Oh, yes. Yep. Uh huh. And we probably
won't do it ever again (unless we can get Tuesday off too), but we did have a great time! The plan was Sacramento (Noelle & the Searls)-Lake Tahoe-Mountain View (Theresa & Anthony)-Home, which is a 4.5 hour-2.25 hour- 4 hour-4 hour trip. Heh.
This particular adventure begins Saturday morning when Erik got home late from work, and so didn't get to sleep before we left for Sacramento. He tried to sleep in the car--he really hasn't joined a gang, this is a makeshift eye-covering for his nap. But it looked so silly when he pushed it up to talk for a bit that I had to snap a picture! :-)
Traffic was a little annoying, but not SLOW and we made good time. It was great to see the Searls again, and to finally see where Noelle is living! We got tours of Andy's house and of Warren & Judy's house, had a fun dinner with everyone, and then went back to Andy's to play foosball and hang out til bedtime.
We left early Sunday morning and got to Tahoe in time to attend a church service a friend had recommended; then we checked into the hotel and tried to figure out where to start! A day and a half is really way too short to even
begin to wrap your brain around all Lake Tahoe has to offer. So we decided not to scramble and just to pick a few things and enjoy them fully.
First we drove up to the visitor center at Taylor Creek and took a walk down to the USFS Stream Profile Chamber, where you can see what's going on INSIDE the creek!
Then we took another trail down to the lakeshore.
We waded, watched people play with their dogs, and just basked in the sunshine and clean, fresh air!
Later in the afternoon we decided to take a hike and (presented with this choice at the trailhead) chose Cascade Falls.
It was a hike with lots of scrabbling up and down rocks, and when we met a couple who told us that the falls were dry we decided to end the hike at an upcoming overlook of Granite Lake and head back while it was still light.
Then Erik took me out for a wonderful Thai dinner near the hotel, after which we fell into bed. :-) Monday morning we got up and headed out for a mile hike down to Emerald Bay and Vikingsholm Castle.
The castle was once the summer home of a wealthy woman who said Emerald Bay reminded her of the Norwegian fjords; she had her home built accordingly, and it was neat! They combined several bits of architecture, and she furnished it with pieces she brought back from Scandinavia. There is even a sod roof on part of the house! The tour guide spent summers there as a child, which was also very cool. Erik bought a little booklet she'd written which talks about typical vacation days . . . and it sounds dreamy!
This is a glimpse back at Fannette Island as we hiked back up to the parking lot. It was another GORGEOUS day!
We headed out of the park after our hike at 11:30am, leaving plenty of time (we thought) to allow for some slower traffic and still be to our next destination for dinnertime. Traffic leaving the park was a little heavy. . . then pretty slow (we had our picnic lunch while we inched along). . .
and then it stopped. For a Very Long Time. After a while, traffic heading the in the
other direction became very busy and people passing by shouted to us to turn around because there had been an accident. So, we decided to turn around and drive up
through the park to catch Interstate 80 at the top. When we got within cell range, I called Cal Trans and found that there had been an accident that reduced traffic to one directional traffic for almost 2 miles in the mountains ahead of us. I can't imagine how long it took to get the MILES of cars that were already lined up through. :-/ On our way back through the park, we got one last glimpse of Emerald Bay and it's opening into Lake Tahoe.
And THIS . . . is one of the oddities we saw while sitting in traffic. . . it appears to be a rocket. . . with bicycle handles mounted on it. . . followed by a saddle and a tractor seat! Kind of fun to try to imagine a story for it, isn't it?!
So in the end, what should have been a 4-hour trip became a grueling
9.5 hours in the car. But at long last we reached Theresa & Anthony's where they fed us steak and corn on the cob and homemade ice cream--definitely worth the trip!
It was great to see them, albeit shorter than we'd planned.
Tuesday morning was an easy 4-hour trip to pick up the dog and go home. We unloaded the car and Erik took a nap (he had to work in the evening) and I relaxed in the bath. Whew! Although it sounds (and was) hectic on Monday, seeing everyone and breathing the cool, fresh mountain air, the smell of pine trees and sunshine, the beauty of the clear, cold water. . . it was refreshing and totally worth it. We'll just plan better the next time. ;-)
You can see that our pets were VERY shy about meeting her. . . HA! Anyhow, she stopped on Thursday night and stayed most of Friday before heading down to L.A. But then we met her in Rosamund on Saturday night at the Cat House (http://www.cathouse-fcc.org/) for their annual Twilight Tour event and she stayed with us until after church on Sunday. It was really fun to get some time together!
Cougar (too busy pacing and watching the Phone Book Escapades to do any playing) 
Boxes were Big Fun
One pair of leopards got MELON!!!
Fuzzy baby bobcat with a broken paw
Some years they apparently give cats bowling balls; they don't seem quite as cute and cuddly after seeing this.
There was a tiny baby River Cat in the visitor center! 
It wrestled like crazy with it's stuffed bear--too funny! This is a fuzzy picture of what it will look like when it's grown.
I finally gave up on more pictures; the light went from bad to worse. But we saw all sorts of cats. They didn't end up taking any out as they apparently have in the past; there were just too many people. Good for their fundraising though, I guess.
One last pic of our tired peanuts. . .
(that's about how I'm feeling, so I'm going to end here!)
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