Spaghetti Monster

Michael and I had left over spaghetti for lunch. He almost all of it before he got into the 'Cookie Monster' mode and completely finished his plate, which most of it did end up on the floor for the dog to eat. It was so funny! Then, he felt the need to squish his corn then eat it. Funny boy.

Building a fort

Michael, Sophie (my neice) and I built a fort in my living room. We had a lot of fun!!

It's good to be home!

We got home last night and am so excited to be back. I loved being able to hug and kiss Michael after a week. He was so cute when he drove up. He ran to us with the biggest smile on his face! Such a reward!

It's good to be home!

Vikingsholm

Today, our last day here at Lake Tahoe, we hiked down to Vikingsholm Castle on the shore of Emerald Bay. It was a mile hike down hill, then of course a mile hike uphill. We are so out of shape!! We are now so sore from the hike.

Once we hiked down we saw the beautiful castle.

This is the view from the front of the castle. I would love to have this kind of front yard!

Then, we took another small hike from the visitors center, just east of the castle up to Eagle Falls. This is a picture of the waterfall, which as you can see is non existent. It would be gorgeous in the spring time though with the winter rundown.

Heavenly Flyer

Today, we went up the the Heavenly ski resort up the Gondola and then we rode on the flyer which was AWESOME!!

We rode up the Heavenly Gondola 9,156 feet, which was also very steep. The view was spectacular!

We got to get off at the top of the mountain for an awesome view.

Then we got back on the Gondola to get to the ski resort. There was rock climbing, blow up slide for kids, a restaurant , trails and tons of lounge chairs. We hiked and lounged- we were prepared and had our books- while we waited for our turn to get on the flyer.

At 3:00, it was finally our turn for the Heavenly Flyer. We took another lift up another 3,100 feet where we prepared for a 525 foot drop. Sweet!! We had fun talking with the other people in our group, mostly women, who were going on about how nervous yet excited they were. I was more excited. During the 525 foot drop, and 3,100 foot length, you could go about 60 MPH.

Me and Wayne had the pleasure of going first. We got strapped in and were told to lift our feet up off the ground and lean against the gate. Then they opened the gate and we soared off. It was exhilirating!! You felt so free as you flew down the mountain over the trees. It was awesome! It lasted about a minute, but it was still worth it! Once we got to the bottom, there were coils to slow us down. Then, we were unhooked and just slid down out of the seat. What a thrill!!

MSDixie II Dinner Dance Cruise

Last night we went on our Dinner Dance Cruise across the Lake to Emerald Bay. The MS Dixie II is a paddle wheeler, which also has five diesel engines to help it along. It was a sunset cruise, which was really neat, but by the time we got to Emerald Bay, it was hard to see Fannette Island as well as the Vikingsholm Castle. So, some of our pictures didn't turn out because our camera sucks at night time. Oh well... We did see through the big spot light the paddle boat shown on the Island and Castle, but it would have been better with day light.

It took an hour to get to Emerald Bay. It was kind of sad that there were people there who were already drunk before getting on the boat. So, it was kind of interesting. Some people are funny drunks, but these people were the annoying kind. Most of them belonged to a big biker group and came together, so they probably were feeding off of each other in their drunkeness. Some of the guys would stand on the front of the boat with their arms wide open and looking up at the sky... they were impersonating Rose from The Titanic.

It was so cold on the top deck. We stayed on top for the whole hour to the Bay to watch the sunset. My poor ears were frozen. Cuddle time!! It was fun to watch the sun set. it was really pretty seeing the reflection of the sun along the shore of the lake. Despite not having the sunlight to see the Fannette Island, it was still cool to see that close.

We were then called down to dinner. We sat with a couple from Colorado, which we had met up on the top deck. They were really fun to talk to. For dinner, we had shrimp cocktail, caesar salad with garlic bread sticks, choice of steak, artichoke heart stuffed chicken, Mahi Mahi, or ravioli. Wayne chose the steak and I the Chicken. For dessert there was a chocolate trilogy cake. It was really tasty!

After dinner, there was a live band playing and dancing on the middle level indoors. A lot of people danced and got all crazy, it was fun to watch them. Me and Wayne went up top for a minute to see the stars for about 5 minutes, that was about all I could handle of the cold. :) We spent the rest of the evening watching the people make fools of themselves dancing and singing. We did sing along as we watched.

We had a good time on the boat. It would have been funner if we had some close friends with us, but that is ok. We still had a great time.

Emerald Bay

Wayne and I drove to Emerald Bay today. WOW is all I can say! It was beautiful! The water was so blue and clear! And the trees were everywhere and so tall!

The Island is called Fannette Island and is the only island on Lake Tahoe.

After Emerald Bay, we kept driving and finally turned around at Meeks Bay. It is a 71 mile drive all the way around the lake at 35 miles per hour... that's why we turned around. On our way back through, we stopped at the Taylor Creek Visitors Center, which was really cool. The actual center was nothing, but they had a Rainbow Trail that was really cool. It was beautiful and well worth the walk.

Halfway through the trail, there was a really cool underwater observatory where we could see the fish and crawdaddys.