With a three-day weekend ahead of us, and an itching for a vacation, we headed up to South Lake Tahoe for Memorial Day. It was a little chilly, but was sunny most of the time.

We started off well…haha. It took us 40 minutes to get on the freeway, then another hour to get to Santa Clarita (normally it should take less than and hour from our house) so, we were not nearly as far along our drive as we’d planned by the time Britton woke up from his nap.

Then I chose poorly for dinner. We stopped at a little town (little did we know there was a bigger one 5 miles further) and we ate at a Mexican place that looked really authentic, with half of its menu in Spanish. Those places are usually delicious. Well, not so much.

Stopped off for the night in Sacramento. Not so nice of a Holiday Inn. And we thought we were going to have to backtrack 10 miles in the morning.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip went well. The mountains are gorgeous, with lots of waterfalls and still a bit of snow. It made me miss Utah a bit.

We couldn’t check in yet when we got there, so we looked around the town. It’s a lot bigger than I’d thought it would be. A little over 75,000.

Britton found a fun play-place.

Nice bench

Climbing

Made it!

Yay water!

We got settled, had dinner and went swimming. Brit loved it! Those lessons are paying off.

The next morning we went up the Gondola (or helicopter as Britton calls it) at Heavenly.

Our route.

Very excited.

The Lake from the observation deck. Sooooo beautiful!

Though, at the top it was cold and snowy. All that was missing were skis. Unfortunately, snow and crocs don’t really mix.

Then we headed for a drive around the lake. We heard it was a good idea. It was. This is Emerald Bay. Apparently Kodak says it’s the 2nd most photographed place in the US after the Grand Canyon.

It was really greenish and lovely.

Monday we planned a hike, and a visit to Tallac. It’s one of the first luxury summer homes on the lake. The homes are large and beautiful. Britton had fun with a couple of favorite past times.

Running Away

Attack of the Giant Pinecone

So, the directions to our hike were a little confusing, so we decided to go on a different one. But, we didn’t really follow those directions either. We were supposed to end up along the opposite side of the lake, but we drove around and saw all the cabins along the right side of the picture and had our picnic lunch here instead.

Fallen Leaf Lake

Lounging

Sadly, it started to sprinkle a little as we left. Isn’t it a rule Memorial Day is supposed to be nice and sunny?

I really want to go back and get in some bike riding and more exploring. Maybe in a couple of years. It made me miss the mountains though, and I’m determined we’re going to get out more. (Not that I was a big hiker/out door girl before LA, but for some reason I feel like I want to be now.)