We left San Francisco and drove over the Bay Bridge. Today was going to be the first time that our compass showed an “E” for east. We are starting our drive home but it won’t be a direct route. We arrived 4 hours later in Lake Tahoe and were greeted by the beauty of the lake surrounded by mountains. Kind of a rich man’s Lake George, dad said. Unfortunately, the lake was very cold so Erin and I choose to go swimming in the pool. We decided to get together with our New York friends, the Hardies, who vacation here every summer. After swimming with them we went for a wonderful dinner at the Lone Eagle Grill. It was amazing food. It was a late dinner so all of the kids lay on the beach star gazing while the parents finished their dinner. It was very relaxing.
The next morning we got to sleep in, relax, and be slow. It felt great! It was the first time on the road trip we could do that. Then we had to get moving. We wanted to enjoy the beauty of Tahoe so we made plans to raft down the Truckee River with the Hardie family. They have 3 daughters (Hannah, Rosie and Emma), so we knew it would be fun. We had two rafts. We brought a cooler full of food and drinks for the four to five hour raft ride. It started out as a lazy river ride. Many times we stopped our rafts to jump in and swim or float in the water. The river let us stop and get out for lunch or for snacks. We got stuck on many rocks. There were a lot of laughs! They warned us that everyone and everything would get wet. And they weren’t kidding. There were hundreds of other rafts from families, to honeymooners to several large groups of spring breaker types. A large group of twenty year olds girls were dressed up as Indians while guy Pirates “attacked” their boat and coolers. Nobody was in a hurry as we were all on “Truckee time”. Dad said this had a Mardi gras feel. Whatever that means?! By the end of the river the rapids got big and the rocks were huge. Dad got flipped out of the raft. I got kind of got scared for him so I just screamed. He got back in with just a few scratches and we got to the end. It was long but fabulous. We only had one casualty – Mom did not remember that her I-phone was in the bag. Unfortunately it took a bath and no longer works. Anyone trying to call/text her…she’s not reachable until we get to Minneapolis (Mall of America – hooray).
The Hardies invited us back to their home for a family BBQ. It was fun to sit outside under some huge pine trees that overlooks the beautiful lake. All of the kids enjoyed playing hide and seek and alibi. Hannah and Torey purposely left peanut shells on the porch railing and in no time Blue Jay type birds swooped in to enjoy dinner too. It was a very fun summer night. The Hardies were terrific hosts and showed us a good time for sure!
Thanks for traveling with us,
Lea
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