Lake Tahoe

With two full days to enjoy at Lake Tahoe, and Ange and Scott at work, Martin and I each got to choose a day’s worth of activities. It only seemed fair.

We started my day off with breakfast at the Squeeze Inn followed by the hike down to Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay. Unfortunately I had only been there before via boat and, without access to the island, I found the bay less than I had remembered. Not to be completely disappointed, the walk down to the lake and back up the valley was refreshing and a great way to wake up. After completing the “exercise” portion of the day, we drove to Chambers Beach for the famous Chambers Punch and to lie in the sun and swim. With the sky cloudless and water warmer than I remember, the afternoon was perfect… both before and after getting kick off the private beach…in my defense, there is a public beach, we just got confused as to where it was in relationship to the bar. We left the beach, laughing like delinquent high schoolers and headed back to the house. Lying on the deck, we welcomed Scott and Ange home from work with beers and set off for dinner at Cottonwood Restaurant to enjoy the warm summer evening and sites over looking Truckee.

For Martin’s day, we began with breakfast burritos at the house and an attempt at floating down the Truckee River. Unfortunately the companies that float the river had closed the previous day for the season, so Martin opted for a hike along the Tahoe Ridge Trail instead, which also happens to be part of the Pacific Crest Trail (a big sarcastic thank you to Scott for suggesting the hike… we could have spent another beautiful day on the beach). But in all seriousness, I was sort of looking forward to some more serious exercise…and I actually got excited once we reached the top of the ridge and got a complete view of Lake Tahoe below. However, sensing that the views wouldn’t get any better and the hike could potentially go on for at least another hour, I may or may not have accidentally on purpose slipped and fell to end the hike early. Thankfully Martin was not the slightest bit disappointed; he was also ready to spend the rest of the day relaxing on the beach.

That evening, Martin and I packed up a gourmet picnic spread (including veggies and dip, cheese, salami, crackers, brie, grapes, a baguette and, of course, wine and beer)…the four of us were heading to the Wednesday night Concert in the Park that Truckee puts on every week in the summer. The band was great, playing all of the classic songs we grew up with…“we“, meaning Ange, Scott and myself; poor Martin didn’t recognize a single song, but I suppose I would have been more surprised if he had. And in reality you don’t really need to know the song in order to enjoy it, or dare I say, dance to it. Truly, a perfect evening and a great way to end our visit in Tahoe.

We said good bye to Ange and Scott and made our way back to Lafayette for one night with the parents.