Latest Stats from Tahoe

1). I have exactly 40 days until PERU!!!

2). The King Fire is now at 87,592 acres and only 18% contained. We aren't in any immediate danger.  The fire is West of us and moving North.  However, the smoke is filling the basin and ruining any outside plans we may have had.  Also, if you East coasters don't know... this fire was intentionally started by 1 lame guy who is now in jail with a 10 million dollar bail.  He's a big ol' loser!

3).  The HIGH on Friday is 54 degrees.  Brrrrr.

4).  There is a "slight chance" of snow in the higher elevations at the end of the week.

Well, that's all the numbers I know right now.  In other news, I'm ready to announce that I am leaving Barton Memorial Hospital where I have worked for the last 2 years.  I have taken a job with Douglas County School System and I'll be starting there when I return from Peru.   I will REALLY miss Barton.  It's been a fantastic job but I love pediatrics and I just don't get enough pediatric patients at the hospital.  So, I'm taking a risk... leaving my comfortable job that I am happy at... and following this new path put before me.

I will miss every. single. person. that I work with at Barton.  They are the BEST group of people and I have made lifelong friendships while being there.  I can't even thank them enough for being supportive of me in this new adventure.

And... tomorrow is the first official day of FALL and that makes me VERY HAPPY!!!! Missin' all you east coasters!

Scenic Sunday Drive

Mike recently had the opportunity to go skiing (yes, snow skiing) on some leftover patches of snow.  A friend of is has skied every month for 130 consecutive months (or something like that).  Anyway, snow is pretty scarce these days and there are a few small patches left at higher elevations (above 10,000 ft).  

Anyway, when Mike got home he just raved about how beautiful the area was so, yesterday we drove down so I could check it out.  It's a little over an hour south of our home.  The further south you go, the bigger the mountains seem to get.  

We stopped along the way to let the doggie swim in the river.  Our first official stop was at Twin Lakes.  

Fall colors are starting in the higher elevations. 

1 of the twin lakes.. and one cute doggy nose! 

Our next stop was at a local hot springs.  They are all natural and the temp of the water is near perfect.  Unfortunately, we didn't really come prepared with bathing suits etc.  And although other people in the springs had clearly made the same mistake (or they opted out of using a bathing suit), we decided we didn't want to sit in pool with a bunch of other naked people.  So, we will come back another time.   

One of the hot springs. 

The lower springs...
there was a whole lot of naked down there. 

 The coolest thing about the hot springs was that one of the pools actually has a waterfall of warm water feeding it.  It trickles down over this large rock and falls into the pool of warm water.  It was beautiful.  I would've taken a picture but I feared the naked people would get concerned that they were in it.  We'll just have to come back one day. 

After the hot springs adventure, we drove south to Kavanaugh Ridge (where Mike went skiing a few weeks ago).  It's way up high ~11,000 ft and it's a LONG four wheel drive road to get up there.  There is a lake with free camping along the way although the lake is more of a small pond right now. 

Yep, we are definitely in a drought. 

Where is this road going??? 

The view from the top of the ridge is unbelievable.   

We shared an icy cold Sierra Nevada while enjoying the view. 

It was 50 degrees and VERY windy! 

Mono Lake in the distance. 

We also stopped by Virginia Lakes.  There are 2 lakes but we only stopped at one.  It was another beautiful alpine lake with amazing water but this lake was slightly more green in color than the others we've seen. 

We stopped at the Mobil gas station on Tioga Pass (just outside Yosemite) for lunch.  Yep, you read that right.  We ate at a gas station.  But not just any gas station... they had a LOT of people eating there and a LONG line when we arrived at 3:00  in the afternoon.  It's called the "Whoa Nelly Deli" and they have excellent food.  There is a restaurant near Mammoth called Toomey's and Mike loves their lobster taquitos.  This gas station is the original location of those lobster taquitos.  Also, they claim to have "world famous fish tacos," so naturally we had to try them.  They were ok.  

When we got home, we didn't want dinner but DID want dessert.  I made a homemade peach crisp which was insanely easy!  I found a simple recipe on Pinterest and gave it a whirl.  Mike doesn't even like peaches and he liked this:  

YUM! 

Plus whipped cream!!!  YUM!  

Next week... I'm making a pumpkin pie to take to a party at a friends house. 

Happy Fall Y'all!!!  

A Labor-some Labor Day

Happy Belated Labor Day!  Since Tahoe is a very popular tourist destination on Labor Day, Mike and I decided to keep things pretty low key and stay away from the lake that weekend.  The Thursday before the holiday weekend, we rode the Heavenly Gondola up to Tamarack Lodge.  They have lots of things to do up there: ziplining, ropes courses, a rock climbing wall, tubing for kiddos, etc.  We went with the intention of going ziplining (in order to check that off the bucket list) but, it's really expensive and it's a super short ride.  AND, technically I've been ziplining before, so I didn't feel like spending the money.  So, we changed our plans and chose to do a ropes course instead (mainly because it was free).

There was a 20 ft area, and a 40 ft area.  It was really fun BUT, I couldn't help but grip onto the ropes as tight as I possibly could and as I've mentioned before, I have very weak hands.  So, I didn't make it through the course because my hands were trembling with fatigue.  So, I won't be a ropes course guide when I grow up.  Oh well.  Mike rocked that course though and since I was on the ground, I could get some good shots of him in the course.

The view from the top just never gets old! 

The very expensive zipline in the background. 

The ropes course! 

Mike is WAY up there (in the black shirt). 

Makin' it look easy! 

 

 On Monday, I stayed home and cleaned house and worked on refinishing bedroom furniture. I got one more piece done!  Just gotta do the headboard/footboard of the bed and that will be one more thing off the bucket list!  It was nice to get a big piece done, but definitely is a BIG job!  

The only time we left the mountain all weekend, was to go down to Nevada Beach to watch the fireworks.  We have never watched the show from lake level until now.  It was pretty spectacular.  

It was windy.  And chilly.  

This weekend is also very mellow.  No big adventures.  We drove up to Northstar Resort today... rode the gondola  and ate some amazing fish tacos while watching all the downhill mountain bikers bomb down the hill.  Tomorrow (my day OFF), I have to go to a couple meetings at work followed by a hair appt, etc.  Just errands, etc.  Nothing too exciting and that makes me happy!  Work has been very exhausting lately and I feel like I don't have the energy to do anything outside of work. 

 I do have some exciting news.  Well, it's exciting for us (nope... not pregnant).  But, I'm not ready to share that news just yet.  So, you will just have to keep checking the blog!