Local flavor......

Thursday started slowly, but finished with a bang!  Since the batteries for the blue Yamaha golf cart did not arrive until after 5 pm Wednesday, and I was the one who removed the old batteries I was, therefore, the only one who knew where all the wires re-attached......I clocked in at 9:22 am for an hour to install the new batteries and deliver the cart to Bob Sumner who is our resident Thousand Trails salesman......

......everything went back together and within the hour I had delivered the cart.....while I was doing that TLE did some shopping........now it was time for us to enjoy our off day.......

I put our patio furniture back out now that it appears we are in for some warmer, dryer weather for the next two weeks......I spent some time checking over our two road bikes so we could take a ride.  About 2 pm we headed north on SR-89 toward Emerald Bay.....as we rode along the paved bike path we just took our time enjoying the pine scented air, and the trees.  When we came to the entrance to Pope Beach, which is still closed until this weekend, we decided to ride out to the beach.......

 Pope Beach...we are all bundled up

Spectacular view looking north

 Still snow on the local mountains......

.....but kids are playing in the lake

....we continued back to the bike path and northward past Camp Richardson to the Tallac Historic Site which encompasses the Pope Estate, Baldwin Estate and Valhalla......beginning May 28th you can tour the estates and the onsite museum which give a glimpse into the life of the rich in South Lake Tahoe in the early 1900's.....

 One of 2 large boat houses....you can still see the steel tracks running into the water......the boats were hauled out on a large boat dolly on those tracks.

 Looking north towards Emerald Bay

 A couple of the old 'estate' houses.......

.....we haven't visited the Tallac Historic Site since about 2004, so it was nice to just ride through the area with no crowds.....

We got back to the coach about 4 pm, and decided to head over to the Lakeview Commons area to visit a new micro brewery we had discovered while out 'junking' a couple of weeks ago called Sidellis Lake Tahoe Brewery and Restaurant.......

......we immediately ordered a flight of their 8 brews and a platter of their chips and house made beer cheese which ended up being the perfect pairing to sample their 8 brews......

I settled on their version of the famous Imperial Stout, which is served 7 ounces at a time due to the high ABV, and TLE settled on the Farmouse Claunie Ale........for our entree I ordered their French Beef Dip and TLE the Triple Play.  We loved their basic 'pub fare' style menu which definitely lives up to the quality of their brews!  Last summer I wrote about Coldwater Brewing Company which is more of a high end restaurant with an onsite brewery which we thoroughly enjoyed, but was a little pricey.  Sidellis is more our 'hole in the wall' style, and we definitely plan to return this summer.  Yelp gives them a solid 5 stars on 29 reviews, and we would definitely be right there.  There are no servers so you must order your brews and food at the bar.....they do deliver your food to your table.  For some this might be a draw back, but for us it is perfect, and the resulting lower prices are appreciated!

On our way back home we stopped at the same location near Lakeview Commons we did last November to take our 'after' picture of the lake......you will recall how shockingly low the lake was then, and how far out you had to walk to get to the water.........

Before....early November, 2015

After....late May, 2016

......I believe I have written recently about how the lake has returned to it former glory over the past winter, and here is the proof.........the water is almost up to the stone retaining wall once again!

We arrived back at our coach just about 6 pm and the beginning of the NBA playoff game between the Thunder and the Warriors.....it was a closely fought game, but in the end the Warrior prevailed by 9 points......back to OKC for game 6!

Thanks for stopping by!