Yosemite Day 2

Emerald Bay is really beautiful and contains the only island in Lake Tahoe.

We slept pretty well in this old hotel, and then we laughed at breakfast. In the tiny office they had some food out on the counter. Bagels, Eggos, sketchy looking fruit, and two kinds of cereal. The boys ate it without complaining, but we were pretty hungry most of the morning!

We started out the day by driving to Emerald Bay, which is a beautiful mountain area lined with ponderosa pines and a steep drop to the shore of Lake Tahoe. We arrived pretty early at the state park, and luckily, there were a few parking spaces. We paid the fee and started down toward the shore. It is about a mile down, and at the bottom there is a small Visitor's Center, an old castle, and a waterfall to visit. We started with the waterfall. It is called Eagle Falls, and we saw the upper half from the parking area high above. The first thing we noticed was all the Stellar's Jays. They are a nuisance bird here, even though they are one of our favorites. When we got down to the lake shore, it was only a quarter mile to Lower Eagle Falls. We were tired, but we made the short uphill hike anyway. The waterfall was a massive cascade, and after the hot hike down to the shore, it was so nice to feel the spray on our faces! The waterfall was very beautiful, too. We took a few pictures and headed to the Visitor's Center, which was extremely small, to buy tickets to the castle.

This granite dome was at the trailhead to Emerald Bay.

From the dome we could see Upper Eagle Falls.

You can see that the hike down to the lake is steep and long.

There were tiny trickles along the steep, switchback path.

The boys spotted a chipmunk in the bushes.

The ponderosa's were big, and we asked the boys if they could imagine any bigger trees.
We wanted them to be amazed when we got to Big Trees.

Stellar's Jays were everywhere at Lake Tahoe.

The boys thought this tree was huge. Little did they know what was coming up in a few days!

Mom always likes the wildflowers!

There are marshes around the Visitor's Center, and the boys looked for fish and frogs.

Lower Eagle Falls was pretty awesome.

Vikingsholm Castle was built in 1929 by a rich lady who spared no expense. She built a beautiful summer home with plenty of room for guests and servants right on Emerald Bay. She'd spend June to September living in the home and entertaining guests. There is even a tea house on a small island in the middle of the bay. We enjoyed touring the castle, even though it was a bit expensive. There was a lot of intricate carving and tons of expensive heirlooms. It really did look like a small Scandinavian Castle.

The boys thought they'd struck gold. They're fools for fool's gold!

They picked out plenty of pieces before we spoiled their dreams.

We had a little snak while waiting for our tour.

This Canadian Goose wanted a snack, too.

We took a family photo by the castle.

It would be so cool to live in the castle at Emerald Bay!

The roof of the garage building is made from thatch.

The entire castle is filled with delicate woodwork.

Most of the furnishings are imported from Scandinavia.

The lade who built the castle was from Scandinavia and wanted a little bit of home.

She wouldn't let any trees in the forest to be cut. They all had to be imported.

We didn't spend any beach time at Emerald Bay, but the lake was beautiful.

We made the long, hot hike back up to the van and decided to go out to another state park with a beach and some hiking. This one, called DL Bliss, is just north of Emerald Bay, and we'd already paid for a day pass, so it was free. The problem was that there was no parking. This seems to be a pattern here in California. We decided to try a hike to a lighthouse, instead. The ranger informed us there was parking at the lighthouse, and it was only a quarter mile. Unfortunately, we thought she meant the hike was a quarter mile, but she meant the trailhead was only that far up the road! The hike turned out to be mostly uphill and much more than a quarter mile. We figure we walked closer to two miles to the lighthouse, which was a supreme disappointment. The lighthouse actually looked like an outhouse perched high on the hill! It wasn't our most pleasant hiking experience, but we made it.

We carried our beach stuff, because we thought it was a quarter mile to the beach.

The pine cones were huge!

They call that a lighthouse....

The views of the lake were beautiful, though.

We decided to continue along the trail and see if we could find the beach that appeared on our map. Luckily, it was all downhill to the shore. We had also packed the swim stuff and carried the heavy bag up the hill. After a fairly short stretch (maybe a half mile more) we arrived at a small beach. Like all the lakes we've been to this year, Tahoe is brimful, but we found a tiny spot of sand and laid out our towels. Then the boys started digging, swimming, throwing, and splashing. Dad got right in with them, and Mom was so overheated from the hike she even took a turn in the water. We stayed for three hours, and Dad finally had to hike the two miles back along the road to the van. By some miracle he found a parking space and joined the family back at the lake. The water is so crystal clear in Tahoe. You can stand in neck-deep water and clearly see your toes. It was difficult to pry the boys away from the shore! Mom was most proud of her boys when the people on the beach told us how well behaved they were, and how impressed they were that 3 boys would play together for half the day at the beach with only a pinecone and a stick.

Seth liked wave hopping.

Dax liked finding granite rocks in the clear water.

The cold water felt SO good after that hike.

We spent several hours at the beach.

The boys took turns having Dad throw them in the water.

The boys posed in the water for a picture.

We hope all the time spent together pays off someday.

Mom In the water? Oh yes, she did!

We headed back to South Tahoe and stopped at IHOP for dinner because we knew the boys would actually eat something if it was breakfast. We got back to the hotel by six, and the boys immediately begged to go to the pool. Everything was still wet, though, and Mom and Dad were out of energy for more water. Instead, we showered them up and let them watch Lilo and Stitch. We're so glad we planned a few days at Lake Tahoe. It was a really great experience.

Yosemite Day 1

This was our first time out on the Salt Flats!

A few months ago Dad saw a special hotel deal on the Internet. The problem was, the deal had to be closed by 6 pm, and he was at work. So he rushed home and talked quickly to Mom. They booked the hotels in time, and things were cheap but not exactly optimal. The hotels were kind of dumpy, and one is on the wrong side of the park, but we planned a six day trip. There were two days at Lake Tahoe, two days in Yosemite, and two days at Big Trees. Dad was especially excited to take Mom to Big Trees, because it was her favorite vacation spot when she was growing up in northern California.

The kids got home from Grandma’s on Saturday, and Mom got done with Girls’ Camp on Friday, but the van was packed and ready to go early Sunday morning. We ate some waffles and left the house by 7 am. The drive across Nevada is a long one, and we only really planned three stops. The first stop was just east of Wendover at the Salt Flats rest stop. We got out of the car for a few minutes and walked across the salt. The boys even tasted it a little bit, and declared it horrible. We only spent about fifteen minutes, including going to the bathroom, but at least we got out of the car.

We all tasted the salt. It was salty (and gross)!

The salt flats go on for ever and ever. 

There was a little bit of water, but mostly just salt. 

That's Dax out there. He said he wanted to walk to the mountains. 

We felt like we were rolling across Nevada pretty fast, but we didn’t see much. Mark spotted a pronghorn and Dad showed everyone a coyote, but we didn’t get any pictures at 85 miles an hour on the freeway. By one o’clock, which was actually noon Pacific Time, we stopped for lunch in Winnemucca. We drove to a little park on the river and Mom made sandwiches. As we sat in the shade munching chips, we saw a lot of birds flying up and down the dirty river. There were ibises, egrets, including great egrets, pelicans, and ducks. We stopped for less than an hour that time, and hurried back down the road.

We lucked out with a shady bench right by the river. 

We loved sitting underneath all the birds flying by, especially this Great Egret.

The boys had to do a little rock throwing, of course.

Our third and final stop took us a little off the path to south Tahoe. We rode through Reno and visited the temple. It was Sunday, so the gates were locked, but we got a picture for our temple books. Dad remembered it was the 34^th temple he’d visited. It is a small temple that looks a lot like Monticello, UT.

The Reno Temple was small, but we love to see the beautiful grounds of all the temples.

It was nearly 5 o’clock when we pulled up at the first Lake Tahoe overlook. The boys hadn’t really been out of the car all day, and they were excited to climb some rocks and run up and down the trail. The lake was beautiful, and though there has been a massive fire near Yosemite (just our luck!) the air was clear. We continued on down and checked in to the hotel, which is a real dump. There are about eight inches between the bed and the bathroom door, and no floor space is big enough to set up a cardboard table. It’s not very clean, and there is no bathroom fan, either. Luckily, we don’t spend much time in hotels other than sleeping.

The boys had never seen Lake Tahoe, and they were super excited.

Mom hasn't been here in ages!

We did a little exploring on these rocks. It was nice to be out of the car.

We asked some nice foreigners to take our picture. Lake Tahoe is very blue!

We were hungry, so we stopped by the local Hard Rock Café. This is one of Dad’s favorite places, but this Hard Rock wasn’t so great. The food was fine, but the prices were much higher than we remembered. Worse, the restaurant was in a casino, so we had to be careful where we walked. A lot of the rock and roll memorabilia on the walls was 90s thrash metal rather than good old rock and roll, but the boys saw enough stuff they recognized to enjoy it.

After dinner, we donned our swimsuits and headed to the beach. It’s only a few minutes walking down to the beach from our crummy hotel, so we left the van and hoofed it down there. The beach was really fun, and it was plenty warm, even though it was late in the day. We stayed for almost two hours. The boys swam and made sand castles and played in the water. They probably would have stayed all night, but we packed them up a little after 8 pm and took them home for showers. It was a long day, but at least we made the drive. The boys were amazing in the car, and we have another whole day in Tahoe!

The water was freezing, but Seth didn't care one bit. 

Dax preferred to stay on the edge and dig moats.

Mark went way out. He doesn't mind the cold water. 

We had so much fun at Lake Tahoe. 

Everyone was smiling.  

Dad even went in the water for a bit, but not Mom. She would have frozen to death.

The boys created this huge moat around an island they made of sand.

We stayed until sunset playing in the water. It was a great day!

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