Lake Tahoe Beach Retreat

We picked up our hire car this morning, and had quite a surprise at the size of the 'beast' we got.  I've put a photo of Alan next to it, in my extra photos so you can see the size - it's a Ford Expedition. 

We had a great road trip to Lake Tahoe and stopped off a few times.  We were amazed by the change in weather along the way too - when we left SF it was grey, chilly and drizzly, and soon after crossing the Bay Bridge the sky was blue.  We stopped just outside Sacramento as we passed a retail park where there was a huge pet shop that I wanted to go to, and when we got out of the car it was 23 degrees.  I bought the boys some California basket ball tops :-)

We carried on our journey and stopped to have a picnic at the Eldorado National Forest and have also posted a photo of this in my extras.  It was a really beautiful spot by the river.  Then we started to climb up the mountains on a very twisty road, reaching an alltitude of 7,000 ft and the weather quickly changed. It had rained heavily and the temperature dropped to 10 degrees, but when we arrived in Lake Tahoe, it was quite sunny and about 15 degrees.

Our hotel is right on the  beach of the lake so we've got an amazing view of the lake and once we'd unpacked we had a walk on the pier.  It's such a beautiful spot surrounded by the mountains and there's still snow on the tops. We had a drink at the bar on the pier and then went to a little Indian restaurant for dinner.  When we walked in it was a very basic looking place but was full of Indians which we thought was a good sign, and it certainly was, the food was fantastic!

It's been hard to choose my blip today, but decided on this one of the hotel's pier as the sun is setting. My other extra shots today are all taken from the beach and jetty of our hotel.

Most people say they leave their heart in San Francisco, but I think I'll be leaving mine here.