This year, we decided to spend the hottest, stickiest parts of the Florida summer in a cooler locale. We landed on the idea of travelling to Lake Tahoe, which has the virtues of cooler temps, ready access to water and watersports, and mountains with trails and other attractions. Last but not least, it is within 2 hours of our youngest daughter’s home.

We originally had arranged to rent a condo in the mountains of South Lake Tahoe but had to switch locales twice: Once because the owner decided to sell, and the second because the unit above our rental suffered a plumbing disaster which rendered our unit and several others unusable due to water damage 2 weeks prior to our arrival date. The rental agency scrambled and found us an older home, which astonishingly was located right on the lakefront!

The featured picture for this post is the sunset on the lake as seen from the backyard of our rental house. We have been amazed by the views, the different small wildlife, and the cooler temps. It has ranged from about 50 degrees F overnight to mid-80’s in the day without a speck of humidity and with an almost constant cool breeze. So far we have done a (short) hike on the Rubicon trail leading to Emerald Bay, rented a runabout to explore the southern portion of the lake, and spent time on the beach. We’ve tried out a few of the local restaurants, grilled out on the deck, and tomorrow night have tickets for a magic show near the casinos.

Click on any of these picture to see a larger version.