Lake Tahoe and Donner's Pass.

Good morning.
Our last 2 days, we went to Lake Tahoe and the town of Truckee and Donner's Pass.

We came into lake Tahoe from the north, arriving first at Incline Village. But on the way, as we winded through the mountains, we saw a lot of snow....

The lake is completely surrounded by mountains, and they still had a bit of snow on them. That's why the high river levels in Reno. The Truckee river flows from Lake Tahoe through Reno and ends up in Pyramid Lake.

So all the snow on the mountains that surround Lake Tahoe melts, runs into Lake Tahoe, and goes out the Truckee river, through Reno. And you saw in my previous post how much water was flowing through the river. Then it goes to Pyramid Lake. None of the water ends up in any ocean. That in itself was very interesting.

It was really pretty seeing all the snow covered mountains around this huge lake.

We did find us a nice lakeside restaurant for lunch.

We ended up driving around Lake Tahoe from Incline village down to South Lake Tahoe and up the other side to Tahoe City. Did i say it's a big lake!
The next day, we came back near Lake Tahoe to Truckee City. a smaller version of Virginia City, but more touristy. It is on highway 80, so it gets a lot of tourists. And they make the most money they can from them. You have to pay to park on the streets! That's just greedy! And so we didn't bother to even stop.
Just outside of Truckee is the Donner Pass Memorial.

The statue is as high as the snow was that fateful winter when half the Donner party perished from starvation or exposure. That was a lot of snow!
So, it was a very interesting and informative and fun trip. Nice sights, good food, and safe travels.

Virginia City

Good morning.
Day 2 took us about 30 miles southeast to the historic town of Virginia City. Was a beautiful drive through winding mountains.

This is exactly why I take pics and not Craig....

I hadn't even turned around yet!
But here's a few pics we took of Virginia City.

It looked like a town frozen in time. Most buildings were built in the late 1800's. The entire town is a historic designation, so it should pretty much stay just like this. Have never seen so many old buildings together in one place. And it's all built on the side of the mountain. There were steep roads to go up or down.
Here's one of the remaining school houses. A bartender gave us a little history lesson while having a drink. There were originally 4 school buildings like this back when Virginia city had a booming population of 25,000. But as the silver mines petered out, so did the population. It now stands around 855 with, I imagine, tourism the main income producer now.

From Virginia City we drove on through Carson City, Nevada's Capital, and then back up to Reno.

Tomorrow, I'll try to get Lake Tahoe posted.

Reno

Good morning.
We've just returned from a 5 day trip up to Lake Tahoe/ Reno/ Virginia City. Was a 7 hr drive each way. Mostly on 2 lane roads. But not terrible traffic, and Craig likes road trips.  :-)

Stayed at Harrah's in Reno for our home base as it was the cheapest option and a lot of restaurants nearby for meals. Booked the hotel online and got rooms for $25 a nite. Couldn't stay anywhere else that cheap. And when we checked in, because we have Harrah's player cards, they comped us the first 3 nites. Sweet!
Here's a few pics from our room on the 20th floor...

The red lit buildings are the Eldorado Casino/hotel, the green domed and tallest tower behind is the Silver Legacy Casino/Hotel and the farthest one is Circus Circus.

Reno sits on the Truckee river. A very fast flowing river too! But the river was high because it's still early in the season and snow was still melting from the surrounding mountains.

There were a number of restaurants overlooking the river and we ate at most of them.
I did manage to get  just one pic of the many meals we ate.

We tried several different things. The one above was some type of tomato pesto with mozzarella cheese and prosciutto. Was pretty good! And yes, Craig has a light jacket on. The weather for most of the trip was low 80's, but the last day was windy, cool and about 70.
So we spent the first day wandering around the area. Checked out all the casinos, and sights along the river. Day 2 took us to Virginia City. Day 3 to Lake Tahoe, and Day 4 to Truckee and Donner's pass. I'll post more about them hopefully tomorrow.

our house

Good morning.
I thought I'd post some current pics of the house. Not sure if I did this after we got all settled in or not. These first few pics are of course the living room....

I like having the TV mounted on the wall instead of sitting on the cabinet. And no wires showing.   :-)
And that's our cameras showing on the TV screen.

Of course the kitchen looks pretty much the same. I have enough cabinets that I can store everything away when I'm done with them, so no toaster or coffee pots on the counters. Just my toaster oven.

Easier to keep the counters clean, and I like the minimalist look.   :-)
Went back downtown again yesterday and had lunch at the Triple George Grill again. This time just a light lunch of wings and a chicken flatbread. Used our gift certificate and we still have another $35 left. So we'll be going back.  :-)
 We've also been busy with finalizing our plans for our next 2 trips. First one is approximately a  7 hr drive up to the Reno/ Lake Tahoe area for 5 days, and the second will be our nearly 3 week road trip to Michigan and back with stops in Muskegon, Lansing, Toledo and St Louis among other places.
 That's it for now....

Happy June 1st

Good morning.
I don't know if I ever posted these before, but I wanted to show what the front of the house looks like now without those large overgrown Rosemary bushes.

Before and after.....

I think it opens  the front and looks so much better. The previous owner never kept them trimmed small enough and they were to big to take them down far enough and still look good. But the builder put these bushes in all over the community, and they are all very large now. And that's also one of the reasons for the large rabbit population we have. Those large bushes are perfect for them to hide and nest safely. I personally don't like the bushes and wish everyone would tear them out. But I know, that's just a wishful dream.   :-)
You can't see them in the above pic, but where we tore them out we replanted 3 Red Spreading Lantanas.

They are currently covered with chicken wire until they are large enough to withstand the rabbit nibbling. And actually, once they are larger, the rabbits will help keep them a nice size.   :-)
And here's the back yard as seen from inside the house....

The redone patio makes for a nice extension of our living space. We sit out almost everyday. And I have to say I'm still liking the crushed stone for the yard. No mowing or edging or weeding! If i want to walk on grass I'll go to one of the many parks we have here. There's a large park right across the highway from our community, and 2 more within our master community. And even more scattered around the valley.
Yesterday we took a few bags of stuff to the 'Farm'. It's about a mile or so from our house. It's an animal rescue place our neighbor Obbie showed us when we first came out.  She's a big supporter and volunteer. I told her when they went back to Minnesota that I would take things out there. So yesterday I took 2 bags of towels and blankets from one of our neighbors, and a big bag of empty 2 liter pop bottles. The blankets and towel will be used for bedding for baby animals and they will fill the pop bottles with water, freeze them and use them in the animal pens to help keep the baby animals cool on our hot summer days.
Well, that's about it for now...