Hello Everyone!!
I'm sooooo far behind on my travel blog - all the travels keep getting in my way of posting :)
So, the week before Labor Day - I went to Lake Tahoe with my good friend & travel buddy, Brooke (she lives in Madison, WI & we were roommates at Drake).
Brooke was celebrating her 30th birthday on Friday, September 30 -- so we ventured out to do some hikes and wineries before she met her family over Labor Day Weekend in Tahoe.
We flew into Reno, rented a car and drove to Truckee, California. We checked in, dropped off our stuff (around 3ish) - and drove down to
Squaw Valley - no time to waste! (Squaw Valley is where the 1960 Olympics were held!)
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| TRUCKEE, CALIFORNIA |
We started our hike & ended up 'detouring' a bit... and by the time we reached the top of the mountain, the gondolas had closed and were by CHANCE ran into two other girls that had contacted security to come pick us up and drive us to the bottom. It was getting late (we had about 2 hours of sunlight left) and it took us around 4 hours to get to the top... and as rumors have it, it's COLD on top of mountains! We were so glad to have Carl come pick us up and take us back down! ha! Doesn't surprise us at all that happened! But, it was a great hike for our first day. We ended up going back to our hotel, walking across the street to a Thai Restaurant and then to a local Brewery (FiftyFifty) where we each had 2 beers and felt tipsy! Love the high altitude!! (Makes us a couple of cheap dates!!)
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| RUBICON TRAIL - LAKE TAHOE |
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| RUBICON TRAIL - B & S |
The next day, we woke up early, had breakfast outside -- where it was in the upper 50s, but the sun was STRONG! We drove to the Lake and hiked the Rubicon Trail! It was amazing. The hike we did was about 5 miles (about 10 miles round trip) and took us over 5 hours! For a runner, that just seems impossible when you are moving the entire time... but I guess when you do have to "climb", it does take a bit longer! That night, we stopped at a grocery store, picked up a bottle of Red Zinfandel and a collection of cheeses (yes, a HUGE wedge of brie cheese for me!) and several other cheeses & spreads - and we headed back to the hotel and had our appetizers & wine in the hot tub. It was heaven. We finally got around to showering and then went and had another glass of wine at some local restaurants known for their extensive wine list in Truckee. It was nice - Truckee is one of those town which makes you feel like you went back in time about 40/50 years -- everything is so cute & simple and has SO much character.
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| MOUNTAINS IN CALI - DRIVING ROUTE! |
Wednesday morning we got up, had our breakfast and ventured off for our 2 hour drive to wine country! We drove for about 2 miles where we had to stop at the local Farmer's Market and bought big peaches! It was great. We then drove throughout California (meaning, Brooke drove) - the roads were steep, winding around mountains, and without cell reception. (Confession: I did have to throw myself in the backseat twice to cover my eyes!!) The heights will always scare me - but Brooke can confess this trip was MUCH better than the time in South America going through the Andes!! It was nice to have rented an automatic in the States so Brooke could drive! AHH -- I'd love to live in Tahoe, but I'd never be able to get anywhere since I'd be too scared to drive!
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| BAMBI'S MAMA! |
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| BROOKE & I GETTING OUR NACHOS! |
The wineries were AWESOME! We had a list of around 10-12 we'd go to. Our first stop,
Mount Aukum was WAY on the top of a mountain peak. The wine maker was a soft-spoken French man and the owner was his brother-in-law, Bill. Bill had told us MANY stories on how his daughter, Laurie (along with himself & his wife) had actually changed the laws of Cruise Ships --
how they handle security and womens rights. It was VERY nice to meet them & hear their stories! That is always the best part of traveling - you never know who you'll meet! We had hour long chats with these guys (and even saw Bambi and her mother up close and personal walk by)! I bought two bottles of wine from this place! (One was a port that you eat after dinner with dark chocolate - YUM!) Since we were at the first winery for several hours, we cut our list to hit just a couple more. PLUS - these wineries (not like Napa) are free -- so on that note, we headed towards our hotel in Placerville and hit up two more wineries in the neighborhood:
Jodar (food & wine pairing) and a place called
Luna (where Brooke & I both bought a bottle of wine!) After we left the wineries, we went next door (hotel) and had nachos (yes!!) and then to a local bar for a couple beers! It was fantastic!
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| BROOKE ON TOP OF THE BAY VIEW TRAIL |
The next morning (Thursday), we woke up around 8:30 - stopped for a quick breakfast and drove the couple hours back to the lake and climbed the Bay View Trail (Maggie's Peak) where we saw the "high" view of the Rubicon Trail! It was amazing - we hiked for about an hour and landed at Granite Lake & then hiked the peaks! It was up SUPER HIGH! I took a picture of Brooke standing at the top, but I was too nervous to stand, but Brooke got me up there all the same! After the hike, we headed into Tahoe City and checked into Brooke's cabin (she was staying though Labor Day). The cabin was fabulous! We got settled, checked out the area and then went to dinner at
Sunnyside for dinner - a restaurant that hung over the lake. We ate like champs -- and for dessert, we ordered Brooke the BIGGEST piece of ice cream cake! It was amazing!
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| ME ON TOP OF THE BAY VIEW TRAIL |
We headed back to the cabin and watched a movie and turned in early. I got up the next morning, drove back to Reno and headed home :( It was a gorgeous trip and it was great to do SOO much hiking! I headed back to KC so I could go to a friend's wedding - more on that in the next post!
Here are some of my pictures from the trip! (I took more than 300 - but this is plenty to view!) Thanks for reading!!! xo
Picture Link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SarahMeredithWhitten/LakeTahoeSelectedPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmyl5u_keX3Ng&feat=directlink
Embedded Pictures:
series, you should! ... they are SOOOO good, and I'm so sad to have finished them all!) We read for a few hours and it miraculously cleared up, the sun came out, and it was hot again! So, no boots to shop for - we just walked everywhere & did window shopping, went down to the lake & eventually grabbed to-go food (we had a picnic in our hotel room to get ready for the race!)
