Sunsets Over Tahoe

Being so close to the lake, and on the northeast side of it, we were in the perfect position to catch multiple mountain sunsets this week!  We saw it from a cliff a little ways up in the tree line and from a bunch of boulders jutting out into the water.

   

Love that golden hour glow right after the sun sinks below the mountain horizon too!

 

A bit like this time-lapse video, it almost went too fast, but, we loved sharing the beauty of Tahoe with Andrew and Heather!  So much to be thankful for as we return from our sweet time in the mountains with our dear family!

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.  :)   

Day Three: Sand Harbor

I've written before about my love for Sand Harbor, one of the most stunning beaches we've ever found, surprisingly located in the state of Nevada!  We are not the only ones who feel this way.  To get a parking spot for a day at the beach, you must get to Sand Harbor by 8:00 am.  Good thing, staying in Incline Village, we were literally minutes away from it!  We snagged our spot and enjoyed an 8 hour Beach Day, hiking around the boardwalks, exploring hidden swimming holes and caves, kayaking, floating, and eating our daily ice cream in this little slice of heaven.

I'm sorry that pictures can't even capture the hundred shades of blue and turquoise that melt together in this breathtaking beach!

Some sweet church friends loaned us their inflatable kayak for the trip and it was the perfect way to explore all those pretty coves.  Everyone took a turn, the kayak staying in use almost all day.  The water here is crystal clear and full of boulders.  It was legit hard to tell if we were going to hit boulders or sail right over them.  Depth perception is hard when you can see clear to the bottom!

The only thing about the Sand Harbor water is that it is cold and not the best to swim in.  But, that is nothing new for us.  Floating on a tube gives you the perfect way to cool off without having to submerge in the icy lake water.  We even hooked our two tubes up to the kayak at one point and had Dave, the power rower, tow us out to a boulder island to lay on and soak up some sun!

We always love climbing those big boulders to find the secret swimming holes!

We ended our day at the beach with a new set of sore muscles from all the rowing, and a bit of sunburn, but also with that golden parking pass still in our possession...which we used again at night to catch the sunset from this best spot on the lake!

Tahoe with Heather and Andrew: Eagle Falls, Camp Richardson, Heavenly, & Zephyr Cove

We both live in such fun places, that for almost 20 years, just visiting one another and exploring each other's states has been wonderful.  But, for the first time, we tried something new and took a real vacation WITH Heather and Andrew and it was awesome!  We are just returning from 5 days shared in Lake Tahoe and my phone is bursting with an abundance of gorgeous scenery pictures.  Heather and Andrew flew into Reno and met us at the most perfect little condo in the woods on the north side of the lake, in Incline Village, NV.  Our home for the short week was in one of the most ritzy, lakefront neighborhoods I've ever seen, actually called "Billionaire's Row".  We loved having a place with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen to do all our own meal-making in, and plenty of space to spread out and play games each night, after coming in from adventuring all day and watching the sun set over the lake.

  We spent our first afternoon catching up and and just walking 3 miles around our jaw-dropping neighborhood.  

Our first full day together was spent exploring the south side of the lake.  We tried a new-to-us hike up to Eagle Falls in Emerald Bay.  It was short and easy, but straight uphill.  Gorgeous views of the water tumbling down the cliff into the lake was our reward!

But, of course, stunning views are not Delia's idea of a satisfying reward for hiking several miles and the equivalent of 25 stories! ;)  So, we stopped at the lake's most famous ice cream shop in Camp Richardson, where the line is always waaaay out the door.  Even in the downpouring rain and thunder!  We huddled under our outdoor table's umbrella as a lovely storm rolled in.  This was one of my favorite memories of the trip!

Next up was a stroll around the Heavenly Ski Village, where a little souvenir shopping and a picture in the famous giant chair are a must.

As we swung around the lake and made our way back up to the north side, we stopped at a new-to-us beach at Zephyr Cove!  Wowza!  This pretty beach was such a lovely surprise!  We'll have to keep it on our list of places to revisit in Tahoe!  

We ordered some pizza and put our sore leg muscles up to end a great day by laughing and playing Jackbox games.