Mind of Migg

I had originally booked a flight from LA to SF for Wednesday night.  Keith was arriving in SF Thursday afternoon, so we were going to hang out with Phil during the day, then meet up with Tridi and a few others Thursday night before driving out to Lake Tahoe on Friday morning.  I decided to clear my head and get some fresh air by taking a road trip up Highway 101.  I stopped in Monterey, CA early enough to drop off my bags, and take the short trip to the beach so I could catch the sunset.  It was windy and freezing, but definitely worth the view.

I headed back to my hotel, and realized I had the perfect location.  Right across the street was a Chipotle, Starbucks, and Great Clips.  I needed a haircut, I love Chipotle, and I was planning on doing some work in the morning before finishing the drive to San Francisco.  After grabbing a burrito, I headed back to my room and buckled down for a night of writing.  I made a lot of progress, completing the first draft of my spec script for “The Office” and making some headway on my Monsoon rewrite.

The next morning I got my haircut, checked out, and spent the morning continuing my rewrite work.  I grabbed another Chipotle burrito for lunch and headed out.  Between the quiet night and morning of writing, and the relaxation of the beautiful drive, I was feeling worlds better than when I began the trip.  Something about taking a pleasant drive really does wonders for me.  It’s nice to have that time alone singing bad off-key music.

I met up with Phil and Keith that afternoon and we played some H-O-R-S-E.  I was quickly reminded that my knee is not quite right yet.  I felt a little twinge when I tried an acrobatic shot.  I went down to Phil, but not before taking out Keith and getting Phil an “H”.  Afterwards we watched the disappointing Game 1 of the NBA Finals and then met up with the other guys for a night on the town.

The next morning, the three of us slept in.  The other guys had plans to go ATV riding in Tahoe that afternoon, but we decided to pass, opting for a good nights sleep instead.  We took our sweet time getting on the road and finally made it into Tahoe around 4:30 on Friday.  The drive in is beautiful.  I hadn’t been to Lake Tahoe in over ten years, and I had never seen the road coming from the south the way we went.  It was cold, rainy, and foggy, but still enjoyable.

The house Duc had chosen for us was fantastic.  Two decks, giant kitchen, grill, and jacuzzi.  Add the prepped food given to us by a caterer friend to grill and we were set.  We enjoyed a night of barbecue and poker on Friday.  On Saturday, we stuck to our original plan of white water rafting despite the bad weather.  Our cabin was in South Lake Tahoe, but the rafting site was on the north side of the lake, so we had to take the winding road up the west side of the lake.  Amazing views, but also terrifying to look straight down at some points.  The rafting site had wet suits and rain jackets, but that didn’t keep my hands and toes from going numb.  Rafting wasn’t nearly as death defying and treacherous as I had envisioned, but there were definitely some big drops and tough rowing moments.  It was a ton of fun, if nothing more than to see the terrified look on Trilo’s face after every small bump.

After thawing out on the drive back from rafting, we grilled up some great ribeye steaks and chicken.  There was so much meat over the entire weekend: I had steak and chicken for breakfast the next morning too.

Of course our great luck meant there wasn’t a cloud in the sky on Sunday morning.  It turned out to be 20 degrees warmer and perfect weather as we were leaving.  It didn’t matter though, it was a great place, fun people, and a good time, despite the bad weather.