Lake Tahoe

This is long overdue. Life is just busy, isn't it?

In late August Andy and I took an early 5 year anniversary trip to Lake Tahoe (sans Austin). Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for watching him while we were gone - I'm pretty sure he had more fun with them than he does with us at home!

I had never been to Tahoe, but Andy grew up going in the summers when he was a kid and loved it. It was on my California Bucket List so it seemed like a great choice. We debated between Santa Barbara and Tahoe, but clearly Tahoe won.

I'm so glad we picked Tahoe - it was BEAUTIFUL and a perfect mix of active and relaxing and it was the right time of year to go. The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm during the day and a little chilly at night.

We roughed it at the Ritz at Northstar for the week. One good thing about a hubby who travels A LOT is points - we very rarely have to pay for a hotel or flights, and this was one of those trips. Thank you Marriott points for a lovely vacation!

Ritz Carlton - Lake Tahoe

We drove up on Saturday morning bright and early. The drive is about 10 hours from San Diego but we took the back roads past Mammoth and through the mountains so it wasn't bad. It was also nice to have car time to chat without the runt. We love him to death, but its definitely nice to have one on one time with each other.

For our memory and a for your info if you ever want to visit, here was our itinerary. There is SO MUCH more to do, but we didn't have a ton of time. We plan to go back and stay longer next summer with Austin. Its definitely a family friendly place. Our hotel even allows dogs - we could have brought the Dexter Dog.

Saturday night - lounge by the pool, Dinner at GarWoods, smores by the fire at the hotel (a nightly tradition)

View from our room

GarWoods

Sunday - Breakfast at Fire Sign Cafe (a must!), hike DL Bliss State Park and Vikingsholm Castle, then back to the hotel for pool time. Dinner at Manzanita at the hotel, then took the gondola down to Northstar Village to explore.

Lighthouse at DL Bliss 

Balancing Rock

Monday - Shopping in Tahoe City, then amazing bike ride from Squaw Valley to Sunnyside for lunch. We rented bikes in the Squaw Valley Village and rode beside the Truckee River. It was 14 miles round trip - mostly downhill the way there, which meant lots of uphill on the way back...yikes!

Truckee River

Lunch at Sunnyside

Tuesday - Hike Rubicon trail at DL Bliss (Andy wanted to relive his childhood). We packed a picnic lunch, then drove all the way around the lake to check it out after our hike. Now that I've seen the whole lake, I'm glad we stayed on the North California side. I wasn't as impressed with the south side.  Then back to the hotel for another late afternoon poolside session and our last Tahoe dinner at Christy Hill.

View from my favorite chair probably with a mojito in hand.

Wednesday - Up early to drive home!

Next time, we definitely want to try more hikes, bike from Squaw to Sunnyside again, paddleboard, go to the beach, and the list goes on.... We kept saying how we could stay there for a month or two in the summer and never run out of things to do!