Lake Tahoe and The Biggest Little City in the World

We arrived in Lake Tahoe just in time to see the sunset over the lake.  It was so gorgeous and I was lucky enough to get some good pictures.  We came in on the Nevada side, passing all the casinos, but we stayed on the California side. . . much calmer there.

The next day, we drove the 17 miles around the lake.  It doesn't sound like very far, but with all the fun places to stop and the amount of cars, it takes a good couple of hours.  My most favorite place is Emerald Bay.  We honeymooned here and was able to take a boat into the bay.  We also went through Vinkinsholm Castle and hiked up to Eagle lake.  But I was surprised at how much the prices had skyrocketed.  We did stop at several overlooks to take pictures and read up on the history.  We decided rather than playing in the lake and swimming, we could leave and get to our hotel in Reno early enough to swim.  So after all the sightseeing and such, we headed out.

A little friend that posed for me so perfectly

After arriving in Reno and checking into our hotel, we were informed that the pool was closed due to a private party.  The kids were very bummed and I was quite irritated.  I told the front desk that they should notify people of that change beforehand cuz we would have booked at another hotel.  Even though it didn't change the fact that we couldn't swim, he gave us a better rate.  We were on the 12th floor and of course, our room overlooked the pool.  It was a very nice pool and we were more bummed to have to watch the party going on.  So we took off to see the city and take in a movie. . . .Toy Story 3.  It was very cute and made me a bit sad as Andy goes off to college.  It hits too close to home since T is going in a couple of years.

Since we didn't get the chance to swim the night before and we all slept late the next morning, I took the little girls down to the pool while the others got ready to go.  It was a fantastic pool and then I was bummed that I didn't get in my swim suit to swim myself.  Once everyone was ready, we headed to "MY" diner for breakfast. . . . that's right, "Mel's Diner" was located in our hotel.  Do you remember that from the movie "American Graffiti"???

From there, we headed to Salt Lake, passing the Bonneville Salt Flats, to stay the last night of our vacation at my parent's house.  We went straight to IKEA to get some shopping in before they closed and then had our last In N Out burger for a very long time.

What a blast we had on our 2 week vacation.  My hubby never takes that much time off, so I can truly say, we made it worth our time.  We got a lot in, saw a lot of fun places and had a total blast as a family.  I am not sure we can top this vacation, but I know I will sure try.

Thanks for enduring all these many posts of our vacation....can you imagine if I tried to get it all into one post.  That would have gone on for days. (wait.....it did! :)  )