First up: our trip to Lake Tahoe in September. I know it was ages ago but since this is a journal of sorts I think its still worth posting about. My dad was out visiting from England and had planned to go hiking/camping up there so Josh and I thought it would be fun to take the dogs and join him - except that we rented a cabin (we are not into camping). It was the off-season so it was pretty quiet up there and we loved it! We stayed in King's Beach on the north shore.
This was our cute little cabin:
There are so many cabins to choose from but we specifically wanted one with an outdoor space for the dogs and this one was perfect. (That brown blob behind my car is bear poop - it didn't thrill us that they came so close to the cabins at night. My dad was strangely obsessed with the bear poop and examined it to try figure out what the bear had been eating - gross!)
They really committed to the rustic cabin theme - there were SO MANY ANTLERS!!
Love those kids!
There was this big deck along the back of the cabin that led down to a big yard - it was so nice sitting out there and relaxing in the afternoon.
This was the view out the kitchen window - that cabin was slightly bigger and fancier than ours ha!
My dad planned to hike up in the mountains from Tuesday until Sunday so we dropped him off with his extremely heavy backpack on the Tuesday morning and made plans to meet him at the same spot on Sunday morning.
This is the beach near our cabin:
Really gorgeous but unfortunately it was a "no dogs" beach so we followed the signs to the dog beach off to the side.
It wasn't exactly what I would consider a place where dogs could have fun. They tried to play on the rocks and in the water but we gave up pretty quickly.
A few days later we found another dog-friendly beach and Zeke had a good time splashing around. The water was really cold so he didn't get very deep. Zoey was not interested at all and stayed far away from the water.
Out of nowhere it got really cold and snowed overnight. It was completely unexpected for that time of year so we hadn't packed any really warm stuff (not that we have any anyway living in this roasting hot climate we live in!). I thought it would be fun to go for a hike in the snow. Josh wasn't thrilled about the idea but he agreed to go. We drove up to this Meadow Trail up in the mountains.
Zoey had never seen snow before and she got confused and lay down. She's weird. It was pretty cold and I think I had at least 2 - maybe 3 - pairs of yoga pants on and 2 hoodies.
It was so pretty and such a novelty because we never get snow here. We posed the dogs on a rock and got this gem of a photo that I used for our holiday cards last year. I know I'm biased but I think they are such beautiful dogs.
The next day Josh and I left the dogs at the cabin and went exploring. First we went back to King's Beach to get a few photos.
Then we headed to Sand Harbor. I bet this place is packed in the summer. It was bit strange to be bundled up at the beach (believe me it was much colder than it looks in these photos!) but the scenery was so beautiful we didn't mind.
After that we headed to Chimney Beach. We had read that it was quite a hike down to the beach but we were still not at all prepared for the steep climb. We made sure to follow the instructions and turn right at the fork in the path - apparently if you turned left you would end up at a nudist beach - no thanks!
Once we got down close to the water we could see how far we still had to hike across to get to the actual beach (it was pretty far) so we decided to just enjoy the scenery where we were and then hike back up.
You can't see it too well in the photo above but that's the chimney that gives Chimney Beach its name. Apparently there used to be a little house there and the chimney is all that's left.
We didn't take any pictures of ourselves because we were slightly sweaty after the steep hike - we were peeling off layers as we climbed!
The next day we went out for breakfast and when we got back to the cabin my dad was sitting out on the deck. We were so confused because it was only Friday and we were supposed to go pick him up at the trailhead on Sunday. Apparently the weather was much worse up in the mountains and his tent had broken so he decided against sleeping exposed to the elements (and animals!).
We thought he might enjoy the little Meadow Trail we'd gone to a couple of days prior so we went back up there with him. Zeke had cut his paw pad on something so we had to bandage him up to keep it clean so he had a cute little sock.
On the way down we stopped off at a scenic view spot where you could see almost the entire lake.
On our last day we hung out and relaxed, did a little driving around and checking out scenery and then went back up to the lookout point for some sunset views.
Then it was time to pack and go home. It was sad to leave this gorgeous place - its really one of the most relaxing places I've ever visited.
And finally this funny photo where Zeke is sitting like a human!
