Last week was our annual Girls Trip and Lake Tahoe did not disappoint! We left at the crack of down on Wednesday and headed west. We had a layover in Laguna Beach, which has the cutest airport. This was my first time in California, so Bevin took our picture to mark this momentous occasion.
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Taking pictures is always a fiasco, Tiffin hates them and Sarah struggles looking 'natural'. :) |
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| My view as we head to Reno airport. |
When we landed in Reno and went to pick up our rental car, they were out of the mid-sized car we had reserved, so they gave us a nice Bronco for the same price. Yay us!
We got in our Bronco and headed to Lake Tahoe. We were all rather hungry, so we stopped at Jimmy John's for some lunch.
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| Almost to Tahoe |
Once we got to Lake Tahoe, we got situated in our hotel and then got changed to headed to Zephyr Cove to go on a dinner cruise on M.S. Dixie II to see Lake Tahoe. The cruise started with a nice dinner and then after dinner we headed to the top deck to step outside and see the beautiful views.
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| A view of Vikingsholm Castle from the boat. |
Fannette Island is a small island located in Emerald Bay on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. On top of the island it has a stone structure on top which they call the 'Tea House'. It was built at the same time as Vikingsholm castle and the owner of the castle, Mrs. Knight, would motorboat out to the island with her guests and tea would be served there. Only the stone shell of the house remains.
Thursday morning, Sarah and I got up before 7:00 (our time) and headed to the hotel coffee shop for her to get her morning coffee. We then walked down to the street to a CVS where she picked up a few items she needed. On our walk to the CVS, Sarah stopped to take a picture with a lovely statue. :)
After we got back to our hotel, the Margaritaville Resort, we headed out to take a tour of the lake. Fun fact, the small road between our hotel and Harrah's right next door marks the state line. Margaritaville is located in California, where gambling is not legal, and Harrah's right next door is in Nevada, where of course, gambling is legal.
Our first stop was to the south part of the lake and Emerald Bay State Park. The views were absolutely stunning and breathtaking.
A week prior to our trip, Sarah had COVID. Her symptoms started the Thursday evening prior to our trip. She was concerned about traveling with her horrible cough, however she started feeling better and ultimately decided to go. Because she was still having problems with a cough and a little shortness of breath, as well as contending with the altitude, she opted not to go on the hike with Bevin, Tiffin and I to see Vikingsholm Castle up close. We left her sitting by the waterfalls where she read a book while we were gone.
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| We found some huge trees that we could all fit in. |
Vikingsholm Castle is a castle that was built in the early 1900's. The woman who bought the land wanted to make a summer home that would compliment the natural surroundings. The area reminded her of her travels to Scandinavia, so she commissioned a Swedish architect to design the home, which was completed in 1929. After going through several hands, the state of California acquired the land in 1953. The castle is considered one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the US.
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Vikingsholm Castle - we were unable to tour it
as it was under construction. |
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| The tree with a butt! |
The hike down to the castle was rather easy, however the hike back up was a different story. We took a moment to rest on a bench and enjoy the view.
After our hike we headed back into town and ate some lunch and did a little shopping. After we got back to the hotel, Bevin and I went and relaxed outside while Tiffin and Sarah rested inside. We then got showered and changed and headed to Truckee. Truckee is a town northwest of Lake Tahoe who on Thursday evenings has 'Truckee Thursdays' which is a summer street festival. They have all sorts of vendors and food trucks there. It was a pretty little town that we enjoyed!
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| An amazing dessert crepe. |
We headed to Truckee by way of the east side of the lake and then headed back to South Lake Tahoe by way of the left side of the lake, so made the full trip around the lake. When we got back to South Lake Tahoe, we did more shopping, had a good dinner and then went to Harrah's for a little gambling.
Friday morning we decided to head to Baldwin Beach. Because Lake Tahoe is an hour behind us, the time change helped us and we were at the beach by 9:00am. When packing for the trip and looking at the temperatures, I packed for temperatures ranging from 47 to mid 80's. The temperature when we arrived at the beach was 68 degrees, however we were able to sit comfortably in our bathing suits with shorts. I still can't comprehend how much difference there is between 68 there and 68 here. There is no way I would be able to be in a bathing suit here in Houston in 68 degrees. Just so crazy!
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Thursday evening, I started feeling a little off. I had a few bouts of dizziness and a slight sore throat. I tried to ignore it, however when I woke up Friday, my symptoms were worse. I had a lot of congestion and have no doubt I was running fever. As you can imagine I was extremely frustrated because I have been looking forward to this trip for months and didn't want to miss out on a thing. We all assumed I probably had COVID. As I started to figure out where I could have contracted COVID, since the days didn't match up to when I could have been exposed by Sarah, it dawned on me that 5 days prior to my symptom onset, I had been sitting in a warm room at Pine Cove with many other parents and kids at the closing ceremony. UGH!!! Fortunately, the girls didn't care and we all decided we would still do everything together and if Bevin and Tiffin ended up getting it, then oh well.
After enjoying the beach, we headed back to our hotel to change clothes and then walked to eat some lunch. We then headed to the Heavenly Ski Resort, which was very close to our hotel, so we could take the gondola to the top of the mountain and ride the mountain coaster. Tiffin, who is scared of heights, debated back and forth if she was going to go, and ultimately ended up going. You could not tell from the ground exactly how high up the gondola took you up the mountain, but I must say it was very high.
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| On the gondola up the mountain. |
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| Such beautiful views! |
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Little chipmunks were everywhere around Tahoe
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I hate that I didn't feel better because I missed out on taking pictures, like the mountain coaster and all the other fun things that were on top of the mountain. I was low on energy and apparently was not thinking clearly!
That evening, we had reservations at Hell's Kitchen which is located in Caesars Republic Hotel & Casino. We had an amazing experience there. I used to watch Hell's Kitchen but haven't watched it in awhile. Tiffin and Bevin, however, love the show and were so very excited to eat there.
We each tried different entrees, with Tiffin having lobster risotto, Bevin having braised beef short ribs, Sarah had a vegetarian entree and I had crispy skin salmon, which was very yummy.
When our entree was served, everyone but Sarah's arrived to the table. We were not the least bit concerned regarding this, however if you have watched the show, you know that Gordon Ramsey finds it unacceptable for food to not be served to all guests at the same time. The waitress told us to save room for dessert. We assumed she was just speaking to Sarah, however after we finished our entree, she asked us all for our dessert order, stating it would be on the house. Yay us! They served four different desserts, so we all ordered a different dessert so we could try them all. I ordered Coconut 3 ways, which had coconut, cake, coconut sorbet and passion fruit caramel. It had the best presentation!
Saturday morning, Bevin wanted to go back to Baldwin Beach, just to walk the beach that morning and take in the beautiful views. I didn't mention it before, but when you are down on the beach, there are views of snow capped mountains the full 360 degrees. Sarah decided to stay back and I debated if I was going to go because I did not feel well and was absolutely exhausted. Ultimately, I decided to go with Tiffin and Bevin and am so glad I did. When we arrived, we started to walk one way down the beach. We then walked back to our starting point and Bevin wanted to walk the other way. I had zero energy to walk any further, so I sat on a bench while she and Tiffin walked on. As I was sitting on the bench enjoying the views, I noticed people standing and looking in the direction of the parking lot and heard mentions of a bear. I absolutely love seeing bears in the wild, but have only ever seen them in Tennessee. So I got up and headed to the parking lot and low and behold, saw a beautiful brown bear.
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It was soooo freaking cool to see the bear. As I was taking pictures, Tiffin and Bevin came up and had also seen the bear on their walk, but they were further away from it. We were able to watch him swim in a pond and then meander around. Such an amazing experience!
We headed back to the hotel, picked up Sarah and went and did some more shopping. Because I love cookies, it was a must that I took a picture with this sign by a shop that sold cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Sunday morning, we were up and at em' by 3:15am so that we could drive to Reno and catch our 6:15am flight home. While the flight was fine, as we went to land in Dallas for our layover, the change in cabin pressure with my congestion/illness were not a good match. The pain in my ears was indescribable and when we landed I could hardly hear out of both ears, but especially my left one. Apparently the cold medicine with decongestant did not help my cause. Fortunately, the flight from Dallas to Houston, was better with me using a technique I read online to hold my ears closed as you start to descend until you land, which I did.
Despite being sick, the trip was amazing. So many belly laughs which were good for the soul! Going somewhere like Lake Tahoe truly makes one question why we live in Houston. I am already looking forward to our next girls trip!
