Lake Tahoe – Final Day

It’s our final day in Lake Tahoe, my head is a little sore from the wedding wines and a night spent dancing but I am pretty excited to see some of the beautiful landscape in Tahoe!

Oh! and I didn’t mention as I was so wrapped up in the delightfulness of yesterdays wedding. The ridge Tahoe kind of stuffed up. 9am on the morning of the wedding, I am awake sitting in bed checking my phone. The main door opens and a stranger enters. “OH MY GOODNESS … THERE ARE PEOPLE IN HERE” ..and the door quickly shuts. Shortly after I get a very abrupt call from the staff at the Ridge basically telling me it isn’t my room and to get out now. I try to explain AGAIN that I booked and paid for two rooms and when we came in the adjoining doors were open, they disagree .. and honestly … I am trying to get my head into prepping for the wedding, so I didn’t have the energy to argue. We were rushed along and had to throw our stuff into Kirsten and Scotts room. The couch wasn’t even offered to be made up for us. Safe to say I was pissed, no apologies or concern from the ridge … Thanks guys! hahaha but what can you do. Safe to say I had a pretty rough sleep haha! but who cares todays a new day.

I wanted to see Emerald Bay, and the rail tracks that disappear into the water around the lake and today we get the hire car so it is all very possible!

We caught the shuttle into town, got lunch at a buzzing spot in the middle of Heavenly, (thats the name of the town) There were fire pits lit, live music and a great vibe buzzing around. We had lunch at a nice American grill. I was boring and got salad and chips and everyone else got burgers, great feed, ready for the day. Scott had been craving an ice-cream and is finally starting to get some energy back, so after an ice-cream lunch for him we were on the move.

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We needed to get the hire car from the Budget centre and according to our map it was a long walk or a cab ride away. We stole some Starbucks wifi and tried to get our bearings. While there the boys made friends with the local police, who are geared up like mad! Guns the lot! It’s intimidating to see in person, but obviously not for the boys.

We still hadn’t ordered a cab so we walked to the closest hotel and ordered one from there … A one minute cab ride up the road in the same direction we had already walked, we realise the Budget centre is exactly where our shuttle bus had dropped us off in the first place *face palm* classic us! Ah well! In our VERY short ride, we still managed to somehow learn that our cab driver was a recovering gamble-a-holic. Niceeeee, considering Tahoe is made of Casinos, I can imagine every day is a challenge for him.

Car keys in hand and in the possession if the hugest SUV ever! The Chevvy Suburban, what a beast. We are on the road! On the way we found a TJ MAX .. Kirsten lost her shit, and we spent an inordinate amount of time in that damn store :/ Kirsten bought umm, everything – I got some sunglasses and we hit the road to head toward Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay was beautiful, however there were people EVERYWHERE! Cars banked up on the sides of the road, carparks filled. Scott told me to jump out the car and he would circle around so that I could get the photos I wanted and then get back on the road. A few photos in and we could see he had lucked out and got a parking bay! Which is lucky as it’s a pretty cool view from the top!

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The day was flying. Marshall had afternoon drinks in town so we thought we better get a wriggle on. We hit the road again, and tried to find the railway into the water.

It was a bit of a challenge, a drive back and forth, but we discovered that some of the rail was at the Sugar Pine State Park. There was a wedding being held there, but we were able to navigate around the place easy enough. Kirsten stayed in the car so Rhys, Scott and myself set off on foot with no clue where the rail was. I tried to guess based on my google map research months ago, in the planning stages of our trip and it served me well.

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Just as we were about to give up, I turned to the left and bam .. there it was. No where near as impressive this time of day, as you couldn’t see through the water haha! But I am glad I found it regardless.

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I was excited in our walk, thinking that I found bear prints, but on further study .. I am pretty sure it’s just dog prints hahaha! The guys were doing their best bear calls to attract wilderness, much to my worry haha! I don’t want to die!!!

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The boys were mostly pumped about skimming pebbles on the water and it was a pretty impressive display … mostly because I got some hilarious photos of Rhys.

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The entire park was stunning! Especially at this time of day!! We walked by the water, the property and through the pines! Gah! Sooo much pretty! I definitely think I will need to release a Sugar Pine Collection for Elemental Prints! Loving the golden glow, the pines and cool water tones!

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By the time we finished up exploring and took the drive home, it was dark and we were hungry. We had missed the afternoon drinks with Marshall, as they were heading to the Casino and with a big drive ahead of us the next day, we decided to head to the hotel restaurant for a quick bite and settle in for an early night… not looking forward to another night on the couch … but I am sure I will cope.

Tomorrow we are on the road to Mammoth Lakes!

 

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