Hope everyone is having a great Independence Day! We're enjoying a day at home, and I was able to write up our trip and load the pictures...enjoy!
Our trip to South Lake Tahoe was exactly what we
wanted. We’d decided we wanted something
more on the relaxing end of the spectrum.
When we go to a new city we want to explore and see and do everything
but for this trip we wanted to go somewhere we wouldn’t feel like we had to see
and do a lot so we could take time out to relax, read and just enjoy some
quality time together.
We did just that – we explored the town when we felt like
it, and also spent a lot of time just reading books, sitting out on the patio
enjoying the weather, played the new board game K had bought, and even went to
see a movie!
The weather was better than we could’ve asked for – sunny and
cool. So cool, that we actually had to
grab jackets for some of our outings.
We did a little bit of sightseeing. We had many good views of the lake, it is beautiful
and so clear! I couldn’t take my eyes
off it. One day we drove out to the
Tallac Historic site to see several houses that had been built as summer houses. One was very rustic, the other – the Pope
Estate- was very formal and beautiful.
We took the guided tour (the only way you can go inside it), and were
impressed with it. The house would be
wonderful now – K was in love with the den, and even saw that he has some of
the same books they had on display (books from the time period, but not
necessarily the exact books they had).
It must’ve been quite a spectacle back in the 1920s. Our tour guide was in a 1920s costume and
talked to us as if we were guests of the house, which was a fun way to view it.
The owners of the house were out, so we
were able to see their living quarters (we couldn’t if they were there). From the start it had running water and electricity
and the house had separate guest houses and even a small schoolroom on the
site. I cannot even imagine
traveling back then to get their – it would have taken 2 trains and a boat to
get there from San Francisco.
The rest of our time we spent in the city and made some
trips back and forth across the border to Stateline, NV. It is odd to be somewhere that you can so
often travel across the border- NV-CA-NV-CA, I kept forgetting which state we
were in! I also found it so funny how the casinos go
right up to the state line (also a street intersection).
Kevin’s birthday was during our trip and we spent part of
his birthday afternoon at the casino.
He will usually just watch me play, but I finally got him to play after
I quickly lost most of what we started with ($40). He
really enjoyed playing craps – after a while we finally understand it - and had
a run of beginners and birthday luck! He
was up most of the time and having fun.
We ended up about even and what we did spend ($7) made for a very cheap
afternoon of entertainment, and we had a bunch of free drinks while we played!
From our hotel, we were able to walk to some restaurants and
also ventured off in the car to some others.
My favorite restaurant of the entire trip was Scusa Italian Ristorante. The food was delicious – the bread they
bring out is focaccia and the dipping sauce included balsamic vinegar, very
different and delicious. We each had a
pasta dish and it was very fresh. K even
enjoyed the sun-dried tomatoes in his dish!
Other standout restaurants – Swiss Chalet (a first for us to have Swiss
food) and Kalani’s – Pacific Rim inspired food.
We went during happy hour to take advantage of that menu, it was still
kind of pricey. They also had
sushi. I could not get over how many
sushi restaurants there were in town!
Pizza I understand – it’s a ski city in the winter and pizza is warm and
filling and makes the kids happy, but sushi?
Not sure how so many different places can make it…
We hardly ever go to the movies at home, mostly wait until Netflix has it, so we
treated ourselves to a movie on the trip.
We went to see “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”, a very
different movie. We both enjoyed it,
though a movie about the end of the world is sort of a bummer. I did enjoy seeing Steve Carrell in such a
different role, and we spotted people we recognized from other NBC shows!
We also took over the table in our room (we were lucky
enough to have a kitchenette in the room) with K’s new board game, Twilight
Struggle. He’d wanted to find a game
designed to be a two-player game, and he found a doozy! It is about the Cold War (right up his
alley). We are
still learning how to play, the rule book is big and tough to read. We played one whole game there in several
different sittings and are playing again now that we’re home. Its complicated and we’re each still learning
the strategy. I think we’ll enjoy it
for quite a while, and I am learning more about the Cold war since most of the
cards are referring to actual historic events.
In case you are interested,
here is where we stayed and I’d
recommend it. It’s a mix of rentals and
owned units. They had lots of amenities,
including movies for rent and we got them to bring us a wine opener so we could
have some wine in our room one night (we saved some money by getting some
breakfast and dessert stuff at a Safeway about 2 blocks away – we walked to
it!) Only annoyance, the walls must
be thin or the neighbors we had are just annoying, we got a NOISE complaint for
watching a movie at 9 at night, we had to turn the volume up to bear the
dialogue, but it was not loud enough to keep anyone up and who goes to bed at 9
anyway? Even the officer who came to tell
us seemed confused….
