20 Weeks in Tahoe
I wish we were spending 20 weeks in Tahoe! Alas, I was simply 20 weeks pregnant, spending a weekend in Tahoe for Memorial Day. Andrew and I drove up Saturday morning and headed straight for King’s Beach, where we unloaded towels and blankets and sunscreen and hats and proceeded to spend several hours reading by the lake. We’d brought lunch from home, thanks to our large, brand-new cooler (we live in suburbia now—a cooler was the inevitable next step) and had cold lemonade and salads and sandwiches.
Eventually we checked into our hotel, the Ferrari’s Crown Hotel. We stayed there last year when my parents visited, and though the rooms are basic bordering on shabby, we love this place because it is a lakefront hotel—the rooms are literally yards from the lake, and the views simply can’t be beat. Plus, it’s clean, reasonably priced, with a nice breakfast in the morning, and a pool and hot tub. Perfect for a weekend getaway.
We spent almost two full days simply lying in the sun, reading, watching geese swim by, and idly wondering if we should go in the water. However, the water was ice cold. In the not-so-far distance, the Sierras are still capped in snow. Andrew went in the pool a couple of time and nearly froze to death.
Saturday night, we went to a beachfront restaurant called Jason’s for burgers, then headed to our other favorite place in Tahoe—the Cal Neva Resort—for a little casino fun. We are the worst casino patrons ever, counting every bill we spend and relentlessly calculating our “profit” so we wind up primarily playing with the “house money.” This is all very small-scale: we put nine dollars into the nickel slots, wound up with a little “profit,” and then played for a while on a quarter-slot machine, on a game called “Lucky Duck.” We won a few quarters, lost a few quarters, and generally amused ourselves with silly chants, lucky belly-rubbing, and painstaking separation of our “profits.”
At one point, a guy on the machine near us looked over and said, “You two honeymooners?” We laughed. We wound up with $20.
Sunday morning, we got up at dawn to see the sun rise over the lake. Though the mountains blocked the sun for longer than we were willing to stay outside, it was a beautiful time nonetheless.
Sunday night, we had Mexican food for dinner then decided to test our luck at the Cal Neva again, playing solely with our $20 from Saturday. We wound up with $8. But we had fun.
After we left Tahoe this afternoon, we drove to Truckee, a cute mountain town with a main street lined with nice cafes and boutiques. We had lunch, strolled around, and then headed home. It was a perfect way to spend the holiday.
Eventually we checked into our hotel, the Ferrari’s Crown Hotel. We stayed there last year when my parents visited, and though the rooms are basic bordering on shabby, we love this place because it is a lakefront hotel—the rooms are literally yards from the lake, and the views simply can’t be beat. Plus, it’s clean, reasonably priced, with a nice breakfast in the morning, and a pool and hot tub. Perfect for a weekend getaway.
We spent almost two full days simply lying in the sun, reading, watching geese swim by, and idly wondering if we should go in the water. However, the water was ice cold. In the not-so-far distance, the Sierras are still capped in snow. Andrew went in the pool a couple of time and nearly froze to death.
Saturday night, we went to a beachfront restaurant called Jason’s for burgers, then headed to our other favorite place in Tahoe—the Cal Neva Resort—for a little casino fun. We are the worst casino patrons ever, counting every bill we spend and relentlessly calculating our “profit” so we wind up primarily playing with the “house money.” This is all very small-scale: we put nine dollars into the nickel slots, wound up with a little “profit,” and then played for a while on a quarter-slot machine, on a game called “Lucky Duck.” We won a few quarters, lost a few quarters, and generally amused ourselves with silly chants, lucky belly-rubbing, and painstaking separation of our “profits.”
At one point, a guy on the machine near us looked over and said, “You two honeymooners?” We laughed. We wound up with $20.
Sunday morning, we got up at dawn to see the sun rise over the lake. Though the mountains blocked the sun for longer than we were willing to stay outside, it was a beautiful time nonetheless.
Sunday night, we had Mexican food for dinner then decided to test our luck at the Cal Neva again, playing solely with our $20 from Saturday. We wound up with $8. But we had fun.
After we left Tahoe this afternoon, we drove to Truckee, a cute mountain town with a main street lined with nice cafes and boutiques. We had lunch, strolled around, and then headed home. It was a perfect way to spend the holiday.
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