it's attractive "Blue" freshwater lake -- which is encompassed by it's serene environment full of flush pine trees, beautiful lakefronts/beaches, and hiking trails. Not to mention since parts of Tahoe are in the state of Nevada, gambling is also permitted. Therefore, there is a strip dedicated to taking peoples' money. More importantly, it is the homebase to some of the nicest and coolest ski resorts in the United States. For example, Heavenly, Sierra, and Northstar. For the most part, I have to admit that I'm not accustom to experiencing this fresh atmosphere in the summer time since we're usually up here in the winter time shreddin' the mountains on our snowboards. I must say... I didn't know what I was missing until now.

We had such a blast over those 5 days. We toured up and down the North and South shores hitting an abundance of hiking trails, beaches, jumped on the gondola up Heavenly to ride the Heavenly Flyer (Heavenly's newest adventure), hit a majority of shops including all the ones at the Heavenly Village Shops and even rented a speed boat just for fun. You gotta love the outdoors! Check out some of the pics from this detox trip below:

I love this trail map! Especially, in the winter

So, you have to take the gondola up 9,156' up the mountain. Then, you need to take the Tamarack express ski lift another 3,100 ft. in order to zip through the sky in this high speed thrill ride with a vertical drop of 525ft. Oh, not to mention, this is the longest ZipRider in the United States. And, the rush is 80 seconds! How F*ck*ng crazy is that!

The launching pad. Man, I was stoked

Preparing to zip through the sky

And, there they soar. Oops, I meant go. Look below, they still have to go 3000+ feet to get to the landing platform (the one at the very far end of the picture)