August 30th: Lake Tahoe > Gardnerville > Lake Tahoe

After the late night arrival at Lake Tahoe (or what felt like late night, it was really only 10 by the time we fell asleep, jet lag and all that) it was up early on Saturday for a ride around Lake Tahoe itself. Before that of course was breakfast.

On this trip I decided to stick with local establishments (or things that are West-coast specific). Heidi's fit the bill to the letter.

Tastes just as good as it looks. May not have agreed with our stomachs though...

It was off to circumnavigate the lake itself. There isn't much to say about Lake Tahoe that the pictures don't demonstrate better:

Overlooking Emerald Bay, from the west side of the lake.

Emerald Bay, with Vikingsholm Mansion way down there at the bottom. 

From the east side of the lake, looking north. 

Anna had a wedding to attend that afternoon, so after dropping her off at the venue, I headed down Kingsbury Grade to my friend John's house for the afternoon. Unlike the approach from the West, which is a gradual climb to Lake Tahoe, the drop from Daggett Summit down to Gardnerville is quite dramatic.

From the summit looking down towards Gardnerville and Minden.

I've known John for 30 years (give or take) but once he moved to the other side of the country it became harder to visit. I've made it a point to try to get out to see him and his family at least once a year. A lot easier for me to travel West (and a great excuse to go) than for them to get my way. 

A side note here: People that know me, know that I always name my cars. The Dodge Caravan pictured above: Dexy. Why Dexy?

I was walking around the back of the car on the first day I had it, pondering a name, and I saw "DXY" in the plate, and decided then and there: Dexy!

Back to our story.

One of the things that John and I have enjoyed over our decades long friendship: Roleplaying Games. John's son Matthew wanted to play with me in a game. It was a lot of fun playing with the next generation!

After the game, dinner and frozen yogurt, we headed to a park where the kids did some climbing in a park. The "old" folks stood back and watched.

After hanging out with the John and Amy and the kids, it was back up the mountain. The sunset is always beautiful over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Dexy had a fancy neighbor in the parking lot of the hotel. I bet the owner of this new Corvette was a little nervous about the mini-van parked next to it...

It was another fairly early night, as tomorrow was an early day to head up to Lassen Volcanic Park.