Lake Tahoe - Dream Vacation Part 1

Gosh, it feels so good to be back! Thanks so much for the comment-y love, y'all (my writer's voice has apparently decided to try on a Southern accent for no reason whatsoever...just roll with it). 

I was going to take a break from the whole "come over and look at my vacation photos" thing with a whole post about new stuff I made over the holiday break, but we had freaky (for California) weather all day yesterday AND I've suddenly found myself if the most ridiculous dispute with my neighbors (really, when I tell you about it you will be amazed at how stupid it is) and I was a little afraid to go out there even if it had stopped raining.  Soooo...no photos yet. 

Instead I was forced to stay inside and get my creativity on...it was really horrible.  I suffered terribly.  Anyway, photos and more details about all of that to come in later posts.

Here's what happened when we arrived in Tahoe.

This is the view looking back down at the lake and our hotel (the gray building at the bottom of the right gondola cable) as we rode the gondola up the mountain to the ski area. 

The gondola was literally right outside our hotel window - we would have breakfast in our room in the morning and wave at people riding by in the cars.  The mountains in the background are on the California side of the lake.  Everyone knows that the California-Nevada state line runs through the lake, right?  About 2/3s of it is on the Cal side and the other 1/3 is on the Nevada side.  Our hotel was one block from the state line - all the hotels on the other side of that line have casinos.

Here's a shot I took to show the incredible water color of the lake.  The deeper sections are a beautiful blue and the shallower water closer to the coastline is a bright emerald green.  Sadly, we learned that the lighter color is being caused by an invasive species of clam - millions of white shells lying on the bottom reflect light and make the water appear lighter.

Grandma and the kid on the observation platform halfway to the ski area.

Even in the summer time, there's lots to do up at the ski area.  They had this innertube slide thingy and the kid spent HOURS doing it.  That clear plastic tube in the background has a moving catwalk in it that carries you up to the launch point and then you sit in the innertube and slide down the hill.

I nearly fell off a wall and died trying to get a shot of this guy.  He kept hanging around the pool deck and sqauwking every day so I figured he WANTED his picture taken.

He was so darned fast, though, that this was the best shot I could get - a genuine blue jay!

Our hotel had its own private beach and even though this was Labor Day weekend...look how deserted it was...well, except for the seagull.

 

 

 

This is the view from the boat dock at our beach looking over towards the Nevada side.  I rented a Waverunner from this dock and took the kid out on his first ever jetski ride.  I earned MAJOR "cool mom" points for that...especially when I really hit the gas and we caught some air.  Ryan told me that he never thought I could do something like that and I thought "SCORE!"

 

Stay tuned for more because this was only the first couple of days of our trip!

 

KJ