Chick-Fil-A, Palace tents, cougars and dead hookers in Tahoe

This past weekend, we went on a camping trip with my a bunch of my coworkers. A total of ten of us took Friday off and drove up to Tahoe to stay at the Cisco Grove Camp Ground. It was tons of fun. We ended up carpooling up with two of my co-workers, Chewy and Sho-gun (these are nicknames, of course). As we drove up 80 towards Tahoe, we were passing Fairfield when Chewy casually mentions, “I don’t think Joan would be interested in this, but, Fairfield has the only Chick-Fil-A in Northern, CA”. Kevin, got really excited… actually, I admit, I did too. I’ve heard of Chick-Fil-A having some amazing waffle fries and chicken. Sho-gun, who is from Canada wasn’t sure what Chick-Fil-A was, but, he was game. He asked what it was, and we admitted that it was just a fast food joint. I think he was a bit relieved. With a name like Chick-Fil-A, he thought it might be a strip club. A strip club, with your co-workers at noon on a Friday… probably not the best idea. Anyways, to cut to the chase, we ate at the Chick-Fil-A in Fairfield for lunch and I had the chicken nuggets even though I haven’t had chicken in years. It was tasty…and worth the experience. Everyone left satisfied and only about $6 poorer.

When we arrived in Tahoe, we started to set up camp including our tents. Kevin and I had the smallest 2 person tent (by far). Chewy, who borrowed a tent from our VP brought a tent that we dubbed the palace, or the events tent. This tent had two rooms set up with a divider. It would comfortably sleep 6 (at least!). For the rest of that night, we barbequed up our dinner, drank beer, ate smores and sat around the campfire. It was awesome.

The next morning, we did a 3.1 mile hike up 1000 feet to a lake. It was pretty strenuous, but, the reward at the top was awesome. We ended up eating lunch there. None of us brought bathing suits, but, three people in my group jumped in the water anyways. :

When we returned to camp (6.2 miles later), we were exhausted. We all took showers (my first in over 24 hours) and plopped down in our chairs by the fire once again. Eventually, we got the bbqs going again, more smores and more campfire stories. One of my coworkers, who we’ll call “the Soprano” since he has family from Sicily and could certainly pass for a member of the mob, had lots of stories to share. “The Soprano” was a great story teller. His “dead hooker” story, which we had to wait til the second night to hear was hilarious. Don’t worry, no one died in the story… it was just about a crazy night with a very drunk ex-girlfriend. Sho-gun also shared some stories of making himself out to be a “cougar magnet”. For those who don’t know, a ‘Cougar’ is an older woman who preys on younger men. The women are usually over 40 and pretty wealthy. I think it was the beer, but, Sho-gun probably shouldn’t have shared the stories because I don’t think our team will let him live it down. Since he is from Vancouver, we have already changed his name tag on his cubicle to read, “Shogun Vancougar”.

All in all, it was a great trip. Kevin is convinced that he wants to camp with a bigger tent, an aerobed and a two person sleeping bag, but, I think I can probably convince him to camp again without the luxuries…but, we’ll see.  Here is a final picture of Donner Lake where we spent Sunday afternoon.