Kayaking & Birding in Florida

Friday, Oct. 4: Kayaking with Doug Gagnon and Paul Hamel. They had flown down from Amherst on Thursday night and we met them at a boat ramp at Turtle Beach on Siesta Key just south of Sarasota. We had rented kayaks with a guide to lead us around the 35 acre Jim Neville Preserve and Pelican Island from 10:30 to 2. The island reserve was created by Jim Neville to preserve land for birds and the health of the area. (Doug is with Sandy in the kayak.)

After some brief instruction (Paul hadn't kayaked before) we were on our way past some hotels and condos and on to the mangroves. It was a hot day but the breeze on the water felt great. The sky was blue until close to 2 when we got back to the shore. Birds sighted: kingfisher, tricolored herons, brown pelicans, bald eagle, anhingas, black vultures, ibis, cormorants, and cattle egrets. (We weren't sure about the differences between the cormorant and the anhinga until our canoe trip on Saturday.)

About 12:30 we stopped at Turtle Beach to stretch, have a snack and look at shells. There were tons of mostly unbroken shells on the beach. We collected a number of beautiful ones. Ryan, our guide, showed us shark's teeth and a stingray quill, black with grooves. Paul even found his own shark's tooth - not an easy thing to do on a big beach! Just south of this stretch of beach was Stephen King's winter home, still boarded up with hurricane shutters until at least the baseball season is over. In case you don't know, he's a major Red Sox fan!

It was a great relaxing trip. Ryan wasn't very knowledgeable about birds but he didn't get us lost, the main mission.

After a great lunch out on a patio under an umbrella and blown away by huge fans, we went back to Ft. Myers and Doug and Paul returned to his mother's home in Sun City Center, about 45 minutes north. It was so much fun doing this trip with Doug and Paul and visiting with them!

The bird in the water is a tricolored heron. The birds in the Brazilian pepper trees are pelicans.

Saturday, Oct. 5: We arrived at the Lakes Regional Park in Ft. Myers for a free canoe trip led by 2 members of the Bird Patrol. They help keep tabs on the bird population, do a bird count, and generally keep the county informed about the environment through the actions of the birds. We learned so much and saw a ton of birds!

Another man-made lake, it was originally a gravel pit in the 60s. Lee County purchased it in 1978 and it finally became a park in 1982.

There were 13 of us in 5 canoes. We tried to be careful not to paddle too close to the shore and disturb the birds but it was really hard. (This trip only occurs the first Saturday of each month so there really isn't much traffic here to stress the birds.)

Here we learned that the anhinga and cormorant are similar birds in that they are both black and lack oil in their feathers. But the cormorant has a hooked bill and the anhinga has a longer, pointed bill and sleeker body with a white tipped tail. We were fortunate to see a cormorant and an anhinga near each other on a tree to make the comparison.

There were a number of young birds born in the last few months who were still depending on their parents for food. We saw young herons and egrets who could only hop from branch to branch but were surprisingly large.

Bird sightings: tricolored herons, anhingas, black vultures, ibis, cormorants, and cattle egrets, and a new one today, a pileated woodpecker, just like in New England.

This is a frequent neighborhood sign for the golf-cart crossing. And here's our resident lizard named Charlie who keeps our lanai (open porch area) free of ants.

We really have enjoyed spending 3 weeks in Ft. Myers. We've done a lot to the house but also relaxed and had a lot of fun. We feel very fortunate to be doing the traveling we're doing. We look forward to seeing other friends and family in our travels.

Next adventures: Oct. 10-17, Davis, CA; Oct. 17-20, NYC; Oct. 20-25, Amherst, MA; Oct. 26-Nov. 20, Kauai and the Big Island, Hawaii.

A Fun Day of Shells, Birds, and Dolphins

We spent yesterday on Sanibel and Captiva Islands, west of Ft. Myers. It was a great day to be out since it was overcast and windy so didn't feel the 90 degrees it was. (And it was a Monday in October and we went sightseeing!!)

You don't see this sign everyday!

Our first stop was the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, an amazing museum which has only been open 12 years. (One of its benefactors was Raymond Burr.) It has incredibly good displays of shells on the islands and all over the world as well as info on other uses of shells. For instance, the cowrie has been used internationally as money for centuries. There was also a great short movie created by a woman who lives in Sanibel showing how mollusks move, mate, etc.

Our second stop was the Ding Darling National Wildlife Wildlife Refuge. It has an excellent Visitor's Center with great interactive displays, pictures, and videos to show the flora and fauna of the area. They have some guided tours but we did our own drive through the refuge. (We were happy they accepted the National Park pass Sandy had bought with Scott out west.) We saw some young raccoons, pelicans, ibis, roseate spoonbills, herons, and a couple of unknown birds.

Our last stop was the McCarthy's Marina near the end of Captiva. We took a narrated dolphin and nature cruise with Captiva Cruises. It felt great to be out on the water. We went to the end of Captiva and saw where Hurricane Charley ripped down all the trees in its path. At one point we had 2 dolphins swimming on either side of the wake that the boat made. Dolphins are tricky to photograph!

Maine to Michigan to Florida

We planned our three week trip from Amherst to Maine to Michigan to Florida in order to visit friends and relatives along the way. We really enjoyed our visits with everyone and could have stayed longer. Towards the end of the trip we listened to books on tape which made the time fly and also made sure we got out and took walks. We traveled about 3000 miles but it didn't really seem that long. We miss all of our Amherst friends but hope to see you at the end of October.

Highlights of our first three weeks with photos sprinkled in:

Amherst, Aug. 30: We had a great send-off dinner at Bertucci’s with friends. It should have been Sandy’s first day of school. (He did think about what the kids would have been doing at certain times during the day.)

Ogunquit, ME: Julie and Michael went with us. It was beautiful, as it always is, and we had a great visit with Sandy’s mother, June. We did a little work around the house. We managed to leave the computer in Maine and had June overnight it to Sandy’s brother in Rochester.

Rochester, NY: We had a really fun time with Sandy’s brother, Scott, wife, Amy, and our niece, Kerri. Daughter, Megan, was off at St. Lawrence University. Sandy loved golfing twice with Scott. We had dinner with college friend, Robb Adams, and wife, Nancy. There was lots of catching up. But, so much to say, so little time.

Toronto: First we did some sightseeing. We took an interesting tour of the city on the Hippo Tour, a bus that goes into Lake Ontario. We also went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Our favorite parts were the Bat Cave and the Bird Exhibit where the stuffed birds were mounted as if in flight. We hadn’t seen our niece, Tania, or nephew, Morgan, since our visit to their home in Belgium 5 years ago so they had changed a lot. They’re 17 and 15 now. We tried to catch up on things but, again, so much to say, so little time. We drove 2 cars to Michigan as Bruce and Linda were also going to a birthday party with us. At Customs, we learned we couldn’t bring into Michigan fruit with seeds. We had to give up our grapes and raspberries that Linda had given us.

Fenton, MI: We were thrilled to be able to help a family friend, Marge Conover, celebrate her 90^th birthday. It was great to see her and her children, Nancy and Don, and their families. Don came all the way from his and Nora’s home in Cali, Colombia, South America. Their daughter, Gloria, lives in Tucson, so we’ll definitely look her up when we’re there in March. (Since Bruce and Linda were there we got to visit with them more. They're in the right-hand picture.)

Ann Arbor, MI: Bev Seiford, friend from Amherst, has been trying to get us out to visit her and husband, Larry, for years now. After dinner we went to hear a bluegrass band play downtown, the “RFD Boys.” We didn’t know how much we enjoyed bluegrass. Larry made us copies of some of their CDs to listen to on our trip. We had brunch with Bev’s son, Jeff, and his friend, Jen. Sandy taught Jeff in 4^th grade so it was nice to see him again and talk with him as an adult. What a beautiful house they built with a great guest room!

East Lansing, MI: We had a delicious dinner and non-stop conversation with college friends, Gary and Dorinda Van Kempen. They talked a bit about the weak Michigan economy. All towns in Michigan get the same funding for students, helping the poorer communities and hurting the wealthier communities. Money comes from the 6% sales tax.

Casnovia, MI: Jakob Koster and his wife, Nellie, were gracious hosts for a lunch at their renovated farmhouse. We thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and then the tour of his house and yard. They have a huge vegetable garden, flower gardens, and even raspberries. Becky loved to see Jakob make the delicious pasta dish and wishes Sandy would get into cooking as much as he loves golf. Oh well, not reality!

Holland, MI: Carol and George McGeehan have been friends since 1966 when Carol and Becky lived in the same cottage at Hope College. It was great to be back in Holland where we spent 7 years. It's grown so much but also has tons of great recreation opportunities. Sandy enjoyed golf with George while Becky and Carol shopped and walked and talked. We enjoyed their dog, Muffin, who warmed to Sandy but not Becky. (No surprise there, Becky not being a dog person.)Left picture: Carol & George at Lake Michigan sunset. Right picture: McGeehan's and their yacht. (Well, they wish!)

Driving south: We saw lots of corn fields and flat land through Michigan and down into Indiana. Finally, south of Louisville we saw some hills! Our driving was made easier with our GPS system that Becky had to be convinced into buying. We also loved listening to XM Radio: the Red Sox, comedy shows, bluegrass music, 60s music, and Broadway show tunes.

Louisville, KY – home of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat made from white ash: We basically just stayed overnight.

Mammoth Cave, in Cave City, KY: We took a 4 ½ hour tour (with a ½ hour lunch break – yes, they actually have a little lunch place in the cave). It was pretty amazing seeing the different kinds of formations in this cave. Sandstone and shale keep the roof from caving in. Rushing water ate away the limestone and formed the cave. (At the lunch break we met a family from the Berkshires. She grew up in Longmeadow and her brother lives in Shutesbury!) Here are some interesting pictures from the cave. The bottom left is a spelunker exiting part of the cave we opted out of doing. Can you see how small the space is?

Nashville, TN: We started off at the Belle Meade Plantation, basically a horse farm. We had an interesting tour where we learned that one of their horses, Bonnie Scotland, sired Seabiscuit. The house was big and beautiful with numerous outbuildings for slaves quarters, a smokehouse and the gardener's house. I was surprised how well they treated their help. There was also a small craft fair that day so we wandered around that but it wasn't too interesting except for a woman who sold lace things. (I have some lace tablecloths I may sell to her.) There was some neat old cars in one large building which made us realize how the trunk of the car got its name. The car literally had a clothes trunk behind the back seat. (We're always learning!)

We headed downtown for a little walking tour but it turned out that the Nashville Titans football game was going to finish up in about 20 minutes so we didn't have much time to look around and head to Katey's and Sean's house. We saw on an fort down at Riverfront Park and also the football stadium right across the river.

Katey and Sean just got married last summer and just a month ago were able to enjoy the renovation of their home in Nashville. The renovation was gorgeous! We had a nice time visiting and watching the Patriots win. The next morning we were off on a long drive to Gainesville, FL.


In all our driving, I75 in Georgia had the best rest areas: beautiful, big areas with lots of picnic tables and sidewalks amongst trees.

Florida: We stopped to visit Becky's mother in her assisted living apartment on our way down to Ft. Myers. She's doing well and was very happy to see us. Becky hadn't seen her in a few months.






Ft. Myers: It was great to finally reach our destination although we didn't really mind the drive. We painted a number of rooms that only had the flat developer's paint on the walls. They took a number of days but came out great. We're sprinkling in some golf, time at the pool and the beach, reading, biking, kayaking, and sightseeing. We had dinner with a friend of Becky's from UMass, Alita Woodcock-Parody and her husband, Mark. They showed us a great restaurant by the Ft. Myers pier where we had dinner outside while the sun set. It was lovely!

Mark and Alita have been retired for four years so they are really enjoying having the time to do what they want when they want. Mark said the thing he misses most is the Friday high in anticipation of the weekend off!

We're looking forward to seeing Doug Gagnon and Paul Hamel on Friday, Oct. 4!

Next travels: Oct. 10-17, Davis, CA to see Scott and Libby. Oct. 17-22, NYC to see Julie and Michael, Oct. 22-26, Amherst, staying with Gagnons and Mullins.

Scott & Sandy's Trip Out West!

Day 1: August 20, 2007

Scott and Libby were moving to Davis, California in August. Libby’s parents gave them an old Saab and they had to get it from Duluth to Davis. Libby was in the middle of a project at work so I got to go cross country with Scott. Here’s a picture of the car. Scott and Libby drove down to Minneapolis on Monday, August 20. They were to meet me at the airport, have lunch with me and then Libby would fly to DC and I would start heading cross country with Scott.

Thunderstorms in the Minneapolis area caused my plane to be late by a couple of hours. Libby did make it out just before I landed. So…. Scott and I got in the car and started driving. He had a round dining room table from Libby’s parents that he had stuffed in the back so we had packed light. I had brought along some toys…our new GPS system from Garmin and an XM radio that I had also just bought. The GPS was great and we learned to trust it. We were also able to listen to the Red Sox games on the XM radio.

We first headed towards Mitchell, SD. It took us all afternoon to get there. We saw lots of windmills in the fields on either side of Route 90. They were huge and we were both surprised that we had not heard of the wind farms before. We got to Mitchell with about 45 minutes of light left in the day and headed right for The Corn Palace. I should have taken a picture. The Corn Palace is a large civic center type arena that is decorated on the outside and inside with large murals, all made of corn cobs. It was really quite imaginative. They said that they usually change the murals every year but it had been a dry year so we were looking at last year's murals. Here is an image that you can check out on the web.

We only spent 30 minutes there and then headed to our camp site. Scott pitched the tent in the dark and we slept pretty well.

Day 2: August 21

The next morning we were up and ready to go by 8:30. We had a quick breakfast in town at a counter in a grocery store, bought some food and headed out to the Badlands. We arrived at the National Park in the early afternoon. I bought an annual National Park pass which is a great deal at only $80. It gets you and anyone else in your car into any national park for one year. We more than made up for it on the trip. The Badlands is such a stark change from the prairie of South Dakota. It’s…well…really bad land to travel across. I’ll post a couple of pictures. It is very beautiful and appears out of nowhere. It's all water and wind erosion. "This whole area is slowly moving to the Missouri" was a quote we read about The Badlands.

We went to the visitor’s center and planned a 4 mile hike. We drove out to the trailhead and were immediately approached by a 10 year old boy asking to use a cell phone to call for help. His older brother, 14 or so, had gone hiking in the hills near the trailhead and had not been seen or heard from in 45 minutes. The rest of his family was looking for him. Scott called the park rescue services and then started looking for the kid. After about 45 minutes he was found about a quarter mile away. He had gotten himself out on a ledge where he could not get back. It took the rescue service all afternoon to get him down. And Scott and I managed to get in the whole hike we had planned. This country is beautiful, colorful, and is such a stark change from the prairie.

No trip through South Dakota would be complete without a visit to Wall Drug. If you have ever traveled on Interstate 90 in that area you will have seen billboards galore for this unique place. My first recollection is of Wall Drug is seeing a billboards in Minnesota that said “Only 355 miles to Wall Drug.” There was a billboard every 5 to 10 miles all the way to the place. The town is called Wall and the most famous store in it is Wall Drugstore. It started out as a regular drug store but over the years expanded into a huge store with just about everything. Scott had heard of it before so we knew that a visit was a must. We had dinner there. Scott sat on the jackelope. And then we headed out to the Black Hills for an evening visit to Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore was OK but frankly not as fun as many of the natural wonders around us. Scott and I arrived in the evening and hiked down to the base of the cliff. We decided not to stay for the night laser show and headed to a camp site nearby for our second night of tenting.

Day 3: August 22

We woke up early, grabbed some breakfast in town and headed off to the Crazy Horse sculpture. We arrived an hour before it was going to open but could see it just fine from the parking lot. Again we had places we wanted to get to so we headed off to Jewel Cave also in the Black Hills. We took a 2 1/2 hour tour that we really enjoyed. The guide said that this was the 2nd biggest known cave in the world behind Mammoth Cave. He also said that it only had one natural opening unlike Mammoth cave which has 27 openings. They feel that Jewel Cave is really the world's largest. They feel this way because they have been able to measure the cave "breathing." When the barometric pressure changes outside the cave air rushes in and out to equalize. They feel that there are hundreds of miles more to the cave that have not been discovered yet. They have teams that explore every summer and are mapping 3 to 4 miles each year. (At Mammoth Cave they say that THEY are the biggest and they are also mapping and discovering new parts.)

We left Jewel Cave and South Dakota to head up to Devils Tower in Wyoming. It was only about a 90 minute drive from the Black Hills. Devils Tower is truly impressive. You will remember it from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." We hiked around the tower and attended a ranger led talk about how it was formed and interesting stories about it. When people climb it they usually take 3 to 4 hours. (The record for going up is 18 minutes!) It is some serious rock climbing. There were three groups climbing the day we were there. The only way to get back down is to repel down the side. Here are two pictures of the fabulous wonder.




















After leaving Devils Tower we headed West on Route 90. We decided to spend the night in Buffalo, WY in a hotel. It was raining and we just didn't fell like camping in the rain. We hunted around a bit and found this very nice place that had little cabins.

Day 4: August 23

We again grabbed a breakfast in town and started heading towards the Teton Mountains. We needed to leave the highway and head across the state. We climbed up around a mountain range about 45 minutes outside of the town before we stopped to look at a roadside history poster. When we went back to get in the car we discovered some coolant under the car. We looked and it was obvious that the car had leaked from the overflow container. We decided that we need to have someone look at it to make sure that there were no problems. We headed back into town and found a garage that would check us out. It turned out that there had been a little too much antifreeze in the car and when the engine worked hard to get us up the steep mountainside it purged the excess coolant. He said we'd be fine, took $10 from us and we were on our way. The car was perfect for the rest of the trip.

We headed back out on the road and drove through some beautiful mountains and valleys. We arrived in the town of Thermopile, WY around noon. As we drove in we saw written in white rocks on a hillside "Worlds Largest Hotspring" or something similar to that. We decided to eat lunch and investigate this hotspring. It turns out that the Indians in the area had declared this area a free neutral area. There were not hostilities in this hotspring. In a treaty the Indians insisted that it remain free to anyone at all times. The state has actually still followed through on that treaty. It is free and Scott and I took full advantage and had a great half hour in 106 degree water. Wyoming had just built a new bath house and we could have been indoors or outdoors. It was really nice! There are people in the area who come every day. We talked to one guy from Michigan who loved it there. He had retired a few years ago and had moved out to his version of "Paradise." Check it out here.

We got back in the car and headed on towards the Grand Teton National Park. (I forgot to mention that Scott had purchased the last Harry Potter book on tape. It was 17 CDs and 26 hours long. The narrator was awesome and we spent much of our driving time either listening to the book or listening to the Red Sox games.) We arrived in the park and decided to camp at the Gros Ventra camp site. We made sandwiches for dinner and then set up the tent. They had the fixings for s'mores but no fire. We had the fire and no fixings. We invited the Canadian family next to us over. After intense negotiations a treaty was signed and we celebrated with some wonderful s'mores. That night it got down to 37 degrees and boy, was I cold. I wasn't expecting that kind of cold weather in August.

Day 5: August 24

After breakfast we decided to take a hike up one of the trailheads. We chose the Holy Lake Trail which left from String Lake. It was an all day hike up near the peaks to a beautiful alpine lake. We added a little extra loop at the top so the total mileage for the day was about 14 miles. We ended up going up about 2600 feet in elevation. Below are several pictures of the view. It was a great day of hiking and I know that I slowed Scott down. It was really nice of him to let me set the pace. I was certainly tired at the end of the day. We ate at a restaurant in the park and then spent another night in the same campground. I was a little more prepared for the evening temperature that night and we both slept well. I'll also post a picture of the bison that blocked the road to the campsite. I took that picture from the driver's seat in the car. He was just walking past us.














Day 6: August 25

We grabbed a quick breakfast of cereal, packed up the camping gear, and headed up the road to Yellowstone National Park. Another gorgeous day was awaiting us in this stunning park. If you have never been to Yellowstone you must schedule a trip soon.

We arrived at the Old Faithful Lodge just in time to see Old Faithful do her thing. It really is impressive. We had taken a family vacation in the summer of 1992 and had spent 4 days hiking and enjoying all that there is to see here. We only had one day and chose to spend it seeing the geysers and hot springs on the western side of the park. We hiked for several miles around the hot springs and geyser area of the lodge. Much of it was on raised boardwalk. I was still a sore puppy from the Grand Teton hike and Scott was very understanding. We headed up to Mammoth Springs in the northern part of the park. We ate lunch on the way and spent chunks of time at Mammoth and then Norris hot spring area. It is really unworldly there. I'll put some pictures so you can see how beautiful this park can be. There had been a devastating fire in 1988 that burned large chunks of the park. It has been 19 years since that fire and the park's trees are looking pretty good. We headed out the west entrance to the park and camped in a KOA camp ground. Scott cooked us a great meal and we had wonderful showers and other facilities. We both slept very well and it was a pretty mild night as far as the temperature.

























Day 7: August 26

We woke up around 6:30 or so, had breakfast at the KOA breakfast area and headed south. We crossed the state border into Idaho and headed down toward "Crater of the Moon" park. We decided to visit there but a missed turn (we weren't using the GPS) forced us to go around this area. We did stop at a roadside visitor center where there was a self guided walk through this interesting landscape. The lava in this very large area of Idaho had oozed out of the ground forming this landscape that looks like the moon. Hence the name of the park. Check it on the web here. We headed west and south with the intent of hooking up with Interstate 80 in Nevada. These next two days we needed to put in some serious miles to get to Sacramento by the 28th. I was scheduled to fly out around noon that day.

We stopped for lunch in a small town called Twin Falls. We also met up with a mother and 20 something daughter at a roadside information spot. It was right on the Oregon Trail. We learned a lot about the trail and enjoyed our conversation with these Idaho natives. They tried to convince us to visit Boise area. We ended up getting all the way to Elko, Nevada. We found a hotel room after searching around for a bit. There isn't much in Elko but there are sure a lot of slot machines. I wonder how many slot machines there are in the entire state of Nevada. We did find a grocery store and bought enough food to keep us going until the trip ended in 2 days. (There were slot machines in the grocery store!) We also used the internet at a Starbucks which happened to be in a casino down the road from our hotel. We got caught up on our e-mail and enjoyed a bed as opposed to an air mattress.

Day 8: August 27

We woke up around 8:00 and headed west toward California. Nevada is a very big state with a lot of desert in it. The terrain did not change very much. Every once in a while there was a small valley that had a little river or stream running through it. A ranch or small town would pop up, things would be green and then 2 miles later we were back to sagebrush and rocks. It took all of the morning and part of the afternoon to get to the California border. We finished Harry Potter late that morning. We drove up to Donner Park where I had been earlier in the summer. We didn't have time to head down to Lake Tahoe but we did spend time hiking along the lake and learning about the Donner party in the visitor center. We left in the late afternoon and drove down to about 20 miles from Sacramento and found a campsite for our last night of camping. This place had a pool and hot tub. We spent some time in the hot tub and then went to bed. Here is a picture of the tent that we used on this trip. There was a full lunar eclipse in the middle of the night so both of us woke up periodically to watch the progress. There were no clouds and the air was very clear. We had a good view most of the night until a tree blocked to last bit.

Day 9: August 28 (The last day)

We decided not to eat and headed out towards the airport. We did run into some traffic but we had allowed some extra time so I got to the airport in plenty of time to catch my flight. I flew to Las Vegas and then on to Hartford with a stop in Chicago. Becky picked me up around 11:00 that night.



What a great experience this trip was. I got to spend 8 fabulous days with my Scott. He is such a great guy! I will alway treasure the memories of this trip. We are so lucky to have the children we have. They are both so wonderful and we are so proud of them. Here is a picture of all of us taken in June as well as their significant others, Michael and Libby.

Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe

Boy, are these ever contrasting environments!! Lake Tahoe won hands down.

We spent two days before the rafting trip and one day after visiting Las Vegas. Betsy and David Mullins were with us as well as Scott and Libby.

Our first impression was that it was gaudy and just plain over the top - all neon and extra large. We were not intent on losing money gambling so we sought out other diversions.

There were some interesting things that we visited. The Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center was gorgeous - marble floors, small aquariums, a huge pool area with wave pool, regular pool, and even a sandy beach! The Bellagio Resort had a room with a beautiful ceiling of glass flowers created by Dale Chihuly, a botanic garden, indoor fountains, and a huge outdoor musical fountain. Both resorts were like small cities. They seemed to go on for miles and had stores, albeit upscale, and all sorts of restaurants. And, there was only one way to get in and out. You had to pass by the all important casino and sometimes horse betting track.














It was very hot, probably 105 or more so walking outside was not fun.

One highlight: Becky had a childhood friend, Joan Livak Dunn, who lived in Las Vegas and a friend of Libby's had just moved there to start a Teach for America job with his girlfriend. We all had dinner one night at a Thai restaurant. It was a fun evening getting to know each other and questioning Joan regarding life and child rearing in "Sin City." She really likes it. She says it's got lots of things to do like any big city and you just have to give your children appropriate training in morals, like we all do anyway.

There may be some interesting things to see and do outside Las Vegas but we all agreed that we don't need to go there again unless we're passing through. We'd had our fill!

After the rafting trip, Libby and Scott headed home and we flew to Reno with the Mullins. Lake Tahoe borders both California and Nevada. We were in northern Lake Tahoe, in Kings Beach, CA, very close to the Nevada border.

The lake was literally a breath of fresh air! It was absolutely gorgeous blue water against green mountains. It was also much cooler, only about 80. We had rented a cabin on the lake through vrbo.com. The downside was the unorganized kitchen and the dim lighting. But it was a great setting, with a hot tub and a big porch facing the lake.




















Day 1 (4th of July): After we checked in to the cabin, unpacked, and got groceries, we met a friend from college, Jim Rubins, and his wife, Dianne, at a beach in Tahoe City. They were all set up for us with a table with a wonderful picnic dinner, and lounge chairs to watch the fireworks. We had a great dinner and visit. The fireworks were super and because they were way out on the lake there wasn't the tremendous boom with each one. They were just pretty. David decided to take pictures of almost all of them. (He really just watched them through the camera.)



Day 2: We drove up to Donner State Park, northwest of Kings Beach . It was a nice park which bordered a lake. Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we learned about the Donner Party who, on their way west, met up with a harsh winter, which prompted some cannibalism. We took a self-guided walk where we learned about a lot of flowers and trees which we would continue to see around the lake. A very distinctive tree was the Jeffrey Pine, a very tall tree with a reddish-brown and deeply furrowed bark and a pineapple or vanilla odor.

Flowers-
blue & purple: lupine, meadow penstemon
pink & red: bolumbine, Indian paintbrush
white: California corn lily, yarrow, ranger buttons
yellow: buttercup, mountain mule ears

We also learned about the prevalence of the Steller's Jay, near our picnic table, and everywhere else there were people. It's really a beautiful blue bird, not found in the east.

We ended a lovely day reading at the beach in Kings Beach. We quickly learned that Lake Tahoe, being high in elevation (6225') and a very deep lake (1645' at its deepest point), has pretty cold water (about 68 degrees). Granted, it was warmer than the Colorado River but still cold to swim in.

Day 3: At Jim's suggestion we hiked to Eagle Lake, passing Eagle Falls along the way. There were a lot of steps at first but then it became easier to climb. It was a beautiful view with lots of granite peaks on either side. On the way down there was a great view of picturesque Emerald Bay where we saw a lot of boats come in to.



After lunch we toured a beautiful "castle" built in 1929. We hiked down a steep road with many switchbacks to a Scandanavian style home built on Emerald Bay called Vikingsholm Castle. It was built by Lora Moore Knight born in Galena, IL to a wealthy corporate lawyer. She had been married twice but at this point she was not married. She bought the property, including an island, Fannette Island nearby, in 1928 for $250,000 - a small fortune back then. And no, her fortune was not affected by the stock market crash. It had 48 rooms! It was like 4 connected houses built in a square with a courtyard where cars would let off and pick up passengers. There were two different roofs: two sod planted with wildflowers and two split log. Mrs. Knight had a huge staff for the summer and entertained many friends and associates. She had a tea house on Fannette Island specifically for afternoon tea. Her guests would take boats across just for tea! She had no children but was very generous with her staff and their families and donated generously to local children's charities. As beautiful as the castle was it was about 90 degrees and the steep switchback road seemed very long!

The day ended with a barbequed steak dinner with Jim and Dianne at our cabin. Good food and good company! We walked down to the lake and passed through an upscale development of homes selling for $5 million and up. Beautiful but not our style.

Here's a sign we saw numerous places around the lake.


Day 4: Betsy was feeling a little under the weather so the rest of us headed out and let her rest. We went to hike along the lake at Sugar Pine Point State Park on the southwest side. It was a beautiful, peaceful hike with lots of wildflowers, burned out trees, and an interesting hard coral-like, yellow-green moss that we hadn't yet seen, growing on the trees. Much to Sandy's chagrin, David and I took copious numbers of pictures. Sorry, Sandy, there were just so many interesting things- ah, the beauty of a digital camera . We had a really relaxing end of our hike when we stopped for a bit to sit on a log facing the lake and read.

We spent a couple of hours at the cabin reading, relaxing and catching up with the Red Sox before heading up for a Sunset Hike at Squaw Valley.

Squaw Valley, in northwest Tahoe, south of Donner Pass, was the site of the 1960's Winter Olympics. The base is at 6200' with the summit 2500 ' higher. We bought tickets for a guided nature hike and then got some dinner in the village. It was a cute village with an Alps type architecture, miniature golf, a trapeze, and lots of stores and restaurants.

We boarded the huge tram which took us to High Camp at 8200'. There was an Olympic size swimming pool, skating rink, restaurant, and huge open area for gatherings. What a view from up there! We hiked past beautiful fields of lupine and mule's ears. The guide said they were especially abundant this year. He pointed out the snow fields (remember, it's July 7) and different peaks. We hiked up to Emigrant Peak at 8700'. He also showed us some double diamond ski runs (not for us - we wouldn't even have walked down them!!). By the time we were hiking up to the top and the sun was starting to set it suddenly became quite windy and chilly. We were happy to have our fleece jackets. The sunset was gorgeous! We took numerous pictures. As if that wasn't a great end to a great day, we topped it off by getting in the hot tub at the cabin. That really helped our muscles, slightly worn out from the big hike.













Day 5: We drove back over the border through Incline Village, NV and stopped at Sand Harbor Visitor Area. It was nicely landscaped and had interesting info on the history of the lake and flora and fauna. We learned there was another pine, the Ponderosa Pine, almost identical to the Jeffrey Pine but its bark doesn't have an odor.

On the drive we noticed a haze over the lake and didn't find out until later that it was smoke from forest fires up to 3 hours away! We were glad we had arrived earlier in the week to see the lake with clear, clean air.

On Rt. 28, about 2 miles north of Rt. 50 there was a trailhead at an iron gate. We walked down a switchback. Shortly after we started we met a couple in their late 70's, Mary and Al, who walked this trail often and lived in nearby Carson City. Al was a former civil engineer and was hired in the early 60's to do road work near here. They were interesting to talk with. Mary identified our unidentified moss as segrum moss although I can find no info to confirm that. It was also growing on granite.

The path meandered down, down, down past a meadow on the left and Skunk Harbor straight down. It was a beautiful cove where there were a number of boats docked. On one side there was a house now owned by the US Park Service. It needed to be renovated but we could peek through the windows. The plaque read that it was built in the 1920's with family money from gold. No surprise there.

We ate lunch on rocks in the the shade at Skunk Harbor and read a bit. It was very relaxing and a beautiful setting.

It was hot and tiring walking up as it was in the 80's and quite a steep climb. We enjoyed the AC in the car as we drove back through Incline Village on a road bordering the lake. Here there were many big, beautiful homes costing many millions, so said the owner of the cabin, Jan Steinmann. She said that if you wanted to build on the lake, the tendency was to build in Nevada because the taxes were a lot less. She said many owners were from the Bay Area.

We needed to print boarding passes so Jan let us use her computer and printer. She and her husband were playing croquet across the street so we were alone in her house. It was quite a house! From the manuals in the study it looked like he worked for an architectural firm. They had cherry cabinets and trim everywhere and an interesting granite countertop with a rough edge. On the ground floor they even built around boulders in the landscape! That was unique.

We had a wonderful time in Lake Tahoe and with the Mullins. We ate breakfast and dinners in the cabin and packed lunches and snacks. It worked out great and we'd do it again!