Because I had a three day weekend, I could think of no better way to celebrate good ol' Chris C-bus than to do a little adventure trip myself. So Gerard and I packed up the pups and headed out to Lake Tahoe. Thinking we were out-tricking rush hour, we each left work early and got on the road well before 3. With less than 200 miles to go, we figure we'll be there before dinner no problem. Problem. Apparently everyone and their mother can finangle their way out of work before 3 pm on a Friday. Problem. The Bay Bridge sucks. Problem. People all across western and central California decided to ram into eachother that day. Problem. The twisting roads up the mountains, exacerbated by both nightfall and snowfall left the end of our trip to be very slow. So we barely managed to check into our quaint little B&B before the office closed at 9. Ouch. Luckily we were met with a nice fireplace and hottub. Things are looking up.
Gerard met this adventure the way he meets most outdoor adventures I drag him to- by getting sick. You see, Gerard is allergic to hiking and doing outdoorsy things. I try to take him to the Grand Canyon- puke all over the place. I try to take him to Tahoe- ditto. Bright and early, I'm up and ready to go, and poopy is lying in bed with the sheets pulled over his head. So, being the sweet girlfriend that I am, I leave his booty and walk to the lake with Kota. We sit down with my sketchpad and draw and enjoy ourselves save for the quite brisk temperatures. Some crazies on a church retreat who haven't heard of hypothermia walk Kota in fulfilment of a photo scavenger hunt, and then jump into the freezing lake while the lucky photographer stays on dry land. Later that day, Gerard muscles up, and to his credit he soldiers through the rest of the day walking and driving around the lake.
Sunday, all 4 of us go on a breathtaking hike on the west side of the lake. I can't post all the pictures I'd like to from the hike, so you'll have to check them out here.
After the hike, I realize my camera's memory card is full, and we have lots of fun plans awaiting us. We take an emergency trip to Staples to get a new memory card, where I learn my 6 year old 256mb card is very small and outdated, not to mention overpriced, as I bought a 4gb for a fraction of the price I had paid for that 256. But anyway, crisis averted.
We hop on to a paddleboat elegantly touted as a Dinner and Dancing Cruise. Ohh La La... At 15 minutes early, we're sure we'll get prime seating by a window, but apparently people have nothing better to do while off-season vacationing in Tahoe than to reserve the dinner tables, because we were about the last people to board the boat. We get the wine list, and my spirits are up to see Domain Chandon. Yay!! I order a bottle, and the waitress leaves. She comes back within seconds to ask again for my order. I repeat myself, and she looks at me skeptically and says she doesn't think they have that. I point it out in the menu and she says "Oh, yes we do have that!" She comes back a few minutes later and proudly holds up a cheap bottle of Wyatt. She seems very hurt when I tell her that is not what we ordered and yes, I do care. She comes back to tell me they indeed do not have my Chandon. Nor do they have the Chardonnay I then try to order. After finally being somewhat appeased by the bartender, and finishing our self-serve meal, Gerard and I take our wine glasses toward the edge of the boat to see out the windows better. She starts clearing out our meal, and holds up our half-full bottle of wine and asks "Do you still want this?" This story is getting long, so I'm going to save her from other ways throughout the night she annoyed me, but suffice to say she was still upset when her tip was not all that it may have been.
Gerard and I rocked out the casinos that night. I slipped a ten into a slot machine, and when I was down to my last nickel, I managed to pull some kinda crazy spin out and win 48 bucks! Gerard did even better by turning $50 into almost 400 in roulette. Hooray for us!
Monday morning we went
on a final hike and said a sad farewell to Tahoe. :(
This place was just ridiculously gorgeous...
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