Tahoe Queen

We drove 10 minutes round the lake this morning, parked the car in California and walked over the state line into Nevada. 

On the California side, there's a ski village called Heavenly Village, with lots of bars, restaurants and shops, plus some very big hotel complexes.  The ski lift was open, but there's no way I'd get Alan on that - there's almost a vertical climb to the top of the mountain!

As soon as we walked into Nevada, the vibe changed completely - there are so many big casinos, including a huge Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  As I collect Hard Rock Cafe glasses, we went in to see if there was a shop, and were suprised at the size of the casino, it was huge!  It was only about 10.30am and people were already in there playing the machines.  We found the shop and when we walked in the girl asked where we were from - it's such a small world, her mum and brother both live in Brighton, and her mum is on the panel of 'Big Brother's Bit On The Side'.  But not only that, she was born in Widnes which isn't far from where Alan comes from, and has family in Macclesfield where I lived when I met Alan.

We then went to Zephyr Cove (Nevada) as I wanted to go on the paddle steamer for a trip round the lake.  There were two trips, one at 1.30pm which took 2.5 hours and cost $51 each, or one at 5.30pm which was for 1.5 hours and cost only $15 each - so naturally we chose the later one. 

While we were there, we had lunch at the Zephyr Cove Restaurant, and that's when the fun started!  The local Sheriff turned up and demanded that a guy got out of his car which was parked at the side of the terrace where we were sat.  Then his deputy turned up and they make the guy 'walk the line' - he practically fell over, so he'd obviously had a few too many! The next thing, a State Trooper and the Park Ranger arrived, so  there must have been a bit more to it than just alcohol.

After we finished our meal, we went into the shop adjoining, and I'd got a few things to pay for when Michelle (the shop lady) had a crisis and asked us if we'd mind 'holding the fort' as there was a problem.  She really was in a panic and very flustered, and from what we gathered, whoever had the keys to the till was about to get on the boat and they had the only set of keys.  It certainly made for an amusing afternoon!

As we had a few hours before our boat trip, we came back to the hotel and went down to the beach.  We paddled in the lake, which was surprisingly quite warm,  and sunbathed before heading back to Zephyr Cove for 5pm.

The cruise was very relaxing and the weather was perfect - it was about 20 degrees and not a cloud in the sky so we sat on the top deck.  The Captain let me into his control deck which was interesting to see, and I've posted his photo in my extras along with some others.  This shot was taken as the Tahoe Queen set out for the 1.30pm cruise, and as you can see there was rather a lot of people on board!

It's our last night in Tahoe, so on our way back to the hotel, we bought a bottle of champagne and sat on the balcony watching the sun go down.  Tomorrow we head back to San Francisco for two more nights, before flying home on Saturday.

Once again, thanks for all your comments, and apologies for the lack of mine!