Final Fantasy Day- Lake Tahoe

Fantasy trip. With a final view that looked like this, how could it not be. 5 weeks "unterwegs" ("traveling around" in German) in the middle of summer exploring is not a bad way to live. It makes me want Bill to retire so we could permanently be in a constant state of motion. It really is my natural state. (Although, Utah is the state I have lived in the longest.) "Not Ready For Real Life" is my alternate blog post title, and just about sums it up.


Sneaking in an extra day before heading home was a pretty cool trick. Bill had forgotten what "real" mountain biking looks like after 4 weeks in Portland, so we reminded him today. His job was to bike as long as he could handle it at 7600 feet after living at sea level for a month. My job was to get me and the boys out of his way and let him do his job. He so needed this ride. I am glad I "forced" it on him and so is he. He is so nice he kept trying postpone his ride to make sure we got a family hike in. He also didn't want to abandon me as I went way, way outside of my comfort zone. But more on that in a moment.

Bill's ride was pretty spectacular. He gained some decent elevation, but then had a long stretch of flat along the ridge line so he could enjoy the view of the lake from the top of the mountain for quite a while. He did have just one part of his trail along Marlett lake that was covered in water due to the unusual high snow pack Tahoe received this winter that is still melting.


On to the out of my comfort zone part of they day. Lisa, our wonderful house sitter, and a pretty awesome sister, was very excited when we told her we were stopping in Tahoe for a day. Her in-laws live here in a gorgeous home right on the lake with a walk-out to a beautiful lakeside beach. (They must have done something really right in a previous life.) I have met them once right after she and Steve were married for about 10 seconds. Lisa adores them and it is mutual, but I am a stranger and they are to me, so when Lisa suggested we spend some time together I cringed. And I tried to politely wiggle my way out of the uncomfortable situation, by trying to postpone it to a time Lisa and Steve would be present. But Lisa kept assuring me that it would be great, that were very excited to have us over and I should call her. Then Lisa arranged the whole thing and I felt like I shouldn't be such a wussy and just enjoy. Plus the boys got wind of it and seeing as how they worship Edwards and they heard the word "beach", and I knew I was outnumbered for sure.


Lisa was not kidding the home and most especially the location were fantastic. We never would have had access to this kind of experience without their amazing open hospitality. They just took us completely in and treated us like long lost family. (They can adopt me any day!). Offered us cookies and lemonade (such an After School Special kind of a moment). Interesting conversation was just a cherry on top of this already perfect experience. (YOU WIN, LOU!)


Bill and I, being the super-duper clever pair of parents that we are, checked in early to our new hotel, unloaded our bikes (minus Bill's, of course) and took our suitcases up to the room. We weren't planning on spending very long with the Edwards, we had a killer hike planned, so we just wore hiking clothes. That meant that when we had been there for 2-3 hours, the boys were completely soaked in jeans and t-shirts, with no swimsuits or extra clothes in the car. Super smart, huh? Though they were wet through and through, they both thought it was worth it to jump in and swim with the floats and paddles the Edwards had ready. Romney would just not listen when I told him he needed to get into deeper water before boarding his vessel. He looked like a beached mini-whale while he tries to paddle himself out from the edge of the beach. (He did finally concede and try it the other way. Silly monkey!)


If the beached monkey wasn't proof enough that we reside in a land-
locked state, William paddling himself in circles with his single paddle for a few minutes until he figured out the every other side thing was the evidence that convicted us of being guilty of absolutely no water skills. They were both having so much fun when it was time to pick up Bill from his bike ride, that they protested too loudly and Steve's mom, Kay, offered to let them play while I rescued Billy. Romney had just made friend on the beach and was busy digging his way to China in the sand and William was still spinning in circles on his tube, and she just seemed like she really wanted to let them stay, so they did.


With Bill safely loaded up we had a few minutes alone until we picked up the kiddos. When we got back to the Edwards' we had just enough time to help clean-up the gigantic mess we had helped make, and to try to dry the kids' clothes for a few minutes. Still slightly soggy, but hungry, dinner was at the most amazing pizza place (MOFO's in case you need a recommendation.) where they made the pizza and calzones from hand, and left the cheese out of my veggie calzone. I was one happy hungry girl! We had spent so long enjoying the lake, we missed the hike I had been excited about. We did find another close by, not as difficult, that we could knock out in the hour and a half of daylight we had remaining. It was an old fire lane that led down to a secluded swimming hole, complete with pinecones the size of a human head.


We caught the sun setting over Lake Tahoe and booked our way out back up to the car, bemusing about the trip with one another and just how lucky we are. We have each other first of all, we have happy healthy kids who still enjoy being with us, a job that pays the bills and allows for these kinds of experiences with it's location flexibility. It is a pretty spectacular life we have going on. And we feel very, very lucky. And rejuvenated. And 3 out of 4 of us are ready to go back to our beautiful home and our friends and family in Utah. (And just like those dentists who recommend a certain brand of tooth-paste, 3 out of 4 Barbers is not a bad statistic to go on.)