Loriville Gazette
2001 Aug 06 Tahoe = fun!

My weekend was very nice, in case you were wondering. Lake Tahoe was splendid.

I awoke early on Friday and ran around my apartment doing last-minute chores like laundry and packing. Around 11, I finally got into my car and drove away from the city. Destination: Sacramento.

I headed straight to my grandma's house in Sacramento to meet my dad (a.k.a. "Buzzer"). We picked some grapes off the vine in Grandma's yard, loaded up his truck, and were off. Destination: Uncle Bob's cabin, Lake Tahoe.

We ate grapes. We listened to Aerosmith. We had air conditioning! We only made one stop, in Camino, to pick up a day hiking permit for the next day.

Once we got to the cabin, we visited Aunt Wanda's cabin (to see Joan) and the Rice cabin (to see Kristin and family). The family has owned these cabins since the 1930s. Buzzer has been going to the cabins during the summers since he was a baby; I have, too.

Buzzer showed me other cabins in the area that the family used to own, and I remembered several of them. I said, "*This* cabin is the one I remember staying at when I was a little girl! I used to ride that kid's foot-pushable motorcycle down the dirt road... remember?" and "*This* is the one that has the back stone patio, isn't it? We used to sit on that back patio and feed the chipmunks."

Dana and her boyfriend, Ronnie, arrived later that evening. They brought all the food for the weekend. Bevan arrived around 10.

The next morning, we got a late start on the hike (11 am). There were five of us: me, Buzzer, Dana, Ronnie, and Kristin's husband, John. Our goal was to hike up to Cup Lake, a very steep 3-mile jaunt. I had some bouts of elevation sickness, but made it nonetheless! We ate our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hard-cooked eggs up at the top. After lunch, we decided we'd go even higher. John said that just a few hundred feet up, we'd have spectacular 360 degree views of everything in the area, including Lake Tahoe.

So we did it. I took a whole roll of film just while at the top (!) that should turn out incredible!

Coming down the mountain was hell. The huge boulders, while fairly easy to climb on the way up, were intimidating and challenging on the way down. And once we got back on the dirt trail, our knees began killing us... as did our toes (my toes now feel bruised from hitting the toe of my boots!).

We arrived back at the cabin to find that Turnip (my sister) had arrived with two of her friends, Katrina and Ashley.

Later, I became afflicted with a sharp headache (dehydration?). We all watched teevee and ate pizza from south shore Tahoe.

Some relatives came to visit. They were passing through and wanted to give their wives a tour of the family cabins. Being in pain, I didn't make conversation. Later, I asked Buzzer who they were. He said they were Uncle Bill's kids, Michael and Joseph. I shockingly exclaimed, "You're kidding!" Last time I had seen Michael and Joseph, they were pre-teens! And now they're all grown up, with wives to boot!

Then I realized I was glad I didn't know at the time who they were because I would have said something really stupid, like "Last time I saw you, you were just a kid!" You know you're getting old when you say that. And the sad thing is I've caught myself saying that to people for about a year now. I've got to stop that because I used to hate it when people said that to me.

Anyway... Turnip, Katrina, and Ashley decided they were going into south shore to do some gambling and/or drinking, but I opted to take painkiller and go to bed instead.

Yesterday we didn't do anything but sleep in, make ebelskivers (Danish pancakes) for brunch, and clean the cabin before leaving at 3. On the way back, Buzzer, Turnip, and I stopped for an early dinner in Placerville.

I didn't get home until 9:45 last night. I arrived home to my Travelsmith package and my $300 tax relief check (what a joke! But I'm not going to go into that...).

(By the way, I'm wearing my navy blue Travelsmith pants today. I'm excessively pleased with the quality and fit of their products. Unfortunately, I will be returning the wool gabardine coat and the black Coolmax t-shirt because they're a little large.)

I was shocked to have messages from M because I expected him to arrive into town much later. He came over to visit for a while before we both hit the sack.

Today is his last day at the office. He's sad, but I think he's glad to get out of that collapsing company. He says, ideally, he wants to find a job that he doesn't need to start until October so that he can have some time off.

Well, time for me to shove off and get on with my day. Ciao!

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