Lake Tahoe

Well, it's been a minute since I have been on here. The last two Sundays we have been spent traveling and while the two days of traveling were not the greatest, the week in between was one to be remembered. We spent the week at Lake Tahoe having a complete blast.

Monday, was our first real day at the lake. We got up early, as we would every day it turns out, had breakfast and headed down to the beach closest to our Airbnb. We were staying in Carnelian Bay, which is on the Northwest corner of the lake. It has a truly beautiful pebble beach and made a great homebase beach. Our plan was to paddleboard and play until we got to hungry, go home for lunch and then go to another beach after. In reality, we left in time for a late lunch, but after lunch, the beach we intended to go to was full and instead we ended up going back to our place to swim in the pool and chill in the hot tub (and apparently play on the attached playground).

Tuesday, we rented a boat and spent the day at the lake again. We decided to rent a boat with a captain so we could just enjoy our time. Merrick tried water skiing for the first time and we all went tubing. We also took the boat all the way to the south side of the lake and saw Emerald Bay, which is home to the only island in Lake Tahoe. I'm glad we took the time to go all the way to the south shore because I don't think it would have happened otherwise. Also, having a captain was great because he had tons of lake knowledge to share with us and gave us some ideas of things to do over the rest of the week. Again, we ended the day at the pool and hot tub.

Wednesday, was Jeremy's and my 21st anniversary. We spent the day at Palisades Tahoe, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics. The adventure started with an areal tram ride from Base Camp up to High Camp. Elsie was terrified of the tram ride, but we convinced her and she was very brave. At high camp we ate lunch overlooking the entire Tahoe area. We then spent time at the Olympic museum and went roller skating at the rink where they held all the ice events for the Olympics. The rink looks down over the valley and it was crazy thinking that we were skating were Olympians had previously completed. We ended our time at High Camp with a hike before taking the tram back to Base Camp. Once back down on earth we got a snack and played some mini golf.

We were wiped at that point, but Jeremy and I wanted to got out for at least a quick dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We weren't up for anything fancy so we left our nice clothes in the closet and just went to the Bistro around the corner. After dinner, we promised that the kids could stay up late and we would go down to the lake, watch the sunset and go star gazing. We got to the Lake about twilight and enjoyed putting our feet in the water and skipping rocks. The girls and I had never been able to skip rocks before, but turns out the boys are good teachers and all three of us girls skipped our first rocks that night. Unfortunately, we had to shift our star gazing plans when bats came out around the lake. Instead we went back home and did our star gazing right outside.

Thursday, the girls and I headed out early to a farmer's market. We then planned to go to Sand Harbor state park, but despite getting there nice and early, we discovered that reservations are required and there were no reservations available any of the days we had left in Tahoe. Since our plan had gone sideways, we decided to continue on down the Nevada shore until we found a beach. Thanks to some help from ChatGPT, we ended up at Chimney Beach. We knew it was a "steep hike" down to the beach from the parking lot, but I don't think we were quite prepared for what that meant with as we headed down with our wagon, chairs, life jackets, paddleboards, snacks, etc. We did make it down and were rewarded with an awesome beach. There were big granite boulders to swim out to and around and a spot for cliff jumping. We stayed until the afternoon and only left when we did because we were running out of water and knew we had the steep mile long hike out with all our gear. Once we finally made it out, we rewarded ourselves with 7-11 (truth be told we did that a lot during the week) and wrapped up the day with the pool and hot tub as usual.

Friday, we were looking for something a little different so we drove a half hour to Donner Lake. We were hoping it would be significantly warmer and be better for a swimming day. While it was warmer, not enough to make much of a difference. It was fun to see some different scenery and compare just how different Donner Lake is to Lake Tahoe even though it's just a half hour away. After a morning at the lake, we went into town (Truckee) to have lunch and do some shopping. Unfortunately, we heard while we were shopping that Merrick's girlfriend, Katie's mom had passed away. I know Merrick felt conflicted. We were having a wonderful time, but I know he also wanted to be home to support her.

Once we got back to Tahoe, we went down to the beach to put our toes in because we couldn't let a day go by without getting in that beautiful water. You will be shocked to know that we then ended the day at the pool and hot tub.

Saturday was our last day. We ventured south hoping to go to DL Bliss state park. Unfortunately, the lower parking lot was full and we would have had to do a 2 mile steep hike down. We had learned our lesson from Chimney Beach and instead headed a little further north to Meek's Bay. Once again we were struck by the turquoise water. Meek's Bay in particular is known for it turquoise waters that turn emerald blue as the lake floor drops off suddenly. In general, the beauty of the lake was something that I never got used to. That, and how clear that water is, is just something you have to see to believe. Once again, after the lake, we went to the pool and hot tub. That was not the end of our day this time though. Instead, after dinner, we headed out on a evening hike at eagle rock. It was a short hike, only about 15 minutes, but provided spectacular views of the entire lake. It was the perfect way to cap off the week.

Sunday we headed out early for our trek home, but the time spent at the Lake was well worth the drive. I am so grateful for the time we had and the memories we made. I love this family of mine!