Our flight out of Sacramento was not until 9:30pm, so we still had most of a day left for vacationing. We started by cleaning out our refrigerator and cabinets — it was nice that we could foist our leftovers on Zoe rather than throwing things away. We remembered to return our parking passes, which all of us had been paranoid about all week since they charge you $250 each if you accidentally take them away with you. Then we said goodbye to Lakeland Village #514 and headed to Zoe’s house for the foisting.

We’d decided to go visit Truckee, CA on our final day, about an hour and a quarter away. It’s not really on the way to Sacramento, but the Truckee to Sacramento route is all on a highway — good news since we were not looking forward to traveling back the way we’d come, especially in daylight. (When we’d driven along the steep, winding mountain roads in the middle of night on our way to Lake Tahoe, we couldn’t see much. But sometimes we’d see a great darkness next to us, with a lot of twinkling lights far, far below. Later, Zoe pointed out to us the road we’d come in on — high up along a seemingly vertical mountain face, with a sheer drop and — of course — no guardrails.) The bad news was that we had to drive up the west side of the lake, past Emerald Bay again. This was the third time we had to do that white-knuckle drive, but fortunately once we passed the bay the drive was pleasant. (Zoe drove separately since she would be returning to Lake Tahoe, and she didn’t mind the drive at all.)

Truckee is a pretty cool little town, up in the mountains with a very Wild West vibe. It’s the site of the Donner Pass, and (a bit surprisingly) they really lean into this association. The main road is “Donner Pass Way” and there’s lots of Donner Pass-themed locations in town. A railroad runs right through the center of the main street in the historic downtown, and has frequent trains — we saw three in the time we were there — which adds to the Western feel. There are lots of cute shops and restaurants, and a nearby river where people were floating and swimming.

Unfortunately, Truckee had something else we’ve become unaccustomed to — heat. Lake Tahoe has had highs in the seventies every day, and Truckee was reading 88 degrees when we arrived, despite being at a similar elevation (a little over 6000 feet). I went into the visitor center to ask about a short walk or hike that they’d recommend, and the woman there suggested the Truckee River Legacy trail and gave me a map that implied it was pretty close by. It turned out that this was rather misleading, and we had a long, hot, and not particularly scenic walk to get there. By the time we reached the river, half the group was already ready to turn back. But we persevered for a bit and did have a mildly pleasant stroll along a riverside bike path, but the heat sapped much of our energy and enjoyment.

We headed back into town for lunch and were stymied at trying to find a place with air conditioning. I don’t think it’s usually all that hot in Truckee, so most places had outdoor seating and open windows. We eventually settled for an outdoor table under an umbrella, and it was really pretty comfortable once we’d recovered from the sunny walk. We had some free time to explore the nearby shops, and spent most of it in a really cool bookstore where the girls all made purchases for the trip.

Our last activity in Truckee was yet another escape room, at Elevation Escape on the outskirts of town. It was a very cool room, themed as a haunted motel, with a very talented gamemaster. We did end up getting a few clues this time, but mostly when things in the room weren’t functioning quite right. We managed to escape in about 45 minutes again. With a bit more time to kill, we did some shopping at the next-door thrift store, a sort of Goodwill but where all proceeds benefitted the Humane Society and there were little pictures everywhere of adorable dogs admonishing you not to shoplift.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Zoe and head west to Sacramento. We drove over the Donner Pass (elevation 7200 feet) and then began to drop. As the altitude diminished, the temperature rose. By the time we neared Sacramento, about an hour and a half later, the temperature was 108 (at 6 pm!) Unfortunately we had received a notification that our flight was delayed, so we were reluctant to head to the airport several hours early. We decided to check out the Historic Waterfront neighborhood and go in search of ice cream.

Historic Sacramento was a charming Wild West themed neighborhood with cobblestone streets, shops, bars, and restaurants. What it didn’t have a lot of was parking. Having passed up the $20 parking garage, we did a few loops through the streets before getting lucky and swooping in to a newly-vacated spot. Fortunately Sacramento had far more numerous ice cream options than South Lake Tahoe (perhaps having something to do with temperatures of 108), so that cut down on whatever complaints we might have gotten of walking around in the heat. We found some delicious ice cream and carried it to the riverfront, across another set of historic-looking train tracks. (The Colorado Railroad Museum is nearby.) Unable to figure out anything else that we wanted to do in the heat, we then headed to the airport.

The Sacramento airport is small and easy to navigate, with almost no security line — and our flight time kept getting pushed later and later — so we were in no rush when we arrived. It was lucky we came when we did, though, because we got through security at 7:30 and discovered the airport lounge closed at 8. Fortunately this gave us time for dinner and a drink before going out to sit at the gate for approximately four hours. By the time our flight left after midnight, we were pretty tired, but luckily we somehow got upgraded to fourth row more-legroom seats despite refusing to pay for seat reservation in advance (in contrast to the flight out, when we were in the very back row). We got cookies that Nadia told us the rest of the plane didn’t get, and it was a smooth and easy flight that we actually managed to get a little sleep on, though we were still pretty tired when we arrived in Boston 5 1/2 hours later. All in all, not a bad travel day.

On our last full day here, Bob and I decided to go for another run. Our plan is that we’ll get adjusted to running at this altitude, and then when we get back to sea level and full oxygen we’ll be super-athletes. I’m not sure if the less than two miles we managed today will do the trick, but time will tell.

To be fair, we did some hiking as well. Some very STEEP hiking as a matter of fact. We ran the 1.4 miles down to the Stateline district to check out Van Sickle Bi-State Park. (Bi-state! Get it?) As you may recall, Stateline is a very bustling district full of shopping centers and bars and casinos — not a place you’d expect to find a park. But right there behind the Target parking lot, the development abruptly stops and ahead of you is just steeply sloping ground covered with pines and rocks. (On the main trail in, the Heavenly gondola travels above you, heading for the top of the mountain. You can ride the gondola up in the summer for fantastic views, but it costs $80!)

We walked a couple mile loop trail, which took us quite a bit up the hill to a panoramic view of the lake (with the casinos rising in front in one section, in sharp contrast to the untouched shoreline on most of the rest). Even the portions of the trail with no view were very pleasant, with tall pines, wildflowers, and the crisp mountain air that we appreciate so much. (We didn’t come anywhere close to the top. Shortly after the turnoff for our loop trail, the mountainside seemed to become essentially vertical. If you continue in that direction, you can get to the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 165-mile trail that circumnavigates the lake, from up in the mountains that surround it. We did not go that way.)

On the way back we managed to run for part of the way, but eventually accepted defeat and slowed to a stroll. We were able to walk the last section back along the water, through the beach of the next-door marina and onto our own resort. Nadia and Lanie were still in their pajamas, watching Harry Potter. (All eight movies are available on the TV here, and they have made it their goal to get through them all. Last night, they had gotten up through the seventh one. Bob and I had gotten a little hooked and ended up watching the last one while they were at the Hozier concert.)

By the time we’d showered and eaten, it was almost time for Zoe to get off work. We decided to have a relaxing day today, meaning we didn’t want to get in the car. The only wish list item that we hadn’t done yet was paddle-boarding, and we conveniently found that we could rent the boards at the next-door marina. Zoe, Lanie, and I took them out for an hour from the beach next door. The lake here is pretty choppy, so it was a bit of a challenge, but we were proud that all of us managed to avoid falling off. (This was more than could be said for many of the other tourists renting paddle boards.) The water is so clear here that it’s hard to estimate depth — even a long way out, the sandy bottom looked close enough to touch.

After our paddle we went back to our own beach for a swim — we’ve found that counterintuitively, the water here, on the open lake, is considerably warmer than the water at Sand Harbor or Emerald Bay. We figure it must be because the lake is shallow for a long way out here, and maybe the snowmelt streams coming down from the mountains empty into those other areas. But it’s still a bit chilly, so afterwards we spent a little time in the lakeside hot tub. We haven’t taken too much advantage of our resort amentities so far this week, so we’re trying to cram a bit of that in. Bob meanwhile walked down to the used bookstore we’d seen the other day, to stock up on reading material for our flight home.

By the time we got back to the condo, it was time for apertivos — we still had a bottle of wine and a fair amount of snacks from Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. In an effort to use up some of the groceries we’d bought, we decided to make nachos for dinner — and in compensation for not spending any money at restaurants all day, we acceded to Nadia’s ongoing campaign to return to the Trapped in Tahoe escape room (which is also conveniently in walking distance). We found The Estate to be slightly more challenging than Sector 9, but we still managed to emerge victorious without using any hints.

On our walk back home, we began to hear distant rumblings of bass. As we got closer to our condo, we realized we could hear the second night of the Hozier concert. We walked out on the pier at our resort and could pretty clearly hear the music playing and the roar of the crowd, as the sound traveled across the lake from Stateline. Listening to a few songs while watching the stars was the perfect way to end the day.

We have focused a lot on the natural beauty of this region, and we’ll talk about it more today, but there really is a seemingly endless array of things to do around here, and they aren’t even all nature based. For instance, we haven’t talked a lot about the casino scene just across the border in Nevada because that really wasn’t our scene — until we were driving home from Sand Harbor yesterday, and at the place where we go between all the high-rise buildings, the girls saw a sign for a visiting musical act — Hosier. And the concerts were this week at an outdoor venue associated with one of the casinos right up the road from our condo!

Well, it didn’t take long to ascertain that affordable tickets were available. Zoe’s housemates were brought on board, and, poof, pretty high-profile plans are in place for this evening. No matter how nice things were in nature today, we had to get back in time to see Hosier. (Jen and I are moderate Hosier fans, ourselves, but we decided to let the kids have their fun, and we planned to hang around our resort this evening.)

As for the first part of the day, we headed out early (no bagels this morning) to Emerald Bay, and this time we got there early enough to find a suitable parking space in one of the small lots that were jam-packed a few days ago. This was a major accomplishment, and we rejoiced. Our feelings got boosted even more on the one-mile walk from the lot to the beach along the bay. Very enticing views of the harbor — again, this is the place with the island in the middle, a picture of which is hanging in our condo’s great room. Now we’re seeing it even closer.

We arrived at the beach so early that the kayak rental place wasn’t even open yet. It was a bit of a disappoinment because we were hoping it would be a kayak and paddleboard rental place, but they seem to have axed their paddleboard offering. Today would not be the day we try paddleboarding.

Instead we hiked for a bit along the Rubicon Trail, which goes about five miles to a point on the main lake. We just made it past the entrance of the bay, about three miles, and then headed back.

By then, the rental place was open and we decided on two tandem kayaks to carry us out to the island. Really, only four of us kayaked out (I stayed in the shade and watched). The kayak tour produced a full hour of exploring, though. It started in the wake of a large paddleboat, the Tahoe Queen, whose lap through Emerald Bay coincided with our kayak departures. This was one of many large water craft, large and small, looping through the bay.

On the island, Jen and the girls scrambled up to an abandoned tea house, the only structure on the island. It dates back to the early 1900s when a rich lady bought land on the bay, including the island, and built a Nordic castle to go along with her tea house. She must have been an awfully rich lady. The castle still stands just off the beach, but it is undergoing some renovations, and it was not clear if tours were actually being given.

After the island, they paddled over to the far side of the bay to scope out a bald eagle’s nest, an osprey’s nest, and a sunken forest created by a landslide. The woman who outfitted our group with the kayaks recommended these side trips, but neglected to mention what year the landslide was.

After kayaking, we had our pre-packed lunch and took a short hike to a nearby waterfall, but, really, our outdoor energies were starting to wane. We drove home (remember this is the drive that forced us to crawl along the ridge of a hill and execute mutliple switchbacks with minimal guardrails) successfully and dedicated the late afternoon to cooking an in-house Mexican feast and picking out which clothes to wear to the concert.

Zoe had the day off today, so we planned a more ambitious excursion. We’re trying to find some fun activities she hasn’t tried yet, since her time here is nearing an end. Today’s plan was biking, and Zoe knew of the perfect spot.

The day didn’t start quite as early as expected, since Zoe wanted to treat us to bagels at one of her favorite spots, the Tahoe Bagel Company. Unfortunately it is the favorite spot of many, many other people as well, so it took us a lot longer than we expected — but the bagels were delicious.

Next we headed back up the east side of the lake to Incline Village, up the street from Sand Harbor State Park where we saw the play on our first night. It was so beautiful there that we’d resolved to return during the day when we would have more time to look around — but accessing the park is an issue due to limited parking and its extreme popularity. Renting bikes in Incline Village, and following the lakeside bike path back to the park, was the perfect solution.

The path itself was breathtaking. It started by climbing up a steep hill (which was challenging to our low-altitude lungs — we’d expected flat). But from the top we could see the lake stretching out before us, sparkling in vivid shades of blue and aqua, with dark green pines rising sharply from the edges and an impossibly blue sky above. Development around the lake is pretty limited, so it’s mostly just water and trees and sky everywhere you look. We all agreed that this is one of the more beautiful places we’ve ever been — and that’s saying something.

The path had frequent turnoffs to beaches and rocky promontories, inaccessible by cars — so we mostly had them all to ourselves. We made a few stops to climb around on rocks and take endless photos of the scenery on our way to the park. We eventually arrived, and when we saw the extremely long line of cars waiting to turn into the park, we were very happy to be speeding along on our bikes.

Sand Harbor definitely lived up to expectations. It’s a rocky peninsula jutting out into the lake, so there’s coastline everywhere you look. There’s plenty of beach here too — the ground around the lake is very sandy so there are natural beaches everywhere. We strolled around enjoying the scenery and took a quick dip in the lake — it’s a bit chilly, but you get used to it. The water is incredibly clear. We read that early explorers measured the clarity of the lake by lowering a white plate into the water — they made it 100 feet down and could still see the plate! It started to get slightly murkier starting in the seventies, but since then efforts have been underway to reverse the damage.

At 1pm Zoe had to take a quick break to do an job interview over the phone — she’s looking for her next position, since she’ll be done here at the end of August. It was possibly the most scenic job interview ever, sitting on some rocks overlooking the lake. Nadia took the opportunity to get a drink at the snack bar, and the rest of us headed to a quiet cove just outside the park. Since the park was pretty crowded, we’d decided to go for a quieter swim. Lanie and I were the only ones to actually get into the water, and it was lovely. And we made it back to our bike rental place within the allotted time frame, despite Nadia’s doubts and having to surmount a large hill.

In the evening we walked to a locally famous wine bar up the street. Apparently it’s won awards for best place to bring out of town visitors and best place to watch a sunset, since it has a deck that hangs out over the lake. We weren’t able to get outside seating, but the kind staff led us to a fancy couch where we could still see out the window. In addition to a large wine selection, they had a nice fondue snack for us. We enjoyed a relaxing drink (mocktail for Lanie) and snack while watching the sun set over the lake. It was a great way to cap off the day.

Yesterday’s bear proved that we don’t have to go far for interesting things here, so we just stuck around the resort all day.

No, of course we didn’t do that. Jen scrolled through the Internet last night (the resort does have excellent wifi, maybe we should have stuck around here), and told us about good hikes to do in the area. We settled on one that was not too far away and not too long in duration, and which promised a nice waterfall as it destination point.

We didn’t really get ourselves going particularly early, so when we got to the Emerald Bay area where our hike was, we found it crawling with fellow Tahoe worshippers. They were parking up one side of the highway and down the other. The three or four (smallish) parking lots provided were packed with cars already parked and other cars that had tried to pull themselves out of the way but still be in position to pounce when a spot became available.

Perhaps I should step back. Emerald Bay is a particularly scenic section of the lake. The name should give some description of what it looks like; I’ll add that right in the middle of the bay is a rocky island — the only island in the whole lake. Pictures of Emerald bay are everywhere, even above the fake fireplace of our condo unit.

We were offered excellent views of it as we drove in from the south. This is thanks in part, seemingly, to the state of California’s decision to fund many of its progressive initiatives by saving money on guardrails. I mentioned steep cliffs earlier. We had to traverse a few miles of switchbacks and cliff edges that offered, oh, a few dozen yards of railing on the edges of the road. The two-lane (barely) track had very, very little shoulder for most if its duration and extreme drop offs — sometimes on both sides of the road at the same time. If you want lovely views of Lake Tahoe and the adjacent Cascade Lake — and if you could bring yourself to look — the views were there.

Given the general confused state of parking in Emerald Bay — signs said you weren’t supposed to park in the gully alongside the road, but plenty of people were doing just that — we were faced with the dim prospect of tracing our precarious path back over the ridgeline and down the other side back to South Lake Tahoe empty handed. One last turn-off offered hope. It was a picnic area section of the National Forest, and it turned out to be just what we wanted. We happily paid $12 to park in a shaded, easy-to-navigate lot (I’d pay $12 not to have to parallel part in a gully alongside a busy highway any day), and we found the trailhead to the Cascade Trail only a few feet from our space.

Of course, the bulletin board at the head of the trail did mention that the squirrels in the surrounding forest might be carrying the plague, but we were so happy not to be still finding a parking space that we hardly broke stride to consider this information. We got what we came for: a relatively short, relatively level hike to a series of small waterfalls that eventually gave way to a tall waterfall. (As far as we know, we did not get what we didn’t come for: the plague.)

The waterfalls were fun to hop across, and spanned enough distance that, even though there were a lot of people enjoying the area, it did not seem overcrowded. Plus, whenever you looked up from the stream, there were views of the mountains in one direction and the twin views of Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe in the other direction. It is starting to dawn on us that this is a top-notch hiking destination, at least on par with — and very similar to — Acadia National Park.

We would not have considered this as a vacation spot if Zoe had not drawn us here, but the views of the blue and blue green waters of the lake with the mountains immediately adjacent more than enough to justify the time and expense of getting here. Even if South Lake Tahoe bears very little physical resemblance to Bar Harbor, it is central to a lot of hiking opportunities, many within 45 minutes drive. The fact that we are overlooking a lake here and not the ocean does not seem to be much of an issue.

After finishing our hike and easing our way back around the ridge road (it’s easier on the way back because we were in the inside lane for most of the turns), we eventually met up with Zoe, who had gotten off work right about when we were getting back to our condo. She cleaned up and came over for a visit, and she brought her co-worker Pierre. We have heard a lot about all of her co-workers, and we knew Pierre was usually up for Ark Nova, a boardgame we have not played for months because Zoe brought it west with her. Laregely because we were rusty and also because he seems to be a sharp fellow, Pierre edged out Jen to be Ark Nova champion for the day. We showed no hard feelings by taking him out for pizza afterwards. The rest of Zoe’s team was invited, too, but for various reasons they could not make it.

If you can believe it, we had such a good time with Pierre that we did not take any pictures. We’ll have to see if we bump into him and Zoe’s other teammates tomorrow when we visit the farmer’s market.

Bob and I started the day on a productive note, by going for a run along the lakeside path. We didn’t run very far, or very fast, but given the altitude we still counted it as a victory. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the girls were still not out of bed when we got back. But as we reached our condo, we overheard some neighbors talking about a bear nearby. We followed where they were pointing and saw a large bear taking a nap in a tree right in the middle of a walkway! Eventually Lanie came with us to see the bear, but Nadia elected to stay far away.

One unfortunate victim of yesterday’s hike was Lanie’s phone, which ended up with a broken screen when she dropped it while taking a photo. This caused much angst and consternation, especially since most phone repair shops were closed on Sunday. Happily today we found a nearby shop that was able to do the repair, though it took a couple more hours than Lanie would have preferred. All this excitement, combined with the fact that Zoe was working this morning, meant we didn’t do much else for the morning (unless you count the Harry Potter movie marathon that the girls have undertaken). Zoe had a much more productive morning, as her team found another hawk’s nest!

But by midafternoon, when the phone had been successfully repaired and Zoe was done with work (you get off pretty early when your day starts at 4am), we were ready to finally get a start on the day. Not that we had any major adventures planned. Zoe took us to her favorite happy hour place, just a short walk from her house. (Happy hour is 2-5pm every weekday, which works out perfectly when you start work at 4am and go to bed at 8.) We almost got tricked into paying full price for our drinks, by sitting at an outdoor table rather than in the bar, but fortunately a waiter saved us in the nick of time.

Right across the street from happy hour was out next stop, a large and elaborate mini golf spot. We decided to go for the 28-hole option, so we really invested some time here. It was a really good course, with very interesting and sometimes very difficult obstacles. On a few occasions a few of us failed entirely. On the other hand, 4/5 of us got a hole in one, and the last person won the “game of chance” at the last hole and got a free game. So all in all, a successful endeavor.

Finally, we headed over to the Stateline area, which is a hive of activity that (as the name suggests) spans the CA/NV border. On the California side is a quaint upscale shopping village centered around the main ski lift for the Heavenly ski resort. On the Nevada side is a row of high-rise casinos. It’s quite a contrast.

Also on the California side is the Fire + Ice restaurant, which some of you may recognize based on its Boston location. It’s always been a favorite of the girls, and was one of the top items on their wish list. (It’s an all you can eat experience where you make bowls full of various ingredients and sauces then bring them to be cooked on a huge round circular grill manned by a couple of chefs. There are a huge array of starches, meats, veggies, and sauces to mix and match, and you can get as many bowls as you want. Most of us went for an Asian bowl, an Italian bowl, and a Mexican bowl. Zoe won the award for getting the most for our money by going for a fourth plate.)

I have spent a non-negligible amount of time in this forum — and possibly a few others –bellyaching about having to drive a rental car through Italy and a heavily laden van through much of the rest of the civilized world.  Someone listened.  It was Jen.

For this trip, she informed me, she would be the one signing for the car.  She’d be the one taking the wheel when we left San Francisco and headed for the Coastal Redwood wilds of central coastal California.  And so it was; and I ate my crow pie.  Because when one whines enough about driving rental cars, one puts one’s self in the position of being in the passenger seat in the southbound lane of the Pacific Coast Highway only a hair’s breadth from being thrown into free-fall, and then into the Pacific.

This is what happens when one fails to keep one’s mouth shut.

I was, therefore, prepared to take my medicine and suffer through the vertiginous twists of the PCH.  It was me, after all, who did the driving during our last trip to these parts.  The fact that we were going northward last time and were thus in the inside lane, a full car’s length – plus the shoulder – from the precipice, does not need to be mentioned here because I am too noble to do so.

Anyway, since spouses are able to share driving duties under Hertz policy, and since Jen didn’t seem to care either way, I wound up driving the last leg south from Tacos Moreno in Santa Cruz, through Monterey and into white knuckle territory.  I could do this with a good conscience because it was full dark by the time we reached Carmel.  Nobody could see the dizzying heights we encountered not far south from there.  It was just a twisty road, like many we have at home in New Hampshire.  The major diifficulty was that I still knew what was out there and I wanted to go slow, and most people in California have a lower regard for their own lives and/or a higher regard for their own driving abilities.  So whenever I saw lights in my rearview, I sought shelter in one of the many pull-off spots provided for just such a purpose.  We eventually made it where we needed to go.

And when we got there, aside from the pleasant experience of seeing huge mountains spring up around us that we had been totally unaware of the night before, I also felt it was my duty to return to the passenger seat for our sorties off the Big Sur Lodge grounds.  I had blogged myself into this, I could suffer though the shotgun seat from hell for a few days.

Outside lane + puffy fog = comfort

How was I to remember that the much of the road between Julia Pfeiffer State Park and the Big Sur lighthouse is inland and relatively close to sea level?  Was it my fault that on the day we travelled farther south it was extremely foggy, and thus the cliff faces seemed to blend into cottony clouds that I could imagine cushioning our fall should we jump the guardrails?  It was hardly medicine at all.  I mean, there were even guardrails this time.  I don’t think there were any last time.  It was terrifying in 1999.  We all must’ve thought the Y2K thing was going to do us in anyway back then and not worried about our mortality.  Jen is remarkably unscathed by the experience.

Someone’s probably holding the wheel.

It was not until our last day in Big Sur – our last day in California – that we got to experience the PCH in all its breathtaking glory.  Travelling north, with me at the wheel, we had wonderfully clear vistas of the coastline to our left  —  often to our left and very far down —  and the brown and olive mountains to our right.  Once more in the safety of the inside lane, we could enjoy the ride in a manner that would in no way suggest that there is anything I’d rather do than drive my family around in a rental car or any other form of vehicle.

Operator and navigator, and vice-versa.

Until we reached Monterrey and I had to find a place to park the damn thing and why are the signs so vague, and they should give you a gps with rental cars, and what’s with there not being any key anyway, and that guy in the white Hyundai with New Mexico plates, I finally figured out what I should have shouted at you as passed me back in no man’s land: you’re a horrible driver who tailgates and then waves his arms when someone goes onto a  pull-off to let you pass and that makes you a real jerk in my book, pal. Go back to New Mexico and wave your arms around there.

In Central America, we take the bus.