I haven’t posted since I got married in mid-August. The wedding went swimmingly, especially since we were directing people all over Tallahassee who had never been here before (not an easy task, with a street system as screwed up as Tally’s). The day after the wedding, Erin and I drove down to Tampa, stayed the night, and then flew to Reno the next day. Talk about an excruciatingly long plane trip to not end up in another country. We flew from Tampa to Denver to Las Vegas to Reno. Family friends let us stay in their house in Truckee, CA for the week while they went to Sonoma County to work on a new project, updating a hacienda in a vineyard they bought.
Before they left, they took us around the whole Tahoe-Donner area. It was beautiful, and a great change of scenery from hot, muggy Tallahassee. The first day, we wore jeans and jackets all day. We drove up through Donner Pass, across the Rainbow Bridge, and looked out over Donner Lake, where we would eventually spend a day kayaking.

We then went to Squaw Valley, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics, and took a cable car up to the top of the mountain.

At the top, there was a little Olympic museum, skating rink, outdoor swimming pool (!?!?!) and stuff to cater to the skiers during the season.

The next day, we went down to Sand Harbor, as our friends had suggested. So, being Floridians and thinking it was cold outside, we went in our jeans and hiking boots, ready to tromp around. It ended up being a little warmer than we thought, and we were the only people there without bathing suits and flip flops on. Nevertheless, we found plenty of scenery and rocks leading out into Lake Tahoe to keep us occupied.



That afternoon, we went on our first hike of the trip. The night before, in Tahoe City at a coffee/bike shop called the Gear and Grind, a local told us to take the 5 Lakes trail at Alpine Meadows. So we did. The trail was only 2.5 miles to the lakes, but it was straight up the side of a mountain in a ski resort area, so it was a little steep. It was great though…absolutely beautiful Sierra Nevada scenery.


At the end of the trail, there was this gorgeous little lake. We sat by it for awhile, resting for the trip back down, which would end up being nearly as strenuous at the trip up.

The next day, we started out at D.L. Bliss State Park, on the southwestern edge of Lake Tahoe. When we began our hike, we were surrounded by trees that had been cut down in the name of defensible space. In California, they cut down certain trees to try to decrease the possibility of wildfires. Anything that is dead or dying is cleared out. This made for an sawdust filled hike to the top of the ridge before descending down toward Lake Tahoe.

The view from the top of the Ridge was amazing.

So were the views along the rest of the trail.



That night, we decided to drive over to Reno to check out the city and pick up some stuff at Sierra Trading Post. We enjoyed Sierra Trading Post, but downtown Reno was another story. It was alright at first and we had a very nice dinner at Harrah’s. We also won a whole $8.00 (high rollers, I know…we stuck to nickel and quarter slots). But right around 11:00 pm, downtown started to get a little sketchy, so we got out of town and went back to Truckee. We did enjoy the neon signs a bit.

The next morning, we got up and went down to Donner Lake to go kayaking. It was $18 to rent there as opposed to $70 at Lake Tahoe. We rented a tandem kayak and paddled around Donner Lake.

Erin had never been before, but she fell in love with it. I’ve always enjoyed paddling, so I was excited when she started talking about getting a kayak (which we did when we got back, thanks to Craigslist and Canoe Country in St. Pete). The water was crystal clear on Donner Lake.

And there were great views from the water as well.

That night, our friends returned and we went out to dinner in Tahoe City, right on the lakefront. It was a great honeymoon, and did a pretty good job of preparing us mentally for the coming semester in which we are currently entrenched. Working full time and going to school full time is sort of a nightmare, but kind of a necessity to have cashflow and get through my program in a timely manner.
Tahoe was great and we are looking forward to returning hopefully next year!