Tuesday, July 04, 2006

This mountain hides a secret.

On the edge of Nevada, lies a mountain unlike the other mountains.

This one is home to Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America. The first time I was there, Sam and I stumbled upon her almost entirely by accident. We were on our way from Utah to San Francisco, much like Cam and I were today. And at the time, while I'd heard people talk about Lake Tahoe, I didn't know what all of the fuss was about. Then, on the final leg of our journey, we rounded a bend and there she was, spectacular.

Nestled in evergreen trees, surrounded on all sides by mountains...And while I fully remembered the mountains, what I hadn't considered was how difficult crossing them would be in our U-Haul. Before, Sam and I had come in from Carson City. This time, I thought it would be a good idea for us to take a less-congested highway that appeared to be a shorter route and would by-pass the city. It was but it also was a mountain road. It wound left then turned right then meandered back left again, all the while either climbing bravely toward the sky or careening downward again. If this had been purely a recreational visit, we'd have both been amazed by the stunning views from the road. Sometimes, it seemed like we were on top of the world. The views off the side of the road were breath-taking, literally. I don't want to think of what it would be like for a car that left the road and met the steep drop-off just out our window. It was beautiful. We were so high, we found snow.

But it was pretty stressful for the one driving the U-Haul. He rallied back though and got a cabin for us right on the lake, in the heart of Tahoe, at the place I'd been visualizing when I mentioned how Sam and I had stopped to take pictures there the last time we'd been through. This time we were staying and celebrating. We had much to celebrate. It was our one-year wedding anniversary. We were on the border of California, our new state of residence and we would arrive in our new home the next day.

We walked up the beach and out to the end of a pier to relax and watch the sunset.

It was good to relax.
glorious...
Afterwards, we shared a lovely dinner in the lodge. One of the finest of the trip.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I'm skimming the blog. Did I ever tell you that Jim and I had our honeymoon in Lake Tahoe? The lake was really low back then because of droughts in California, but it was still beautiful. Your pictures brought back some good memories. Its interetesting to me how everyone I know these days wants to have a honeymoon in an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas or something, but we thought Lake Tahoe was the coolest.

Carma said...

Just beautiful shots of the mountains.
Hey, and really cute hair cut byt the way!!