Lake Tahoe Trip

We had an amazing opportunity to take a trip to Lake Tahoe last week (a huge thanks to Aunt Lisa)! My Mom, Darel, Nathan, Jacob and I stayed for a week in Squaw Valley - home to the 1960 Olympics in a beautiful condo at the base of the mountain, where the ski lifts were right out our front door. It was an awesome vacation, very relaxing and we had a great time. Again, I didn't have my camera, but luckily Darel had his camera with him, we were able to capture some of our vacation. My mom, Jacob and I flew out of Seattle into Reno airport, while Nathan and Darel drove down with all our luggage (and numerous Jacob items) so we didn't have to rent a car. Mom's poor Lexus got to meet some very interesting hunting roads on the way down, many dirt roads that turned into highways along the way (hey, it's the way the GPS told them to go). Needless to say, the boys took I-5 all the way back home. This was Jacob's first plane ride and he did GREAT! No crying, he loved looking out the window and thankfully, both flights were not full, so we had an extra seat for him - which he thought was pretty cool.

Here is the village next to our condo, most of the stores and restaurants had strange hours because it wasn't peak season yet. The weather was warm for the first 5 days we were there, then snowed the last 2 days. We would love to see the area covered in the snow, but it was great to be there during the non-tourist season, especially with Jacob. Thank goodness there was a Starbucks in the Village, only open from 7am-5pm which is unheard of in Seattle, many are open 24 hours. I think the most money we spent in Tahoe was at Starbucks throughout the week!!! Good old Chai Teas and Latte and Mochas!

We took a drive around Lake Tahoe many times, it was so beautiful. We spent a lot of time in Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe. The houses were amazing around the lake... what a life!

Okay, so I can't stand this picture of me, but it's one of the only family photos we captured on this trip. I seem to always be behind the camera lens!

Jacob has been walking now for 2 months, but now he is running everywhere. It's difficult to keep up with him. Between running, a higher elevation of 6,200 feet and traveling, he slept great the entire week. Honestly, I was a little nervous on how Jacob would be a week away from home, but he was incredible, hardly cried and kept us entertained and laughing constantly. He was a lot of fun and I wouldn't hesitate to go on another vacation soon (hint, hint)...

While driving around Lake Tahoe, I wanted to take a detour to Fallen Leaf Lake. We weren't sure where the lake was, but after a very long narrow windy road, out in the middle of nowhere, there is a beautiful lake with incredible log cabins around it. A very seclusive area, I would recommend the drive to anyone!

We stopped at a park in Tahoe City

Jacob has been into handing his toys to anyone who will take them for months now, and then proceeds to take them right back (as if he just wanted you to see them, not take them). Now, he hands anything and everything to anyone. You can imagine all the lovely things you will find in the outdoors - so most of my pictures of Jacob are of him handing things to someone. And if you put them down, he then hands them right back to you - acting offended you didn't keep his precious items.

I wish we had gotten better pictures of Jake sliding, he absolutely loved it! He would laugh all the way down the slide.

We had a full kitchen in the condo, but we went out to eat a few times. Here we are at River Ranch, we also ate at Jake's in Tahoe City which was really good (Jake eating at Jake's, hahaha - I know, it's late and I'm tired).

We took a hike up to Eagle Lake one day, which is about 8 miles from South Lake Tahoe. It was a lot of fun, especially for Jacob. It was about 1 mile to the lake and at a steady incline, so it took some time, but we had a great time.

We made it!

We also saw a bear looking for some food (don't worry, he wanted fish, not us)!

Taking a walk along the waterfront, Jacob wanted to get out of the stroller and have some fun. As I am sure I have mentioned, he is a very independent little boy, refuses to hold anyone's hand and runs the exact opposite way you are trying to get him to go. But it's just so adorable to watch him run across the grass!

We drove back to South Lake Tahoe on one of the snowy days to try and take the Gondola ride, but it closed due to high winds. Here is a picture of Emerald Bay (right across the road from Eagle Lake Trail). This is the only part of Lake Tahoe that has froze over. Here is another fact I found interesting: 1.4 million tons of water evaporates from the surface of Lake Tahoe daily, dropping the lake level about 1/10 of an inch. Pretty interesting...

It became extremely windy on our 6th day at Tahoe, what a huge difference from the nice calm water and weather we were used to when we first arrived.

Unfortunately, on the plane ride home, my mom and I had to hang out at the airport for awhile before our flight. We found a place out of most of the foot traffic to let Jake run and run and run some more. There were lots of slot machines by our gate in Reno, every 10 minutes, the theme song from Wheel of Fortune would come on (Jake's 2nd favorite show) and he would stop running and dance, it was hilarious! He made a lot of friends on each of our flights, he is very friendly and of course, loves attention. On our flight home, he actually fell asleep for an hour - I guess all that running really paid off!

He loved this bear in the airport, I think he wanted to take it home with him.

We had a great family vacation, it's amazing how quickly a week goes by when you are having fun.