2011 CA 4-H Winter Retreat--Lake Tahoe
Last January, the California 4-H Technology Team decided to move the location of their team orientation from being at the State 4-H Office at UC Davis, to the Nevada 4-H State Camp, on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, Stateline, Nevada. The tech team invited the CA 4-H State Ambassadors along, so both teams would work on building a relationship with both teams. The event turned out to be very successful, and the State 4-H Staff had decided to do it again for the 2011 year. Since the tech team term year had changed from January-December to July-August, they decided to call this event an CA 4-H Winter Retreat. This would be a retreat for the tech team, state ambassadors, and collegiate 4-H members where all teams would do trainings, build a working relationship between the teams, and have each team meet privately to work on team projects. This blog post is about my experiences at this winter retreat. This shall be my second time attending this event, which also happens to be my second trip to Lake Tahoe. You can read about last years trip here.
Friday Jan. 21
I woke up to "Im on a Boat", which is my alarm on my cell phone at 6:00 am. I really didn't want to wake up that early this day, but I procrastinated the night before on packing, so I had to pack this morning. It took a good 30 mins before I finally got out of bed. Of course, I go right to the desk, turn on the computer, and check facebook, e-mail, and open up itunes to listen to some music. Afterwards, I popped into the shower, then began to pack. While packing, i tore my room apart, in attempts to find me tech team shirt that has seemed to be missing. After while I started to think it could be possible that I had left it at SLC back in August of last year, but it might still be around the house somewhere. When packing was finished, I chilled online making sure I got everything I needed for the cold adventure to Tahoe. My flight took off at 10:35 am from Ontario Airport. My dad was nice enough to drive me to the airport. I would have liked to drive myself, but parking is too expensive, and I didn't want to pay for three days of parking.
After I checked my luggage in, I went up to the security. There were only two lines open, and each line would be separated to go through either the medal detector, or the new full body scan. I was lucky and went through the medal detector, even though I don't really care which one I do, but the medal detector goes faster than the body scan. I really wasn't in the mood to wait. After I got on the plane, and we took off, I put my ipod on and fell asleep. I woke up to the plane hitting the tarmac as we were landing in Sacramento. Was just a usual ride into Sac. I got off the plane, and headed down to the baggage claim. My flight was 15 minutes early, so I had to wait around for the other tech team member to arrive from San Diego, Neal. After Neal arrived, we sat and chilled and waiting for an old time Computer Corps member, Cindy Sperry, to come in from Arizona. It was nice to see her again, for she was the one who convinced me to join the Computer Corps while at TIC many years ago now. After she arrived, we contacted our person who was picking us up, which was Jacki, a very involved 4-H leader/staff from Yreka.
From the airport, we headed east towards South Lake Tahoe. We stopped in Placerville to eat lunch at the In N Out. We also were waiting for the two vans of our group to join us, who where coming from the State 4-H Office in Davis. They were supposed to be right behind us. We ordered, and ate outside, for it was wonderful weather. When we were done, we decided to call to see where the rest of the group was. We had learned they were still 45 mins away from In N Out. We took a vote, and decided to go on up to Lake Tahoe without them. At this point, I began to get excited. Last year, we arrived in Lake Tahoe after sunset, and headed right to the camp. I was disappointed since I had never been to Tahoe. This year, we will be arriving with plenty of day light in the sky. I asked the group if we had to go to the camp, and they agreed with me that we should park in downtown South Lake Tahoe and walk around since I have never had that chance. We parked at the Raley's Grocery Store, near the California/Nevada Boarder and walked around.
We first walked towards the boarder. We stopped at the Nestle Cookie Store. I got a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup, and it sure was good. All the buildings in the area look new, which I didn't seem to expect, for I tend to think of old buildings when it comes to the mountains. We walked down to the boarder. I noticed there were Gondolas which take you to the top of the mountain, to the ski resorts. I really wanted to ride up them, for it seemed like the view of the snow covered mountains and Lake Tahoe from those would be beautiful. I looked up the prices of the tickets, and it costs $32.00 for just Gondola tickets. My heart hurt, for I felt that was just a ridiculous price to pay for a gondola ride. We walked to the boarder, where I got to stand in California and Nevada at the same time. Some people thought I was weird but I don't care. We walked back towards the car, looked at a few shops. Next to Raley's Grocery Store was a Wyland Gallery, an famous marine animal artist. Of course, he had tons of paintings and sculptures of Orca Whales. Right as I was walking out, I saw this beautiful table, called the Orca Family Table, were its a glass table with two Orca's swimming through sea weed as the stand. I wanted it so badly! Later one when I was at home, I checked out the price, and it costs $32,000. I was shocked that a table would be that much. I was expecting a few thousand but not that much. Before we headed back to the car, we went into Raley's to buy snacks to share with everyone. I noticed right away how packed the alcohol isle was. I started to see it seemed like the only thing there is to do in South Lake Tahoe was to ski, gamble at the casinos on the Nevada side, and drink. I personally was a little disappointed on South Lake Tahoe. There wasn't even a place where you can walk to the lake's edge to see it from the main area. Most of the shore is privately owned in that area. Not my cup of tea.
After exploring South Lake Tahoe for almost two hours, we headed to the Nevada 4-H State Camp, about a mile east of Stateline. We got there, and and the two vans still were not there. We grabbed all our stuff, and got set up in the cabin. I dropped my suit case in the mud path (caused by the snow melting) leading to the cabin. Got mud I chose the lower bunk at the window facing towards the lake. I chose that bunk because I wanted to wake up in the morning to the beautiful view of snow on the ground. There was a good 1/2 a foot of snow on the ground. It was warmer this year than last. The highs were in the 50's and the lows were in the 30's when we arrived. After we got settled in, we headed to the main lodge, and finally the two vans showed up to the camp.
For a few hours, everyone just chilled in the main lodge, and we had pizza for dinner. After dinner, all the groups got together, and we had a basic intro meeting. We set goals and expectations for the weekend, and went over the schedule. Afterwards, we did name games and team building skill games, which we call Ice Breakers. At the end of the night, we just chilled some more. Along with Cindy, another past Computer Corps member, Marc, was at the even. It was nice to see him again. He was only on the team for one year, but he was a photographer, and really cool to hang out with. He was there for collegiate 4-H and because he is a student assistant at the State 4-H Office. At 11, we had to return to our cabins. The youth guys stayed on one room of the cabin, and the adults were in the other, which included Neal, Marc, myself and one of last year's state ambassadors who was at Tahoe last year. We stayed up till 2:30 or so talking. One interesting thing i learned, So not 4-H appropriate, was that there is a whip cream made with alcohol, called whip-ohol. So going to check that out later. We finally passed out after a very long day.
Saturday Jan. 22
Set the phone alarm for 6:15. It went off, and naturally I shut it off. No one else in the cabin awoke to the alarm. About 20 minutes later, I heard people starting to wake up, so I decided to bolt out of the bunk, and jet it to the shower before someone else took it. It took awhile for the hot water to kick in, but when it did, it was the best feeling to be in a warm shower. After a good 30 minute shower, I finally got out. When I got back to my bunk, I looked out of the window. I noticed Kenneth, another photographer who is on the teach team, walking back from the fence to the camp's private beach. We saw Neal and I looking out the window, so he came over and said it was really cold outside. I was kinda jealous that he had his tripod, which helped him take photographs in the low morning light. I would have brought mine, but I had no room in my luggage, and I can't take extra things with me on the plane. Finally headed out of the cabin to go have breakfast.
Once everyone was finished with Breakfast, we had a professionalism training with the entire group. the presentation when over how to act professionally on stage, in person with different events, how to dress for different occasions, proper e-mail usage, and even how we should be professional on social networks like facebook. After a good two hour training, the group headed down to the camps private beach on the lake. To get to the beach, we have to walk through the camp road down to the gate at the beach. Most of the road was covered in ice/snow, so we had to be very careful while walking not to slip. The camp has a rule that no one is allowed on the beach without a lifeguard, which is why there is a fence which prevents anyone from getting onto the beach. Luckily, one person in our group is a trained lifeguard.
Its strange when on the beach. All the grounds are covered by snow, except for the sand on the beach. The beach had a pier, which everyone walked out on. The view from the beach was just beautiful. Unlike last year, where the lake was fogged in, we had clear skies. We were able to see across the lake to the other side, looking right at the snow covered mountains. Even though it was cold, I wouldn't have minded just sitting on the pier and enjoying the beautiful view with the quietness of nature. I tried to enjoy the quietness, but most of the group seemed to just be loud and didn't really seem to care about anything other than the view. After taking photographs, and enjoying the beach, we headed back for lunch. After lunch, the three groups split up into our separate meeting locations to do work. The tech team meeting we just standard. Going over the goals we had set back in August, and gave reports on the progress working on those goals. We had completed some of the goals and others still had to be worked on. After a few hours of the tech team meeting, we stopped working, and had to head over to our cabins to get dressed into our formal wear, for we had a formal dinner/etiquette. I was excited, for I remembered many of the answers from last year, which would help us out on the competition between tables.
I wore my dark blue dress pants with a blue long sleeve button up shirt, and my jelly fish tie, which I got from the Monterey Bay Aquarium years ago. The formal dinner when really well. We had to play two parts. We first had to set our own table, the proper way. If we did things correctly, we got points. Afterwards, we played the role of being the guests and dealt with proper etiquette of eating and proper manners. We also had to learn how to do serving and clean up at the table, since most of the time, when it 4-H, we are the cones serving at formal dinners. After the formal dinner, we took group photographs, then went back to our business meetings. For the tech team, we set up our laptop computer lab, and had to preform operating system updates, install a new antivirus software, and do other software updates. Around 9 pm, we stopped working, and the groups came together again just to hang out and have fun. Many people were having fun at the foosball table, others just sat on the couches by the fireplace and chilled on the internet with their computers. Some even played music and danced to the songs. It was a good ending of a long day. At 11:30, we all had to go to our cabins, and we went to sleep around 12:30 to 1:00.
Sunday Jan. 23
Alarms when off at 6:15 once again, but this time none of us in the cabin got up till close to 7. We headed over to breakfast, then had to go back to our cabins to pack up, take our stuff to the main lodge, then go back and clean the cabin. We had to sweep and mop the floors, and clean the bathroom. After we were done, we headed to the main lodge, where the groups again split off to their own private meetings. This time, the Collegiate 4-H group joined with the Tech Team for the meeting. The Tech Team's plan for this day was to film a tech team video, and "How To" videos. I had to do my How to Mount a Photograph Video, and had all the supplies to do so. Plans had changed, for we had to go through a Thrive presentation thing for a few hours. Thrive is some new project/grant that the State 4-H Office is working on. I personally hated that we had this presentation, for it cut the tech team out of doing our work, which I felt was more important than going over curriculum the thrive project is going to release in the future in the leadership project. By the time the presentation was over, we had less than an hour to try to film, and we decided we just didn't have the time. To film the videos was one of our goals, and when we said we didn't accomplish the goal, I felt bad for other people of have been thinking about what the tech team was really doing in the meetings. It wasn't the tech teams fault we didn't accomplish some of our goals for the weekend.
Lunch time happened, then we packed up our cars, cleaned the main lodge, said our goodbyes to the group and headed down the mountain back down to Sacramento. I was with the car again with Jacki, Cindy, and Neal. When planning out my flights, I had booked a 8:50 PM flight leaving from Sacramento down to Ontario. I purposely booked that flight, for many times traffic from Lake Tahoe down to Sacramento on a Sunday is just as bad as Los Vegas traffic down at home. We ran into some traffic, but nothing bad at all. When we got out of the Sierras, and regained cell service, I realized I would be at the airport super early. I started text messaging Sarah, a really good friend of mine who lives just outside of Yuba City. She had just gotten off work, and she offered to drive down to the airport to hang out with me while I waited. I knew that money was tight for her, so I at first didn't want her to waste the gas if she didn't have too, but in the end, I really did want her to come, for it has been awhile since we had seen each other.
I got to the Sacramento Airport 5 hours before my flight took off. I had to sit in the lobby where you check in luggage for an hour, because you can only check in luggage 4 hours or closer to your flight. I only sat there alone for about 20 minutes, when Sarah arrived. She and I just chilled until it hit the 4 hour mark to my flight, and we got in line to check in my luggage. The airport was empty for a Sunday. Normally the lines are super long, and would have to wait a long time to get the baggage check in, but it just took a 5 minute wait. While checking in my bags, I had learned that my flight was delayed till 9:20 pm. I called my parents to let them know that it was delayed, then Sarah and I headed to her car. From the airport, we drove over to Panda Express, near the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, and had a good dinner. I was nice and payed for her dinner since she drove down to hang with me. We killed a good hour hanging out at the restaurant. I finally said that we should go park somewhere near the airport and just hang out. We drove back out to the airport, and I had the idea of parking in the cell phone lot, since it had no costs to park there. We drove around, and finally found it. The cell phone lot was one of the farthest parking lots, and was completely empty.
We just listened to music, singing to some of them, and chilled. It was very relaxing, for it was dark, no one was around which made it quite, and had great company. The car was parked facing east, so we were able to see all the planes take off from the runway, which was cool. As it got colder, fog started moving in the area. I liked the fog, it added to the mood. After killing almost 3 hours, it was time to head back to the terminal and head up to my gate. We first had to sit in the parking lot a bit, to attempt to un fog the car windows so she can see out of it, but it wasn't working very fast. Finally we were able to drive off. We said our goodbyes, hugged, then I headed off into the airport. At this point, I was very happy I booked a later flight, for being with Sarah was just awesome! My next trip to Sacramento will be for a tech team meeting in March, and we plan for me to spend the night at her house after the meeting, and hang out for a day around her area. We also planned on hanging out when I am up there for Memorial Day Weekend.
I had to wait at the airport a good 30 + minutes before the plane finally arrived. I got in, sat near the back. Once we took off, I put my head phones in and passed out. I woke up as the plane flew over Lake Arrowhead in our mountains, for the plane always hits turbulence flying over the mountains. With a custom, I spotted out Highland from the plane, and even the area where my house was at. Always cool to see it from the airplane. I landed in Ontario, got my luggage, and got picked up by my mom at around 11:30. During this time, my friends Scotty and Jane were texting me about when I was going to be home. They also made hints that I had left my car at home over the weekend. Right away I started to wonder what in the world did they do to my car this time. In the past when I have left on trips, they have done things like silly string my car, and write all over the windows with window paint. I really wasn't in the mood to see what they had done for I was tired and didn't want to deal with cleaning it. Another thought had come in my mind, since they asked what airline I was flying and what airport, for I almost felt they were gonna try and pick me up from the airport, but I was glad they didn't, for that would have not made my mom happy. I get home, and I noticed right away that Scotty and Jane was parked right behind my car waiting for me to get home. I first put my bags in the house, and with 30 seconds of being home, I left again.
I first inspected my car, which made Scotty and Jane laugh, and I didn't notice anything that they had done. It seems my friends had missed me this weekend, and really wanted to hang out. Even though I was dead tired, I agreed to hang. They were hungry, and I was little hungry, so we headed over to In N Out in San Bernardino. Got there around 12:15 am. We killed a good 45 mins there, then left to go back to my house. We chilled in the car listening to music and hanging out till around 2:30 am. I was slowly falling asleep in the back of Scotty's car, and I had decided it was time to go to bed, for it had been a long day. I went inside, and I finally got to bed at 3:00 am. The next day, I was very very tired from my trip. This trip was a good one, for I got to go to a beautiful location, be with friends and catch up with old ones, hang out with Sarah before I left, then with Jane and Scotty when I returned.
Friday Jan. 21
I woke up to "Im on a Boat", which is my alarm on my cell phone at 6:00 am. I really didn't want to wake up that early this day, but I procrastinated the night before on packing, so I had to pack this morning. It took a good 30 mins before I finally got out of bed. Of course, I go right to the desk, turn on the computer, and check facebook, e-mail, and open up itunes to listen to some music. Afterwards, I popped into the shower, then began to pack. While packing, i tore my room apart, in attempts to find me tech team shirt that has seemed to be missing. After while I started to think it could be possible that I had left it at SLC back in August of last year, but it might still be around the house somewhere. When packing was finished, I chilled online making sure I got everything I needed for the cold adventure to Tahoe. My flight took off at 10:35 am from Ontario Airport. My dad was nice enough to drive me to the airport. I would have liked to drive myself, but parking is too expensive, and I didn't want to pay for three days of parking.
After I checked my luggage in, I went up to the security. There were only two lines open, and each line would be separated to go through either the medal detector, or the new full body scan. I was lucky and went through the medal detector, even though I don't really care which one I do, but the medal detector goes faster than the body scan. I really wasn't in the mood to wait. After I got on the plane, and we took off, I put my ipod on and fell asleep. I woke up to the plane hitting the tarmac as we were landing in Sacramento. Was just a usual ride into Sac. I got off the plane, and headed down to the baggage claim. My flight was 15 minutes early, so I had to wait around for the other tech team member to arrive from San Diego, Neal. After Neal arrived, we sat and chilled and waiting for an old time Computer Corps member, Cindy Sperry, to come in from Arizona. It was nice to see her again, for she was the one who convinced me to join the Computer Corps while at TIC many years ago now. After she arrived, we contacted our person who was picking us up, which was Jacki, a very involved 4-H leader/staff from Yreka.
For a few hours, everyone just chilled in the main lodge, and we had pizza for dinner. After dinner, all the groups got together, and we had a basic intro meeting. We set goals and expectations for the weekend, and went over the schedule. Afterwards, we did name games and team building skill games, which we call Ice Breakers. At the end of the night, we just chilled some more. Along with Cindy, another past Computer Corps member, Marc, was at the even. It was nice to see him again. He was only on the team for one year, but he was a photographer, and really cool to hang out with. He was there for collegiate 4-H and because he is a student assistant at the State 4-H Office. At 11, we had to return to our cabins. The youth guys stayed on one room of the cabin, and the adults were in the other, which included Neal, Marc, myself and one of last year's state ambassadors who was at Tahoe last year. We stayed up till 2:30 or so talking. One interesting thing i learned, So not 4-H appropriate, was that there is a whip cream made with alcohol, called whip-ohol. So going to check that out later. We finally passed out after a very long day.
Saturday Jan. 22
Set the phone alarm for 6:15. It went off, and naturally I shut it off. No one else in the cabin awoke to the alarm. About 20 minutes later, I heard people starting to wake up, so I decided to bolt out of the bunk, and jet it to the shower before someone else took it. It took awhile for the hot water to kick in, but when it did, it was the best feeling to be in a warm shower. After a good 30 minute shower, I finally got out. When I got back to my bunk, I looked out of the window. I noticed Kenneth, another photographer who is on the teach team, walking back from the fence to the camp's private beach. We saw Neal and I looking out the window, so he came over and said it was really cold outside. I was kinda jealous that he had his tripod, which helped him take photographs in the low morning light. I would have brought mine, but I had no room in my luggage, and I can't take extra things with me on the plane. Finally headed out of the cabin to go have breakfast.
Sunday Jan. 23
Alarms when off at 6:15 once again, but this time none of us in the cabin got up till close to 7. We headed over to breakfast, then had to go back to our cabins to pack up, take our stuff to the main lodge, then go back and clean the cabin. We had to sweep and mop the floors, and clean the bathroom. After we were done, we headed to the main lodge, where the groups again split off to their own private meetings. This time, the Collegiate 4-H group joined with the Tech Team for the meeting. The Tech Team's plan for this day was to film a tech team video, and "How To" videos. I had to do my How to Mount a Photograph Video, and had all the supplies to do so. Plans had changed, for we had to go through a Thrive presentation thing for a few hours. Thrive is some new project/grant that the State 4-H Office is working on. I personally hated that we had this presentation, for it cut the tech team out of doing our work, which I felt was more important than going over curriculum the thrive project is going to release in the future in the leadership project. By the time the presentation was over, we had less than an hour to try to film, and we decided we just didn't have the time. To film the videos was one of our goals, and when we said we didn't accomplish the goal, I felt bad for other people of have been thinking about what the tech team was really doing in the meetings. It wasn't the tech teams fault we didn't accomplish some of our goals for the weekend.
Lunch time happened, then we packed up our cars, cleaned the main lodge, said our goodbyes to the group and headed down the mountain back down to Sacramento. I was with the car again with Jacki, Cindy, and Neal. When planning out my flights, I had booked a 8:50 PM flight leaving from Sacramento down to Ontario. I purposely booked that flight, for many times traffic from Lake Tahoe down to Sacramento on a Sunday is just as bad as Los Vegas traffic down at home. We ran into some traffic, but nothing bad at all. When we got out of the Sierras, and regained cell service, I realized I would be at the airport super early. I started text messaging Sarah, a really good friend of mine who lives just outside of Yuba City. She had just gotten off work, and she offered to drive down to the airport to hang out with me while I waited. I knew that money was tight for her, so I at first didn't want her to waste the gas if she didn't have too, but in the end, I really did want her to come, for it has been awhile since we had seen each other.
I got to the Sacramento Airport 5 hours before my flight took off. I had to sit in the lobby where you check in luggage for an hour, because you can only check in luggage 4 hours or closer to your flight. I only sat there alone for about 20 minutes, when Sarah arrived. She and I just chilled until it hit the 4 hour mark to my flight, and we got in line to check in my luggage. The airport was empty for a Sunday. Normally the lines are super long, and would have to wait a long time to get the baggage check in, but it just took a 5 minute wait. While checking in my bags, I had learned that my flight was delayed till 9:20 pm. I called my parents to let them know that it was delayed, then Sarah and I headed to her car. From the airport, we drove over to Panda Express, near the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, and had a good dinner. I was nice and payed for her dinner since she drove down to hang with me. We killed a good hour hanging out at the restaurant. I finally said that we should go park somewhere near the airport and just hang out. We drove back out to the airport, and I had the idea of parking in the cell phone lot, since it had no costs to park there. We drove around, and finally found it. The cell phone lot was one of the farthest parking lots, and was completely empty.
I had to wait at the airport a good 30 + minutes before the plane finally arrived. I got in, sat near the back. Once we took off, I put my head phones in and passed out. I woke up as the plane flew over Lake Arrowhead in our mountains, for the plane always hits turbulence flying over the mountains. With a custom, I spotted out Highland from the plane, and even the area where my house was at. Always cool to see it from the airplane. I landed in Ontario, got my luggage, and got picked up by my mom at around 11:30. During this time, my friends Scotty and Jane were texting me about when I was going to be home. They also made hints that I had left my car at home over the weekend. Right away I started to wonder what in the world did they do to my car this time. In the past when I have left on trips, they have done things like silly string my car, and write all over the windows with window paint. I really wasn't in the mood to see what they had done for I was tired and didn't want to deal with cleaning it. Another thought had come in my mind, since they asked what airline I was flying and what airport, for I almost felt they were gonna try and pick me up from the airport, but I was glad they didn't, for that would have not made my mom happy. I get home, and I noticed right away that Scotty and Jane was parked right behind my car waiting for me to get home. I first put my bags in the house, and with 30 seconds of being home, I left again.
I first inspected my car, which made Scotty and Jane laugh, and I didn't notice anything that they had done. It seems my friends had missed me this weekend, and really wanted to hang out. Even though I was dead tired, I agreed to hang. They were hungry, and I was little hungry, so we headed over to In N Out in San Bernardino. Got there around 12:15 am. We killed a good 45 mins there, then left to go back to my house. We chilled in the car listening to music and hanging out till around 2:30 am. I was slowly falling asleep in the back of Scotty's car, and I had decided it was time to go to bed, for it had been a long day. I went inside, and I finally got to bed at 3:00 am. The next day, I was very very tired from my trip. This trip was a good one, for I got to go to a beautiful location, be with friends and catch up with old ones, hang out with Sarah before I left, then with Jane and Scotty when I returned.
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