On Monday, after Glennis’ epic blow-out of a bridal shower weekend, we took her cousin Holly to the Sacramento airport and had good conversation on the way there. After, we headed back to Tahoe, stopping for lunch at a small café and shopping for groceries. We got back late in the afternoon and made a dinner of roasted vegetable and shrimp- easy and fast.

Tuesday, we hiked the Monkey Rock Trail, which was not too technical but was an uphill from the get-go. At the entrance to the park there was a fashion photoshoot taking advantage of the amazing backdrop of Lake Tahoe. The photographer’s assistant held silver diffusers to adjust the lighting. A clotheshorse held all the different outfits the model was showcasing and there was a small tent for the equipment and model to change in, and photographer and assistant.

The trail required a medium level of effort, and the rocky peak and the views were amazing and worth the climb. We met a woman from Cali and her Labrador retriever Sierra, who offered to take our picture together (featured picture for this post).

The descent felt like floating after the climb and we celebrated with lunch outdoors at Austin’s, a pretty restaurant in Incline Village and had sandwiches and conversation with our waitress. She was from Bulgaria and was spending the summer in the states to earn money and polish her (already very good) English before returning to university.

Driving home, we heard engine noise overhead and saw a giant helicopter towing a huge pine tree (with branches and needles and all!)  behind it, secured with some kind of line or chains. We tried to get a photo of the airborne timber, but no luck. We wonder where the tree came from and where it was going! Dinner was rockfish and leftover roasted vegetables.

Next day was a running day. Paula did hill repeats, which were taxing. Her watch tells her she is acclimated to a height of 5700 feet and we are at 6225, so she still has a way to go to get ready for more strenuous hikes. Tommy feels almost totally acclimated and had a great 6-mile run. We treated ourselves to sushi dinner at the Naked Fish, which was awesome. This is a very popular restaurant so we got there early and enjoyed the quirky fun atmosphere and decorations of stuffed marlin, odd psychedelic painting by local artists, and glass lighting shaped like jellyfish hanging from the ceiling.

Thursday, we did a 4.5-mile out and back hike on a portion of the Star Lake Trail. This was an ugly uphill slog on dusty fire road with beautiful view. We got 900 feet of elevation gain in the first two miles, and Paula was sucking wind.

Of course, this made for a very pleasant downhill return, and there were cool features such as a stream we had to cross on a makeshift bridge of limbs, and clumps of California Cobwebby Thistle which attracted tons of butterflies and skippers.

Crossing the stream on a makeshift bridge.

The video below shows a Two-Tailed Tiger Swallow Tail, with one tail tattered. She let Paula approach quite close, and gently touch the edge of her wing with one finger as she was feeding. (Does this make me a Disney Princess?)

Two-tailed Tiger Swallow

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and prepping dinner for Kyle and Glenny’s much anticipated arrival. They got here in good time and we had a dinner of seared salmon and garlic-caper green beans prepared on the flattop grill. Cooked sushi rice to accompany. We laughed and talked till dark, and then came inside to watch Star Trek. Truly a perfect day.