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Daily Archive: 31/08/2009

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August 2009

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Weekend in Lake Tahoe

Written by , Posted in Adventures

This weekend we went up to Lake Tahoe for a quick break from the heat. I hadn’t been up there since the family vacation last summer, when we last saw John (our good friend who passed away this spring). The drive up and the first afternoon were filled with smoke from the fire burning close to Yosemite, but by the evening it cleared up nicely. We went to a little cocktail hour at the local hotel – it was on a floating pier, which was pretty sweet. 

Saturday I made my first attempt at high-altitude running. 6500 feet really does feel different from sea level, especially going up steep hills. But I did it. I’m excited to say that I’m going to run the next three days but take off all the time when I am in Seattle. I don’t really feel like running in the rain, and I haven’t taken more than three or four days off in a row since November, so I hope it’ll be a good rest that will kick-start the final push towards what will likely be my last race this year, the Royal Parks Half Marathon.

Saturday we also went to this pop-up exhibit on the history of the Lake Tahoe area. It was put togehter quite well, and made me hope the exhibitors eventually put together a book on the topic. The area has been pretty interesting – the Washoe tribe used it as their summer getaway, loggers took it over for awhile, a man bought up lots of land to conserve it (while raising his own lion at this crazy huge mansion), and of course Frank Sinatra owned part of one of the more famous casinos in the North Shore, the Cal-Neva. For someone who has been going up to Tahoe since she could walk, it was especially interesting.

The rest of the weekend we were pretty lazy, wandering around town, losing money to the slot machine gods, and eating very yummy food. On the way out this evening we passed the beginning of a nasty fire in Auburn, which should be contained in the next day (hopefully). 

Below are some pictures, which are in an order only posterous understands. But you’ll see some shots of the exhibit, some views of the cloudy skies, the Lake, and this amazing dog that is half wolf and all awesome.