Lake Tahoe

 So we are heading out on our whirlwind adventure vacation. First stop Lake Tahoe. We stayed in Tahoe for one night. Then we went onto Monterey and stayed there for four nights. We ended in Yosemite and stayed two nights before heading home. It was a big U shaped vacation on the map and I thought we did well with each place. Just a little sampling of what each location had to offer.

 Lake Tahoe was full of rock skipping fun. We arrived at our hotel and there was a live band playing right across the street at the Lake's edge. I am sure the entire city came out to hear them because it was crowded! We walked over to enjoy the music and strolled up the shoreline. We discovered monster sized pinecones with pinenuts in them. I picked a few from a tree and we are drying them out to see if we can harvest some fresh pinenuts in a few weeks.

 We were setting up a timed photo here and some nice woman had compassion on us and just snapped it for us.

 This is day two at Tahoe. Ali and I are resting on a cool red bench outside the museum. They sold us trout food to throw to the trout. We could see the enormous trout from the top of the bridge but none of them would come over to eat our food....hummm seems like a bit of a scam going on to me.

 Hiked to the top of Eagles Rock. Beautiful views of the lake and bonus we got to see new species of birds we hadn't spotted before.

 Timed photo from a rock. Not too shabby! Byron set this one up. We had been having timed photo fun on vacations since our honeymoon. Sometime when people offer to take our picture I am disappointed because setting up a successful timed photo is fun.

 Tyler looking rugged and handsome. Looking off into the distance and contemplating life. Probably more like wondering when we are ever going to move on....how long can you stare at a lake anyway?

 Our new favorite photo move is the reach out and snap photo. I always think I look weird if I reach out my arm to snap the photo but Byron is better at managing a good smile and reaching at the same time. Longer arms I guess.

 After our hike we headed up to Squaw Valley, the old Olympic Village to check out the ski resort. We found a great pizza place and spotted a Brewer's Blackbird. New species!

 We promised the kids a swim in the lake so before heading off to Monterey they took a quick snorkel in Lake Tahoe. Quick because it was freezing cold in there not because the parents were pushy and made them get out early.

 Drying off on the warm rocky beach of Lake Tahoe. Dang my kids are cute!

Ali's new nickname is Sunshine because she is brings a ray of sunshine with her wherever she goes. Her hair may be the actual color of the flaming sun. She is always happy, always singing, always whistling or chatting away but she will always bring a smile if her attention is turned toward you.