Mark and I had finished up some business in Carson City by about 12:30 this afternoon and hit the road. As soon as we crossed the border back into California in South Lake Tahoe, we looked for a place where we could stop and access the lake. Oh, man, if you’ve never been to Lake Tahoe, you’ve got to go!
We had taken swim suits with us and we changed into them in a small public restroom and walked down to the beach. We only had one ratty old towel, but we took that down and spread it on the beach amongst a bunch of other sun bathers. Mark just wanted to sit on the towel and take pictures, but I wanted to go into the water. It was a little cold, as lake water usually is, but I walked in slowly and got used to it in increments. There is the most amazing thing that you can’t even see from a towel on the beach. When you walk into the water, you see all these gold sparkles floating around in it. It’s like one of those snow globes that has glitter in it, only it’s gold! The sand under foot was rocky a little way out into the water, but eventually it became smoother. You can walk out for a long way and only be up to your shoulders. That is, if no boats come by and create waves! There were all sorts of water toys available to rent, but we didn’t. Once I got out neck height, I swam back to shore.
The sand on shore was hot. We had put sun blocker on before I went in the water, and when I came back to the towel we got to talking with another sun bather near us. She reminded me to get more lotion on both Mark and myself. She said she can always spot tourists because we are so white! She was very friendly and talked with us for quite a while.
Actually, everyone we met in South Lake Tahoe was friendly. When we first got there, we asked several people who were just leaving their car if there was a place to change into our swim suits, and they told us where the public restroom was. After several hours at the beach, we walked to several shops and had conversations with a few more people. We ate at a health food restaurant outside and enjoyed the warmth. We hated to leave, but we knew we had to get back tonight to take care of the kitties.
The mountains we came through on the way back remind me of the foothills of Mt. Hood. They were really high – over 7000 feet on some of the passes we went through – but not high enough to have snow on them. They were covered in trees. It has been such a beautiful, perfect day! We arrived home around 10:00 tonight, tired but very happy!