Our Lake Tahoe

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

5:58 am - Monday - 41º F, humidity 77%, wind 4 mph out of the south.......clear skies....forecast high is 73º F!

Sunday was a day off from work......we began our day at our weekend 'Pancake Breakfast' with Tim and Laila about 9 am, then hit the road to give them the Reader's Digest version of 'Our Lake Tahoe'.  We hoped that getting an early start on the middle day of the three day weekend would enable us to get a jump on the crowds around the lake, but at our first scheduled stop, Emerald Bay, there was absolutely no parking available.....it was already a 'jungle', so we continued on to our next stop, Meeks Bay, where we have camped numerous times in the past few decades.......

 First 'usie' of the day.....Meeks Bay

 I have spent literally hundreds of hours enjoying this view over the past 4 decades

From Meeks Bay we continued on to a beach near Homewood, CA where we snapped a few pictures of Lake Tahoe 'up close and personal'......

 Lake Tahoe up close - near Homewood, CA

.....then there was a stop at River Ranch to see how much the Truckee River has receded in the last week, and it has dropped a foot, or two........

 River Ranch revisited....the water has begun to recede

.......up next on our Reader's Digest tour was Squaw Valley, CA.....the home of the 1960 Winter Olympics where a ride up the Gondola to 'High Camp' was the order of the day.....

 Lake Tahoe from afar - High Camp, Squaw Valley, CA

.......there we got a view of Lake Tahoe from afar, and another 'usie'......TLE and I haven't been to High Camp for about 8-9 years, but it felt like just yesterday.......

.....normally at this time of year there is no snow left, and the ski season has long since expired, but this year they will ski until July 4th at Squaw Valley.......the juxtaposition of the summer crowd beginning to encroach upon the winter crowd was interesting.......

 Juxtaposition of summer and winter activities

.......soon, it was time to begin the descent back to the valley floor and on to our next destination of the day.......

......which was Tahoe City, and lunch at the Bridgetender, as well as another requisite Fanny Bridge picture.......

......we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Bridgetender where it was pretty much SRO, but we managed to get the last table inside.....we had hoped to eat outside, but the wait was one hour......not happening.....:-)

Around 3 pm we began our drive back to SLT, but we still had one item on 'Our Lake Tahoe' checklist, Emerald Bay, to check off.....I was determined to find a parking spot this time, and I succeeded.........

.......we spent a few minutes taking in the breathtaking view of this iconic vista, and I managed to get a pretty good panoramic shot from a new angle for me.

Traffic on our return trip to SLT was surprisingly light until about 3 miles before Camp Richardson when it suddenly came to a grinding halt......for the next one hour and ten minutes we only managed to gain about 2.5 miles, and we still had that distance to get home.......about the time I was ready to park the car and walk home we came abreast of the Fallen Leaf Lake turnoff.......I made an immediate executive decision to turn right and take this longer alternative route.  We figured if we continued on the snail's pace were going it would take another hour to go the final 2.5 miles home, but if we turned and took the longer roundabout route we could be home in less than 15 minutes, and it played out exactly that way......how often does a 'short cut' actually work?

We finally arrived home about 5:15 tired, and ready for naps, which is exactly what transpired.....around 7 pm we ventured back outside to have our final fire of Tim and Laila's visit....we sat around the fire talking until 10 pm when we called it a day.  So, in about 8 hours we managed to show Tim and Laila 'Our Lake Tahoe'.....I think they liked it!

Tim and Laila will be leaving early Monday morning to make the 500 mile drive back to Ontario, CA and their workaday lives.  We'll see them again September 9th for their bridal shower, and then on October 7th for their wedding.  It was wonderful having them here for three brief days and we begin the new week with big smiles of satisfaction on our collective faces.....thanks for stopping by!

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