This is my fall break from work. Thursday night I picked my sweet mom up from the airport (just as a storm was blowing in). It was late and SUPER windy. We headed home where neither of us could sleep well since our adrenaline was pumping after a bumpy flight and intense ride home (wind gusts were blowing the car all around).
Anyway, we made it safely and the next morning, we woke up to this:
THE VIEW FROM OUR BACK DECK
Friday, we decided to go to head to Apple Hill (about an hour from Tahoe). It's a cute little area with LOTS of orchards and farms. They have apples, pumpkins, Christmas trees, and vineyards. Our first stop was at Rainbow Farm for some HOT APPLE CIDER DONUTS!
APPLE CIDER DONUTS ARE RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING!
WE STOPPED AT A VINEYARD WHERE MOM PICKED AND ATE GRAPES RIGHT OFF THE VINE
On the way home, we stopped to take a quick picture of the fall colors by the American River.
BEAUTIFUL FALL COLORS
Saturday morning we slept in, had breakfast, and around lunch time we decided to venture out. We took Zephyr to Kiva Beach to play and swim, then we were PLANNING to walk a path to the creek where the salmon are spawning. Instead, a group of "weirdos" were dressed all in red and running down the path... kinda strange... but the worst part was that they had marked the trail with flour (like all-purpose flour) and the park rangers weren't sure what the "white, powdery substance" on the trail was... so they shut down the whole trail. Ridiculous.
ZEPHYR AT KIVA BEACH
MT. TALLAC IN THE BACKGROUND
FALL COLORS ON THE BEACH
Since we couldn't walk the path through the woods, we drove a little further down the road where we were able to see the salmon.
LOTS OF SALMON
Sunday morning was another lazy morning around the house. Around midday we headed out for another adventure with Zephyr. This time we walked down a little nature path to the beach.
There is a pretty little stream that runs along the side of the nature trail and Zephyr had a great time playing in the little waterfalls.
That brings us to Monday. We spent the day driving south to Bodie State Park in California. It's an old mining town that is now a ghost town. Which, checks off an item on my bucket list if anyone is wondering.
Bodie is a super neat place. There are still LOTS of structures that remain from the booming mining town built in the 1800's but surprisingly, all the buildings that remain are only 5% of the structures when the town was at it's peak!
Buildings have collapsed or disappeared for various reasons (two big fires destroyed most of the town).
The town was a booming gold/silver mining town in 1877-1881.
THE TOWN IS NAMED AFTER W.S. BODEY FROM POUGHKEEPSIE, NY. CAN YOU IMAGINE MAKING IT CALIFORNIA FROM NY IN THE 1800's?? HE DISCOVERED GOLD HERE BUT DIED SOON AFTER IN A BLIZZARD. HE IS THOUGHT TO BE BURIED SOMEWHERE IN THE HILLS AROUND THE TOWN.
THE METHODIST CHURCH. THE PICTURE IS ACTUALLY STRAIGHT... THE CHURCH IS LITERALLY LEANING.
BEAUTIFUL GLASS WINDOWS IN THE CHURCH.
INSIDE ONE OF THE OLD HOMES.
THIS WAS THE HOME OF J.S. CAIN. HE WAS INITIALLY IN THE LUMBER BUSINESS AND PUT BARGES AND A STEAMSHIP ON MONO LAKE TO TRANSPORT LUMBER. IN 1888 HE BECAME A BANKER AND KEPT THE BODIE BANK OPEN UNTIL 1932. IN 1915 HE ACQUIRED THE MINE AND BECAME A PRIMARY PROPERTY OWNER IN BODIE. (TOWN PROBABLY SHOULD'VE BEEN NAMED AFTER HIM IF YOU ASK ME).
CARRIAGE
CASKETS IN THE MORGUE
INSIDE THE MUSEUM. THE WAGON IS A HEARSE.
MIKE WALKING OVER TO CHECK OUT THE OLD TRUCK
SLEIGHS!
THIS STORE WAS BUILT IN 1879 BY HARVEY BOONE (a distant cousin of Daniel Boone).
THE GAS STATION WITH A DODGE GRAHAM.
THE FIREHOUSE (REBUILT IN THE 1930'S).
INSIDE THE FIREHOUSE.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE.
THE BODIE BANK
THE VAULT
THE BLACKSMITH SHOP
THE JAIL. APPARENTLY NOT VERY EFFECTIVE.
SOME OF THE OLD MINING EQUIPMENT.
MIKE GETTING READY TO LOWER US INTO THE MINE (just kidding, it's closed).
BIG, OLD, REALLY OLD, MINING EQUIPMENT.
WHAT'S LEFT OF BODIE.... A ONCE BOOMING TOWN.
Visiting Bodie was seriously awesome. I just kept thinking about what it would've been like to live in those times. Life seemed as it would be more difficult in many ways, and yet in a lot of ways it seems like it was so much simpler. Very cool place to walk around and take in all the history.
Well, four days with my mom went by incredibly fast. I am so incredibly grateful she came to visit us and I am so very sad to see her fly back to NC tomorrow. Zephyr absolutely LOVES her and he's going to miss her for sure. Mom, I know you don't love flying but we so appreciate you coming to visit us. You are always welcome to come visit any time. Thanks for being so adventurous and driving all over California and Nevada with us. We love you so much! And I miss you already (and you haven't even left yet).
As for Mike and I... we will drop mom off at the airport tomorrow and then head east to Utah for the rest of the week. Stay tuned for more adventures.
Sorry I slacked on blog posts. We were super busy working on finishing up our deck project (which we FINALLY got done). But, here's the latest from Tahoe in pictures and videos:
We had some pretty epic storms in September... this storm actually spawned a small funnel cloud over north lake (can't see it in this video but you can see a bolt of lightning).
STORM CLOUDS MAKE THE BEST SUNSETS!
LEAVES ARE STARTING TO CHANGE
STOP TO SMELL THE FLOWERS
LOVELY WALK IN THE WOODS
FROSTY GRASS AND STEAM RISING FROM THE WATER
FROSTY SAND AND STEAM RISING FROM THE LAKE
SO REGAL
THE WATER WAS WARMER THAN THE AIR TEMP
THE SALMON ARE RUNNING
I love it when the air gets cool, the leaves change colors, and the salmon start spawning (and the tourists start leaving... at least until the winter).
