When I was growing up, my family spent a lot of time in Tahoe during the winter. We'd fly into Reno or Sacramento and drive from there for the skiing. It wasn't until college that I visited during the summer and realized that there is basically no bad time to visit Tahoe. A few months ago, Daniel's parents made plans for a late September vacation at a cabin near Tahoe City and invited us to join them.
Join them we did, and we spent several absolutely gorgeous days in Tahoe, sightseeing, hiking, and of course, eating very well. Daniel wasn't able to join us until partway through the week because of work commitments, so I drove up with Daniel's parents and their dog Katie. Naturally, we stopped at Ikedas and stocked up on pies (apple! cherry! marionberry!) for the cabin. After reaching the cabin and settling in, we drove to Truckee for some window shopping then took Katie to the beach (oddly, there seemed to be few places that allowed dogs; fortunately we found Lake Forest Beach and Katie was able to run around and dip her toes in the water.) As the sun set, we found ourselves on the deck at Sunnyside and toasted to vacation and the last day of summer.
The next morning we were up bright and early to make the drive down to Emerald Bay. I'd never been to that part of the lake before, so it was a special treat to see how beautiful it was. We also had the chance to tour Vikingsholm, which was great fun.
After our house tour, we lunched down near Camp Richardson then took Katie to Kiva Beach. Aside from some alarming warnings about squirrel-borne plague posted along the trails, it was a lovely place to walk around and also allowed us to stop in and see some of the Tallac historic sites.
After our day of adventures, we had happy hour on the deck of the cabin and then headed to dinner at Wolfdale's. Everything was delicious but the ahi cones we had as an appetizer were particularly special.
Daniel arrived late in the evening after making the drive up from San Francisco. Since he still had some work to do the next day, the rest of us cleared out of the house and drove to Sugar Pine Point State Park to go on a tour of the Hellman-Ehrman Mansion, which, like Vikingsholm, is another of the grand old Tahoe summer homes. After our tour, we picnicked out on the lake and strolled around the property.
In the afternoon, Daniel finished up his work and we enjoyed happy hour on the deck of our cabin before heading to Moody's in Truckee for dinner and some live music.
In the morning, Daniel's parents headed back to Napa and we continued on to Reno, but not before making a quick detour to Eagle Lake. Once we got to the lake, we were lucky enough to see a bear swimming around (!)
After a few hours of hiking and fishing, we had lunch and then rented kayaks to go out to Fannette Island. The water was refreshingly cool and it was a quick trip to the island, where we scrambled up to the ruined tea house on its highest point.
It was the perfect way to end a lovely couple of days in Tahoe. I already have my fingers crossed that we'll be able to get back there soon for the winter ski season.
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