SOUTH LAKE TAHOE

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Lake Tahoe sits on the border of California and Nevada, we arrived via the Nevada border. Casinos line the main highway in and the scenes were very pretty of the beginning of the lake. The hotel we were hoping for was actually in California so we passed over the cross roads that marks the two borders. We always like finding such places where it says welcome to California on one side and you are leaving Nevada on the other, yes I know, sad!

The hotel we chose was supposed to be near the lake front and although it took us a while to find it eventually we got there. We were surprised to be offered an even better rate than our discount coupon and the room had a spa bath. Result! Our room opened out onto the pool which had seen better days but on the whole it was a nice place. We did little that first evening other than laze in the spa, I do miss a good soak in the bath so this was a real treat particularly as I could see the TV from it!!!

The following morning we decided to go and check out the lake, we had seen on our way in that it was vast and the surrounding hills really pretty so we had high hopes. Our first stop we found gates saying we needed a token to enter the beach area, we went in anyway figuring we could play the dumb tourist card. It was a bit disappointing though as the lake was lined by a rusty iron dock of sorts, the beach area was clean and tidy but it was not the view we had hoped for so we headed off down the street again. We walked what seemed like an age down the highway as access to the lake front is not allowed due to private properties/hotels. This once again was disappointing as we had hoped for a relaxing walk down the lake edge. We clocked an indian restaurant on our travels and made a mental note to take another look at that later when we were hungry. After getting rather hassled over finding a bank and changing some of our travellers cheques we finally found another entrance to the lake. This place was about 30 minutes from where we first started but it opened out into a small harbour, shops, restaurants and really nice views of the hillside. We sat on the beach for a while chatting and enjoying the views. We were approached by a guy who asked us if we understood the local history of the lake. As we did not he went on to inform us that the Lake hundreds of years ago was inhabited by the Maya people. This obviously got our attention after all our Maya tours we have done. He showed us rock formation that we had just been looking at and explained that one was called eagle rock becuase of its resemblence to an eagle and that sacrifices were made across the water on another mountain. It was quite interesting to hear although neither of us could find the eagle in the rock. After a while deciding that it was too cold to take out a canoe or sit on the beach all day we headed back off down the road and to the indian restaurant for lunch. We consumed a fair amount of the buffet on offer and as it had been some time since we had eaten indian food it was a very welcome change.

The shops were not in our price range and it became pretty evident that the town was in a lull waiting for the ski season to start. The place was pretty and worth dropping into but there was not much to captivate our attention. We once again discuss the fact that maybe we are by now just too spoilt with what we have already seen. So after a few card games and another soak in the lovely tub we hit our beds and prepare for an early start and the final destination of our california trip. At 6.30am the next morning we head off for San Fransisco.............

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