2012 CA 4-H Winter Retreat at Lake Tahoe
This past weekend, I had traveled up to the Nevada 4-H State Camp in Stateline, NV, (next door to South Lake Tahoe) for the 2012 CA 4-H Technology Leadership Team (TLT) and State Ambassador (SA) Winter Retreat. At this retreat, both teams come together to network on the planning of the State Leadership Conference and the 4-H program, strengthen our leadership/teamwork/speaking skills, and to have separate team meetings to work on business. If you recall to past blog posts of this event, it has been held the first weekend of January. Due to people's availability, we had moved the event to the end of February. Below is my experiences from this wonderful and refreshing weekend up in the Sierras. *Photo below of both teams at retreat*
Friday, February 24, 2012
The trip starts like most other 4-H trips up north. Wake up before the sunrise, get ready, get loaded in the car, and head to the Ontario Airport. The flight up north was a very nice and relaxing flight. The plane was only a 1/3 full, the skies were calm with no winds, and everyone on the plane was very quiet. It was bliss. After I had landed in Sacramento, I got contacted by one of my friends and fellow tech team members, Daniel, that he was at the airport and waiting to pick me up. He picked me up, and we drove over to the free cell phone/waiting lot. We were waiting for another tech team member, Neal, who was flying in from San Diego, and a State Ambassador, Candace, flying in from Los Angeles. Candace arrived first, so we picked her up, returned to the free lot, then picked up Neal after he arrived.
On our way to the State 4-H Office, we had stopped to eat lunch at the In-N-Out in downtown Davis. While eating, Candace realized she had forgotten a towel. We took out our phones, searched for a store, and found that Davis had a Target down the road. Since we had the time, we headed over there real quick. While she went off to get her towel, the rest of us adventured off to the electronics area. Go figure for tech team members. After a few moments, it was time for us to leave, and head to the State 4-H Office to meet with everyone else. Almost everyone attending the Winter Retreat was car pooling in two university fleet vans, which can hold up to 15 people. We worked with everyone else to make sure that everyone else had a ride. Candace had decided to go in one of the vans while Matthew, another tech team member road with Daniel, Neal, and I. We ended up standing around chilling for some time, and I got impatient. We got the go ahead from Steven Worker (our adviser), and we popped into the car and headed off to Tahoe ahead of the group.
The four of us headed out to South Lake Tahoe. About half way up, around the area of transition between the foothills and the mountains, we had to stop to look around for gas. Around that time, we received a text message from Steven saying they had arrived at the In N Out (About 45 mins behind us). He had said that if we got to the camp early, and Joshua (another TLT member) had arrived; we should work on setting up a part of the computer lab. Our plans were a little different from arriving early at the camp. While driving up, I had noticed the less amount of snow on the ground than in the past two years. I had known to expect it since I follow up on weather reports posted on twitter from NOAA. This January, the Sierras received 50% less snow than average. As we got up to the Talking Mountains, it seemed snow amounts seemed normal. My mind had switched over to dreaming mood. I had a big urge to go snowmobiling. I have never gone snowmobiling, and seeing the mountains covered in snow just made me want to go on a snowmobile adventure. As we drove around the Talking Mountains, the I-50 took us down into the Tahoe Basin. From the 50, you couldn't tell there was any snow in the basin. At that point, I got a sense of disappointment. Due to the low levels of snow this year, I am honestly not happy that the governor called the drought over last year to do the record amounts of snow. Anyway, we drove into the basin, and there was some snow on the ground, but not how it has been the past few years where there has been at least 6 inches on the ground. We arrived in South Lake Tahoe, and we had parked at the downtown Railey's Parking Lot right by the CA/NV boarder and walked around.
We first walked down towards the boarder, stopping at the Nestle Toll House Cookie Store. I originally wasn't going to get anything, but after I saw how awesome looking their cookie ice cream sandwiches looked, I just had to enjoy one. Once we got a sugar high from our sweet treats, we walked on over to the boarder, so so we can say we were in two states at once. Yes, we are quite nerdy. Tech Team members...Duh! After our brief moments of excitement, we walked around Heavenly Village. Daniel and Neal had decided they didn't satisfy their sweet tooth yet, so they stopped at the Coldstone Creamery in the village for some ice cream. The day was perfect. You had the cold, fresh mountain air with the nice warm sun hitting your skin, and the beautiful views of the forests nearby. After an hour killing time, we slowly headed back to the car. We stopped at the Wyland Gallery just because I had to see all the epic killer whale stuff :). As we finished going through the gallery, Daniel and I received a text asking where we were. It was a sign they had made it to the camp. We all got back into the car, and headed just a few blocks down the road into Stateline, Nevada, to get to the Nevada 4-H State Camp.
We arrived at the camp after a 3 minute drive into Nevada. We saw the two vans unpacking. We parked, got our stuff out, and headed to the cabin. Daniel, Neal, and I got to stay in the director's cabin of the camp since we are adult leaders. The Director's cabin is nice because there was only us three, and the dad of the other tech team member, Joshua. The three of us took the east room, and the dad took the west room to himself. I moved as fast as I could to pick the same bed I slept in two years ago. Main reason, because it was right next to the window. I wanted to be able to wake up, and have the first thing I see is the basin forest with the snow. Not a scene I get to see too often. Not planning to far ahead, Daniel was not happy I chose that bed because I had close access to the power plugs. Power plugs are always a needed thing when in a room full of tech geeks. Other benefits of the directors cabin is we have our own shower in the building. Most of the other cabins, especially the girls, have to a shower building not apart of their cabin. After getting settled in, we headed off to the main lodge/dining hall, where most of the weekends activities and meetings would take place.
We had general meetings that night, and started working on youth leadership/citizenship training. We also did some tests to show our personality when it comes to speaking. I have leanred I am a speaking personality of blue, which means friendly :). Afterwards we were able to mingle for awhile before headed to bed. Daniel found the heating controls for the cabin, and he turned up the heat a little bit too much. I barely needed my sleeping bag.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
I woke up around 6:30am, and was a little tired. I got up, got dressed, and went walking towards the lake. I walked down to the fence at the lake beach. It was a little windy, and cold. About 30 degrees. All the puddles were frozen, and the snow was as hard as ice. After taking a few photographs of the view of the lake, I walked back to have breakfast.
After breakfast we had our own team meetings. From then till lunch, we set up our Mobile Computer Lab and attempted to update our computers software while preparing our new laptops we had received. Due to the very slow bandwidth of the camps wireless, updates took longer than expected. Not sure if we ever fully finished updating our 25 laptops. Right before lunch, we all went out onto the camp's private beach to hang out at the lake pier. With the wind blowing harshly, we didn't stay out long. While I was out there I noticed that the water levels were the highest I have ever seen it, which was good news. After we got done being cold, we went to have lunch.
After lunch, we had a guest speaker to talk to both groups. Andrew Boseworth, Director of Engineering at Facebook. I met him in November, and he was one of the original members of the tech team, so I got him to come up to tahoe to mean the current tech team. After listening to Andrew, we got back to work on the lab, and preformed normal team business. For the evening, the groups worked on doing elevator speeches. One skill that is really good to have, so we can explain what 4-H is in a quick hurry. Instead of participating, since I have done this type of training many times, I observed and took photographs. Afterwards, we got to hang out till midnight. I played Monopoly with Steven Worker, Art Smoke (an ambassador advisor), and a few others. I won! I was shocked but glad. Getting Parkplace and Boardwalk really helped.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
This morning Daniel and I woke up earlier than expected, so I took a shower then we both walked down towards the lake again. It got down into the teens the night before, so everything was frozen solid. We saw a large frozen puddle, of course we just have to play with the ice. We spend a very good amount of time playing with the ice, it was a lot of fun. After we got back and had breakfast, we had the last of our team meeting work, then had a closing. We also had to clean our cabins and the main halls.
We left Tahoe around 1:00pm, and Daniel dropped off us at the airport. This weekend was one great one, and I am very glad I was on the tech team to have the opportunity like this. Can't wait for next year's retreat!
The trip starts like most other 4-H trips up north. Wake up before the sunrise, get ready, get loaded in the car, and head to the Ontario Airport. The flight up north was a very nice and relaxing flight. The plane was only a 1/3 full, the skies were calm with no winds, and everyone on the plane was very quiet. It was bliss. After I had landed in Sacramento, I got contacted by one of my friends and fellow tech team members, Daniel, that he was at the airport and waiting to pick me up. He picked me up, and we drove over to the free cell phone/waiting lot. We were waiting for another tech team member, Neal, who was flying in from San Diego, and a State Ambassador, Candace, flying in from Los Angeles. Candace arrived first, so we picked her up, returned to the free lot, then picked up Neal after he arrived.
On our way to the State 4-H Office, we had stopped to eat lunch at the In-N-Out in downtown Davis. While eating, Candace realized she had forgotten a towel. We took out our phones, searched for a store, and found that Davis had a Target down the road. Since we had the time, we headed over there real quick. While she went off to get her towel, the rest of us adventured off to the electronics area. Go figure for tech team members. After a few moments, it was time for us to leave, and head to the State 4-H Office to meet with everyone else. Almost everyone attending the Winter Retreat was car pooling in two university fleet vans, which can hold up to 15 people. We worked with everyone else to make sure that everyone else had a ride. Candace had decided to go in one of the vans while Matthew, another tech team member road with Daniel, Neal, and I. We ended up standing around chilling for some time, and I got impatient. We got the go ahead from Steven Worker (our adviser), and we popped into the car and headed off to Tahoe ahead of the group.
The four of us headed out to South Lake Tahoe. About half way up, around the area of transition between the foothills and the mountains, we had to stop to look around for gas. Around that time, we received a text message from Steven saying they had arrived at the In N Out (About 45 mins behind us). He had said that if we got to the camp early, and Joshua (another TLT member) had arrived; we should work on setting up a part of the computer lab. Our plans were a little different from arriving early at the camp. While driving up, I had noticed the less amount of snow on the ground than in the past two years. I had known to expect it since I follow up on weather reports posted on twitter from NOAA. This January, the Sierras received 50% less snow than average. As we got up to the Talking Mountains, it seemed snow amounts seemed normal. My mind had switched over to dreaming mood. I had a big urge to go snowmobiling. I have never gone snowmobiling, and seeing the mountains covered in snow just made me want to go on a snowmobile adventure. As we drove around the Talking Mountains, the I-50 took us down into the Tahoe Basin. From the 50, you couldn't tell there was any snow in the basin. At that point, I got a sense of disappointment. Due to the low levels of snow this year, I am honestly not happy that the governor called the drought over last year to do the record amounts of snow. Anyway, we drove into the basin, and there was some snow on the ground, but not how it has been the past few years where there has been at least 6 inches on the ground. We arrived in South Lake Tahoe, and we had parked at the downtown Railey's Parking Lot right by the CA/NV boarder and walked around.We first walked down towards the boarder, stopping at the Nestle Toll House Cookie Store. I originally wasn't going to get anything, but after I saw how awesome looking their cookie ice cream sandwiches looked, I just had to enjoy one. Once we got a sugar high from our sweet treats, we walked on over to the boarder, so so we can say we were in two states at once. Yes, we are quite nerdy. Tech Team members...Duh! After our brief moments of excitement, we walked around Heavenly Village. Daniel and Neal had decided they didn't satisfy their sweet tooth yet, so they stopped at the Coldstone Creamery in the village for some ice cream. The day was perfect. You had the cold, fresh mountain air with the nice warm sun hitting your skin, and the beautiful views of the forests nearby. After an hour killing time, we slowly headed back to the car. We stopped at the Wyland Gallery just because I had to see all the epic killer whale stuff :). As we finished going through the gallery, Daniel and I received a text asking where we were. It was a sign they had made it to the camp. We all got back into the car, and headed just a few blocks down the road into Stateline, Nevada, to get to the Nevada 4-H State Camp.
We had general meetings that night, and started working on youth leadership/citizenship training. We also did some tests to show our personality when it comes to speaking. I have leanred I am a speaking personality of blue, which means friendly :). Afterwards we were able to mingle for awhile before headed to bed. Daniel found the heating controls for the cabin, and he turned up the heat a little bit too much. I barely needed my sleeping bag.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
I woke up around 6:30am, and was a little tired. I got up, got dressed, and went walking towards the lake. I walked down to the fence at the lake beach. It was a little windy, and cold. About 30 degrees. All the puddles were frozen, and the snow was as hard as ice. After taking a few photographs of the view of the lake, I walked back to have breakfast.
After lunch, we had a guest speaker to talk to both groups. Andrew Boseworth, Director of Engineering at Facebook. I met him in November, and he was one of the original members of the tech team, so I got him to come up to tahoe to mean the current tech team. After listening to Andrew, we got back to work on the lab, and preformed normal team business. For the evening, the groups worked on doing elevator speeches. One skill that is really good to have, so we can explain what 4-H is in a quick hurry. Instead of participating, since I have done this type of training many times, I observed and took photographs. Afterwards, we got to hang out till midnight. I played Monopoly with Steven Worker, Art Smoke (an ambassador advisor), and a few others. I won! I was shocked but glad. Getting Parkplace and Boardwalk really helped.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
We left Tahoe around 1:00pm, and Daniel dropped off us at the airport. This weekend was one great one, and I am very glad I was on the tech team to have the opportunity like this. Can't wait for next year's retreat!
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