Tahoe

For three days, I would only drink my carefully collected tap water from Tahoe and cherished it as though it was nectar from the Gods.  I had read about the quality of Tahoe water somewhere and couldn't believe it would measure up against the Fiji water I usually drink 2 liters of each day.  But it does, and it's free (well, sort of, after the hotel bill is paid).  Once I looked down into Emerald Bay on Tahoe's west side from a roadside pull-out, I understood completely.  It's one thing to read that Tahoe's water is 97-99% pure and that in some parts of the lake objects are visible 30 feet below, but seeing is believing.  Emerald Bay is.....pristine.  And every other view I enjoyed from all parts of the lake were equally dreamlike.  It reminds me of a Coors commercial, everything sparkling, fresh, clear and unspoiled.  I guess it's not hard to imagine that I'd want to put all that great stuff into a water bottle and keep drinking it after I'd moved on to another less pristine, may I say, repulsive spot along I-80 where nothing grows and you have to use a pit toilet.  But, I'm off the subject--please excuse me.

We spent one glorious morning driving up the western side of Lake Tahoe to Truckee, stopping at every pull-out until we realized that due to the switchbacks and photo ops we'd only advanced a couple of miles in 45 minutes.  Driving along I suddenly had a thought that the Michael Corleone's Tahoe compound from the Godfather 2 must be somewhere close by.  I did a quick search on my iPhone and realized that, indeed, it was only a mile and half from our current spot.  In a matter of moments, there it was, unmistakably.  The little cove where Fredo was shot in the fishing boat was right before us.

Corleone compound

Donner Memorial

Further north is the site of the Donner Tragedy.  We pulled up to the State Park where there's a museum and memorial but the museum is closed in the winter on Tuesdays so we contented ourselves with a close-up viewing of the memorial.  The story is tragic and known to most but rather than re-tell it, here's a link to the story.
http://www.history.com/topics/donner-party

We had a wonderful Concierge at our hotel who guided us to a great restaurant right on the water in South Lake Tahoe, called Riva Grille.  The temperature was in the mid-50s when we arrived, but we were assured that dining al fresco was completely possible due to the plexiglass surrounding the deck.  I was doubtful, but the sun (which hadn't yet set) is brighter and warmer in Tahoe and we leisurely enjoyed our dinner watching the beach scene in front of us.  An adorable Border Collie was making friends with everyone on the beach who cared to throw a frisbee to her, whether they were skilled and could make it float high enough for her to scamper across the sand and make an athletic catch or they were about 7 years old and shot it directly into the dirt six feet from her.  She must have continued her game for over an hour, hardly pausing for fear she might not make the rounds to the entire beach crowd.  Unfortunately, she was too far away for us to get a picture of her.

Tahoe was our last fun, touristy stop on the trip.  We are beginning our descent into the Kalamazoo region, as the airlines like to say.  It will take us until Monday night to reach home.