San Francisco/Sacramento/Lake Tahoe Day Four

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Faye, mum and I got up at 7, packed and headed off to find a Church for mum to go to for Easter Sunday service. We have been brought up as Christians, but only mum actively goes to Church. As the Church was very close to the Tenderloin area, we wanted to go with her to make sure she didnt end up in drug pusher land.

We made a 9am low mass at the Advent of Christ the King Church. It was very similar to our services in the UK, but as it was low mass, there werre no hymns and it was half an hour long.

After the servie, we walked throught he famers market and bought some lunch supplies and went bak to check on Zoe (who has a nasty cold).

After packing, we got a cab back to San Fran airport, to pick up the rental car, to start our road trip. Mum was terrified of driving in the States and zoe wasn't too happy about it, as we had to rent a monster truck for the four of us and all our luggage. We did end up downgrading though, as the Alamo people advised that there would be snow on parts of the journey, so we would need a car with sturdier tyres. We ended up with a Kia Burrego, which was smaller than the car we were going to get, but better equipped for the crazy weather along our route.

The car cost about 600GBP between us, including insurance etc, which was not too bad.

Zoe had hoped to drive the car around the car park a bit before disappearing into the nightmare of San Fran one way systems, but we were directed straight out onto the steep hills and one way systems in the town centre. We were all really freaked, as the road rules are different over here and Zoe had to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road, car and in an automatic.

Our Sat Nav is stupid and took us on a really long route to Sacramento (to see our friend, Sney). Instead of taking 90 minutes, (over the Bay Bridge), it took us all through San Fran and over the Golden Gate Bridge, which toook almost 3 hours.

I was so impressed with Sney's house -he has a gorgeous and speacious Duplex in downtown Sacramento, in a quiet, leafy area. He gave us a tour and plied us with wine, but sadly we had to leave mid afternoon to make it to Lake Tahoe before sunset.

It was an hour and a half drive to The Midway Inn, which was our home for the night. I recommend this place highly - the owner was great, the room was spacious (which is important with four women sharing!) and it was a bargain at $28.

We walked down to see the lake, which was stunning. We were on the South side, which is the quieter side. I would say it is a one/maybe two horse town, with everything on one long strip. We took piccies of the lake and enjoyed the sunset, (and met two hyper ladies from Texas, who were super enthused by everything) and had some food in Chevy's Tex Mex, down the road. Again, I recommend the place. The service was quick, the food was good and the Margarita was excellent!

After dinner, we headedback to the motel and (sad as it is), we watched Great Expectations, which was on in our hotel room) and passed out.

Our excuse is we are tired from travelling!

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