The Coldest Summer

Our weather has been crazy lately.  A few weeks ago the temperature was in the 90's... 100's in the valley.  Now, the highs are in the 50's and 60's and there are afternoon thunderstorms nearly every day.  The rain has been great.  We love that and we need it desperately.  But, the temps?  It's been refreshing but I'm looking forward to slightly warmer temps next week.

The weather the last few days has been particularly crazy.  Where I work in the valley we had tons of flash flooding.  One afternoon, it poured.  I was in my office with absolutely NO idea of what was going on outside.  The roads were covered in mud, rocks, and water.  The drainage ditches looked like rushing rivers.  It was pretty intense.

THIS IS THE DESERT!  

LOTS OF ROCKS IN THE ROAD. 

54 DEGREES IN JULY!!!

This was my last week of summer school and I am so fortunate to have the next MONTH off!  To celebrate, Mike and I decided to use our Christmas present from my brother and his family (finally).  He generously bought us a sunset cruise on Lake Tahoe!  It was Christmas in July (and it felt like it).
We chose the Safari Rose which is an 80 foot yacht, originally built in 1959 for the 3M Corporation.  It's a beautiful boat!  We booked the cruise in advance, not knowing it would be 50 degrees and raining.  We actually got really lucky though... it rained all around us, but we only got a few drizzles right at the very end of the trip.  It was perfect.

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE RAINBOW AS WE WERE
LEAVING THE DOCK

WELCOME TO EMERALD BAY

THE TEA HOUSE ON FANETTE ISLAND. 

NOTICE THE WATER LINE ON THE ROCKS. 

VIKINGSHOLM CASTLE

THE WATER IN EMERALD BAY IS
INDESCRIBABLE! 

BABY DUCKS

THE TEA HOUSE ON TOP OF FANETTE ISLAND 

HERE COMES THE MS DIXIE PADDLEWHEELER

BEAUTIFUL SNIPPETS OF A DOUBLE RAINBOW ON OUR WAY
BACK TO THE DOCK

BEAUTIFUL!

AND A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET!

We feel so fortunate to live in such a naturally beautiful place.  

Thank you SO much to my brother and his family for this AWESOME gift!  We had a blast!  

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Now, for some clarification from our last blog post.  We mentioned that we recently bought a "carpet kit" for Mike's truck so we could use it for camping.  A few of you asked for more details on what a "carpet kit" is.  So.... here you go: 

My creative husband even came up with a way that we can still put our bikes in the back... so we can lock them up if we are traveling.  We would then just take them out whenever we get to "our campsite" for the night and lock them up outside the truck.  But for traveling, I think it's the perfect set up: 

WE TURN THE FLOOR PIECES OVER SO THAT THE BIKE TIRES
ARE ON THE PLYWOOD, INSTEAD OF THE NICE CARPET.
MIKE ADDED THE BIKE ATTACHMENTS TO A PIECE OF WOOD
THAT EASILY LIFTS RIGHT OUT.  

TWO BIKES WILL FIT, BUT ONLY MIKE'S IS LOADED UP. 

So far we are very happy with the purchase.  We love that we can camp anywhere we can park and we are pretty "stealth."  No one would really even know we are camping.  Obviously, we can't park everywhere, but there are lots of places around here with free "dispersed camping" on logging roads and/or fire roads.  We are hoping to take advantage of this free camping and now we feel more mobile... no more setting up and tearing down tents, etc. 

For the start of my month off, I get the house to myself!  Mike is off camping and mountain biking with some friends (sort of a guys weekend), and I'm totally content to relax at home and do whatever I feel like doing.  It's gonna be awesome! 

Happy Summer!!!