Lake Tahoe

Time: Oct 9-10, 2015

Place: Lake Tahoe loop

Company: Family, parents, brother, sister-in-law, wife, daughter

Highlights: For daughter’s birthday on 11th, parents had come from India & brother and his wife had come from Detroit. To make the family get-together extra special, we planned for a small vacation to Lake Tahoe. It was to be my third (first on September 2006 & second on May 2012)

Day 1: Tontu finished her school at 11:30 am and then we had quick lunch and departed at about 2 pm. There was some traffic near Sacramento but it didn’t keep us up too tied up. Just as the daughter finished seeing Frozen (for the second time in her life and for the first time in a moving vehicle), we reached our hotel in South Lake Tahoe city. It was a nice big suite-kinda-family room that housed all of us. Quick rest later, we went to Nikki’s chaat café. I was surprised that Taj Mahal restaurant was no longer in operation. And then it was time to retire back at the room. Of course, the 4-year-old was a big entertainer!

Day 2: It was heartening to see the Tahoe lake so dry, what with California being in draught. We decided to go around the Tahoe in a clockwise route so that we could take in all that Tahoe had to offer (something that I hadn’t done before in my previous trips). Our first stop was at Emerald Bay, where we took some pictures. It resembled of Crater Lake. Then we drove on. Much of the road didn’t skirt the shoreline so it kind of became monotonous. But then we took a stop at King’s Beach. This place was awesome. The depth of the lake was so shallow (maybe because of evaporation) that we could walk in many yards into the lake and feel as if we were surrounded by it and yet the water was just a few feet deep. Added to this, there were tiny waves which made the feeling more special. We spent a long time here. We continued on and had lunch at a Thai restaurant in Incline Village, then made one more stop near Zephyr Cove beach for more pictures. After that, at about 4 pm, we headed back home which was a 4 hour drive. 

Overall: We missed some good attractions such as the Squaw Valley gondola and even the South Lake Tahoe gondola due to seasonal maintenance, which was very unfortunate. Also, it was a short trip that could have been extended but we had to be home early because of the birthday party the next day!