Well, our last week at Tahoe was another fun and eventful one, enhanced by the presence of Glenny and Kyle from Friday evening to our last day, today.
Friday night, Glenny and Kyle treated us to dinner at Evans, South Lake Tahoe’s petite gourmet restaurant, family run. The appetizers and entrees ran the gamut from carpaccio to quail, halibut to New York strip steak, and the desserts were delicious calorie bombs such as trio of chocolates cake, blueberry crème brulee, and strawberry cheesecake. We staggered out sated and with fat stomachs!
It was lucky we were fortified with calories, as we needed them the next day. We were fortunate enough to book a captained sailing adventure on a 33-foot racing sloop. Our captain Nick was a life-long racer born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the sailing is very challenging. The day was unusually windy, and the normally calm lake had 3-4 foot waves. We all piled into an inflatable dinghy and motored out to where Aeros was bobbing around on her mooring on the lake. We climbed aboard by standing in the dinghy, putting a foot up on the chest-high deck (chest high for Paula, at least) grabbing on to the sailboat’s rigging and scrambling onto the deck. It was a wet experience. Once aboard and sails hoisted, Nick invited Tom to man the tiller (steering mechanism) and off we went like a bat out of hell. Well, only about 8 to 9 knots, but it seemed faster according to Glennis. We sailed close-hauled most of the time, which meant that the sailboat was heeled steeply (leaning over on its side) much of the time. Quite often the low side’s lifelines and foot of the jib sail were trailing in the water. It was exciting, and a bit scary at times. Glennis’s face in the featured picture for this post captured the experience perfectly.
We had a great sail almost the whole length of the lake and back, returned safely and stopped on the way back to eat Mexican food.
Next day, Kyle suggested a jaunt around the neighborhood to see some of the houses. Some were for sale, and one had an open house, and we were curious. Since we’d need to cover some distance to see everything, Glenny and Kyle suggested we rent some of the electric scooters that are ubiquitous around the lake. You just grab one and rent it via a phone app, it turns on, and off you go. Paula was apprehensive, as she’d never used one, and isn’t the balance queen, but we were all surprised to find out how easy they were to operate. We had a great time zooming through the neighborhoods, and actually got to tour a 2+ million dollar home for sale that had an amazing view of the mountains.
That night, we went to the Hard Rock Casino, and had dinner at this amazing restaurant called The Oyster Bar. It is long and narrow, and right in front of the diners are individual cooking pots in which the chefs create portion-sized masterpieces such as Cioppino, Bouillabaisse, gumbo, low country boil, etc. Then they pour it right out into a giant bowl and place it in front of you to enjoy. We really overdid the food this week! We gambled a bit after: video poker and blackjack, and “Cashnado”. The last game was a letdown, but everything else was fun.
Monday, an old work and running buddy of Tom’s, named Jamie, flew into Reno. He had a work conference on Tuesday in Truckee, which is about an hour north around the lake, but was able to spend Monday and overnight with us. We chatted, took a walk, had shrimp and beef shish kabobs on the grill for dinner, and then had an intense game of craps on the dining room table with Kyle as croupier and instructor.
Tuesday, we had breakfast on the flattop, (Jaime got to be chef) then Tommy took Jamie to his conference. The rest of the afternoon was spent packing. We had frozen pizzas for dinner and then headed to the Dave Matthews concert at Harvey’s outdoor pavilion. We had an amazing time! The band was incredible, we were able to see everything, got T-shirts, and had fun watching the other concert goers who became more enthusiastic and danced more uninhibitedly as the night wore on and the drugs kicked in.
We turned in relatively early, packed the vehicles and tidied the house, then locked the door for the last time this summer. We felt a bit sad but were cheered up by a pancake and egg breakfast at Heidi’s, South Lake Tahoe’s premier breakfast restaurant. Afterwards we hugged and promised each other to have even more and different adventures next year, with luck!
Stayed tuned from this point on for daily posts chronicling our trip back across the country.