Day Four: Monkey Rock, Truckee River, Squaw Valley, Penny Bear and eHips

Day four in Tahoe had us playing a little North Lake Tahoe BINGO.  We found a card online and thought we'd spend a day trying to cross some of the random sights off it.  We started in the morning with another little hike up to Monkey Rock.  Just 2.5 miles, but once again, straight up.  The view from the top had us feeling like we were on top of the world!  And the rock that looks just like a monkey (more like an ape) was pretty cool too.

See it?

After lunch at our condo, we set out to find a few more North Lake Tahoe sights.  We also decided to give our legs a break from hiking uphill and spent the afternoon on rented bikes that we took along the scenic, rapid-filled Truckee River Bike Trail.  We were quickly reminded that biking uphill is WAY harder than just walking.  We may have regretted not springing for the eBikes!  But, it sure was pretty!

                       

A quick stop at Squaw Valley to cross some Olympic stuff off our BINGO card.

And then a stroll around Tahoe City for our daily ice cream (the best one of the trip at Poppy's!) and an encounter with the Penny Bear, sadly the only bear we saw on this trip, but still a pretty cool one, being made entirely of old pennies.  Another BINGO square filled!

Delia may tell you the burgers we had out on this night were the best part of the trip for her.  We headed home for our last night together staying up way too late playing Jackbox for the last time.  We made yet another muscle group ache as we laughed so hard it hurt, and made us cry, and lose our breath.  One game, Patently Stupid, gives you a problem to solve with a made up invention.  The problem we were given was "I am too old to bike uphill." So I, rather cleverly I thought, invented eHips-- robotic hips designed by Ella and installed by Dr. Andrew.  I was tortured the rest of the night for it.

We laughed hard about king bed confusion and Heather the Vegan and meeting Santa in a dark alley with a gun and Delia the Bouncer and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" being Heather's perfect funeral song and the cup o ranch we're never gonna give up!  Like the blues of Sand Harbor's shores, I'm  just never gonna capture it.  :)