Independence Day weekend in Lake Tahoe - July 1-5, 2011

The company gave us July 4th and 5th off, so Babe and I spent the 4-day long weekend up at my timeshare up in Lake Tahoe, the Ridge Tahoe Resort.  I had been reserving the 4th of July week for the past few years (23 months in advance!) as it is a popular week, and usually end up trading it for places like Hawaii, or letting people use it, like my parents and Sheri's family last July.  I was looking forward to staying there after a long hiatus and viewing for the first time, the famous Lights on the Lake fireworks show.

We arrived at the resort Friday evening.  The two covered garages in the Plaza building (where we were staying) were full, so I pulled into the garage for Babe to grab a rolling cart to unload the groceries and luggage, then parked across the street in an open-air parking lot.  The timeshare was a 2-bedroom lockout (meaning you can split the unit into a separate 1-bedroom and a studio) and it was recently updated a few years ago with granite kitchen countertops, Sleep Number bed in the 1-bedroom portion, and new living room and dining room furniture with a rustic theme.  We had invited some friends to join us since we had an extra bedroom and sofabed, but as there were no takers, the studio portion of the unit was uninhabited (though the 2nd bathroom came in handy at times ;) ).

kitchen and dining room

living room

Sleep Number bed

studio bedroom (not Sleep Number though)

I was interested to find out how the Sleep Number bed would be as I had heard accolades on TV and radio advertisements.  What was my Sleep Number?  The default was 40, which I felt was too hard.  I experimented with a lower setting of 15; Babe tried 25.  The next morning, I found myself in a huge dip in the bed and an aching body.  Babe also didn't get a good night's sleep; we would have to try a higher number the next night.

On Saturday, we woke up, had breakfast in the unit and went outside to hike.  The trail began at the back of the property; we passed by a "covered" tennis court, which is useful during the winter, as the other two courts on property were open-air.  (I forgot to bring tennis rackets :( )  Being inside the indoor court was not good during the summer...the air was stifling warm inside.

The trail took us towards the Heavenly ski resort area and connected with the Tahoe Rim Trail.  There were a lot of beautiful views.  It was nice that we didn't have to drive anywhere to start a hike.

beautiful wilderness

an alien flower in the middle of nowhere...reminds me of a Tahoe hike 16 years ago encountering a similar flower.  maybe some of you who were there remember it.

the lake!

timeshare in the center, with the Carson Valley in the backdrop

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching TV and reading our Kindles. (Babe got me a Kindle for my birthday!)  Working in stressful, fast-paced environments has made me appreciate days where I do absolutely NOTHING. :)

On Sunday, we decided to hike up to Mt. Tallac, which we read about online, strenuous 10-mile round trip.  A wilderness permit was required, but you can fill one out at the trailhead for free.  The trailhead was only fifteen minutes away from the Ridge Tahoe, so we didn't leave until after breakfast, around 10:30am.  That was a bad idea.  The only way to get to the trailhead was to take Highway 89 north, and the road goes right by Camp Richardson Resort.  On a holiday weekend, this popular getaway gets filled up to the brim with people, bikes, pets, you name it, crossing the street, so what was supposed to take fifteen minutes ended up taking an hour and a half.  It was almost like the movie Office Space, where walking would've been a lot faster than driving.  We weren't the happiest people when we finally arrived at the trailhead, but one saving grace was that I found a shady parking space up front.

The trail was very picturesque, with views of Fallen Leaf Lake and of the Tahoe basin.  Despite it being the beginning of July, Mt. Tallac was still covered with snow, and so was much of the trail at the higher elevations.  We ended up not reaching the peak as it was hard to find the trail under the snow and decided for safety reasons not to bushwhack our way up as we had seen some ice tunnels melting under the snow; one false step and you could fall through.  Going down was a cinch, just slide down the slope!  There were many opportunities to slip and slide.  My butt was wet and freezing, but so worth it.

not sure why this is called Floating Isle

peaks still snowy in July

Cathedral Lake, with snow in the background

getting up in elevation, meaning more snow

sweeping view of Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe

Mt. Tallac...where is the trail?

wheeeeeee!!!

Babe sliding down the mountain

While we were stuck in traffic, we had passed by a 7-Eleven (I think it took us 5 minutes to "pass by") and we talked about Slurpees, so to reward ourselves after the hike, we stopped by.  I got a small Slurpee and went adventurous by mixing cherry and cola flavors.  Babe mixed a lot of flavors up in a huge Alien vs. Cowboys plastic cup.  When we got back to the timeshare, the parking garage had freed up, so I was able to get a spot indoors, yay!  There was a lot of pollen flying around the air yesterday, coating my black car with a layer of yellow-green powder.

Monday was Independence Day and we kicked back and relaxed in the timeshare.  I had made reservations on OpenTable for dinner at the nearby Chart House restaurant, as I had read online that it was the best place to catch the fireworks without having to stake out a place on the beach for 6-10 hours.  I ended up getting 8:30pm reservations as everything else was booked up, but that would still keep us there in time for the fireworks at 9:30pm, albeit in the middle of our meal.  We left the Ridge around 8:15pm and ended up following a super slow car driving in front of us.  I guessed that this couple was also heading to the Chart House and I was right.  The competitive nature in me wanted to get inside the restaurant before they did, however, the parking lot was quite full and the car squeezed into a space between two handicapped spots (strange lot layout, or that was supposed to be an unloading area...) and the couple entered the restaurant first, argh!  We eventually found a spot and entered the restaurant in time to see the couple get seated.  Babe and I got seated not too long afterwards, and turned out we were fortunate to get seated second...we had an unobstructed view of the lake from our booth compared to the other couple.

Chart House was a chain, but the food was surprisingly good.  (the lighting was quite dim in the restaurant so I could not take any good pictures without annoying the rest of the guests)  Babe started with a glass of wine and I had a peach ice tea cocktail.  We had oysters on the half-shell and crab-stuffed mushrooms daily special recommended by our waiter for appetizers.  Both were delicious!  For entrees, Babe and I shared the miso-glazed salmon and surf-n-turf consisting of braised short ribs and seared scallops.  It was 9:30pm by this time...the fireworks commenced and the restaurant turned down the lights and piped in the radio station that was playing music synchronized with the show.  The show went for quite some time, and included classic patriotic songs as well as clips from hit songs like Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus and Firework by Katy Perry.  The fireworks were well done (ie. the explosions were timed just right to Katy's "Boom Boom Boom") and watching it from the comfort of the Chart House restaurant with climate controlled environment and tasty food worked well for me! :)  Even though we were pretty stuffed from our meal, we shared a raspberry sorbet for dessert to cleanse our palette, and it was such a huge serving...it was like a whole pint of sorbet was in the glass.  I definitely recommend having dinner at the Chart House for the 4th of July to catch the fireworks show!

We had another lazy day on Tuesday and drove back home that evening.  It was a nice end to our 4-day long weekend.  I was also looking forward to sleeping in my own bed...I did not like the Sleep Number bed, and I tried all the different settings.  Basically, it's a glorified air mattress. 

Our next planned outing would be to Yosemite for Labor Day weekend, stay tuned...