I’m in love...

Okay so the hotel was okay. It is a green hotel which means that instead of bottles of water, they have metal bottles with a note thanking you for purchasing the bottle to reduce waste. They don’t have a giant shower head in order to conserve water. The shampoo “bottles” are like little plastic shot glasses which I’m unsure if they reuse so we didn’t steal them. The exterior and interior of the building are definitely different and do not look like an ordinary hotel, they look more earthy. Overall it was a good hotel room with a comfortable bed at a good price. I wasn’t in love with it but there’s nothing wrong with it, I mean there were no warm cookies, but it was a billion times better than Sioux Falls. Brian simply refers to it as “that hippy place”. He’s a man of few words.
So I set the alarm for 5:30 thinking I would wake up and go for a run while the sun was coming up. I got back at 6:15 and it was still dark… needless to say I was still less than impressed with the Tahoe area because I had yet to even really see it. I got back to the hotel room and got into full busy day mode. We raced to get up, get ready, get packed and get out. I had read about the Red Hut Waffle shop and decided we had to give it a whirl, only problem was we had to be back and ready for the bus tour at 8:10 and Bri was nervous that we wouldn’t make it. I said we had to try so when we got there I asked the hostess if we would have a problem and she assured me we would be fine. Good thing! I got a strawberry waffle and Brian got banana with whipped cream. The only time I’ve had fruit on my waffle is that yummy strawberry sauce, this was not that. First of all this was not your ordinary waffle, it was probably half the depth of a Belgian waffle and instead of giant waffle boxes, it had tiny ones. And there was no ooey gooey strawberry sauce, there was just strawberries and a dollop of whipped butter. So I was a little taken aback, like really? This is the waffle I HAD to come get? Well yes, it was. You see, the genius behind the tiny waffle holes is that you increase the amount of places for your waffle to hold onto the butter… grab some fresh strawberry slices on that bad boy and you’re golden! Red hut is genius. So add the Red Hut to your list of places to go.

Not only did we make it out of the Red Hut on time, but we had time to spare. We had to meet the bus about a block from our hotel so we went back and parked the car there and then made some PB&Js for the road. The tour stopped somewhere for lunch but being the savvy travelers we are, we decided to bring our own. So we walked over to the bus, got on and immediately dropped the average age of the 20 passengers down to about 65. We were officially the young whippersnappers! The driver basically takes you around the lake, up through the mountains (oh you know I loved that!) and stops at a bunch of places. I was really glad we did the tour because it was a good use of our time. Had we tried to tackle Tahoe on our own we wouldn’t have seen half the places we did or learned anything! We started at the South end of the lake which is where we stayed and worked our way around (about 70 miles). There are seriously no words to describe this place. Everywhere we stopped was better than the last. Of course it helped that there was not a cloud in the sky so the sun hit the water and was just stunning! But each place we stopped, it looked so different! We also stopped at Squaw Valley which is where the 1960 Olympics were. It was really cool there and we ran into 3 giant dogs which really helped with missing Teddy & Lincoln. They were sooo cute, I mean obviously not as cute as some Levittown puppies I know but you know, it helped! We stopped at the North end of the lake in Tahoe city for lunch and most of the bus went to a restaurant. The driver gave us a heads up that behind the stores they had picnic tables so we went over there and had a beautiful view for our PB&Js.

We stopped for 2 hours so after that we walked around the town and went into some shops. Then we went down by the water. The beach was a little rocky but I thought it was necessary to put my feet in while we were here! The water was like the perfect temperature. I didn’t get in and have to jump or do an ohmygodohmygodohmygod because it was freezing, it was just perfect! When you get closer you can see how clear the water is though, it’s pretty much the opposite of Jones Beach.

So we got back to the bus and continued around the lake. We stopped at Cal Neva which is the oldest casino in Tahoe and was owned by Frank Sinatra for a few years before he had his gaming license revoked. When you go in you can definitely tell this is an oldie! The really cool thing about this place is that while Sinatra owned it, he would get these big names to play there and it was the hangout for the rat pack! So there’s all these pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett… just hanging out there! Also about a week before Marilyn Monroe died, she was staying there and called the front desk to report she overdosed on sleeping pills, they were obviously able to save her that time. The other cool part of the Cal Neva is that it’s ON the state line so you can be in CA and take a step and be in NV! Here’s us on the state line!

From here we went to Sandy Beach on the NV side of the lake. This is where I fell head over heels for Tahoe and decided that I should probably just stay. This was not a rocky beach like at Tahoe City but a small little sandy beach with the most beautiful blue/green water that again was crystal clear. Not too far from shore, there were giant rocks and everything was just really breathtaking. Again I had to put my feet in and the water was still perfect! We decided this is the best beach we’ve seen since our honeymoon. It was so amazing!

This unfortunately was our last stop and then we were dropped back off. Here’s why you have to go to Lake Tahoe. If you like to do a million things on your vacation, you can go on a bus tour, go on a boat tour, rent bicycles, go shopping, go horseback riding, go kayaking, etc. if you prefer to do nothing, they have a giant gorgeous lake. If you would like a mix of the two… here you go! So I officially have a favorite spot on our trip. Not that the other places weren’t fantastic but this was just unbelievable.

And then it was back in the car to head out to Uncle John & Aunt Paula’s! We hit a little traffic but Brian has decided that CA traffic is acceptable, so he does not hate CA. His justification is that there were 2 accidents. My argument was hello the Idaho Fair?!? I don’t think I will ever be able to change his mind, sorry Idaho! For the first time in a few days, we got to our destination at a reasonable hour! We went out to dinner and saw a beautiful sunset which I cannot share because I forgot to bring the cameras – boohoo! But trust me it was reeeeeally nice! We had some yummy Mexican food and a Strawberry Margarita the size of my face! Tonight will be an early night and then wake up to take on San Fran!