Mini Vacation to South Lake Tahoe

Every two years I have the pleasure of accompanying my sister Lisa to a conference she goes to in South Lake Tahoe. For me it's a mini vacation. I get to spend time with my sister and I get an all expenses paid vacation to a beautiful ski resort, win-win!

Our favorite part of the trip is the drive up and the drive back. Those two days are just for us and Lisa doesn't have to worry about work or meetings, seminars or classes, it's all about the fun, food and shopping...not to mention "sister time!"

We headed out around 9am on Thursday, October 4th for a trip that Google Maps says should take us 5 hours and 56 minutes. We arrived at our destination at around 7 pm, which means it took us roughly 10 hours, I think that's hilarious! But we stopped for coffee and sat and enjoyed it along with a yummy danish. We also stopped and did some shopping in Fresno and pretty much maxed out our spending money!

Next stop was for lunch at our traditional lunch place, Mi Casa (which means My House) in Turlock, California where they make a dish called a Molcajete and it is out of this world amazing! It's like eating molten lava out of a stone bowl!

I don't know what all is in there but it was delicious and big enough that we were not able to finish it and we shared one! We ordered the chicken.

From there we just headed straight to Tahoe driving past some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Beautiful majestic pine trees and mountains. For someone born and raised in Arizona, seeing views like this is just surreal!

Lake Tahoe in the distance

We missed the meet and greet, but that was okay because we were dead tired. We checked in, put our stuff away and just went to bed. This is where we laid our weary heads that night, isn't it fabulous?

Photo Credit - Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel 

The next day (Friday) Lisa was up bright and early as she had to meet her coworkers for breakfast downstairs at 7am. I lounged around until 9am and then went downstairs for their complimentary breakfast which was delicious! I spent the rest of the day touring around and shopping the various shops.

We met up for dinner with the rest of her coworkers at the American River Cafe inside Harrah's Casino which is right across the street from the hotel and at the state line, just crossing the street puts you in Nevada!  The meal was delicious and the company was great. Lisa works with the nicest group of people and I've gone on several of these conferences with them so I fit right in. We shared a yummy Asian Salad that had Apples in it, a first for both of us with apples and we loved it!

On Saturday I decided I was going to give my FitBit a workout and let the car have a rest. I walked all around the area of the hotel and into all the cute little shops. I found a  beautiful bracelet for my sister Lisa, which was great because it was her birthday! I picked up little souvenirs for my mom and my son and daughter. 

I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Lisa who was all done with her meetings and we did more walking and finally stopped to have dinner at one of our favorite places in South Lake Tahoe. We literally have dreams about this place called Base Camp Pizza!

To celebrate Lisa's birthday we started off with some adult beverages. Lisa had the Happy Camper which was a yummy concoction of Don Q Pasion Coco and Limon Rum blended with fresh mango puree and pineapple juice finished off with a float of Whaler's Dark Rum. I had the house red, I have no idea what winery it was from but it was delicious. We sipped our drinks enjoying the ambiance and the beautiful view of the mountains just outside and waited for our pizza!

That's me in the purple sweater...it was so nice to wear a cozy sweater! You can see my wine glass with the mystery Red wine. We ordered the Hawaiian with Red Onions which included Canadian Bacon, Juicy Hawaiian Pineapple and Fresh Red Onions. I could have this every day for the rest of my life with no complaints. We had two slices left which we had cold for breakfast the next morning while getting ready to check out of the room and it was even better cold!

On Sunday morning, October 7th, we checked out and had already planned that on our trip back we were going to stop for lunch at a little place we had stumbled upon on the trip up. We knew it was in Placerville, California and that the exit for it was Bedford. 

On the trip up our GPS led us through Placerville and we came to a stop sign and when we made the turn to head to Tahoe we turned on to the most beautiful street we had ever seen! It was like something out of a Hallmark Movie. Ton's of lovely little shops all lit up (it was already dark). 

I kid you not...it looked exactly like this photo from the website of The City of Placerville except that they were celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month so all the windows had bright pink lights in them. We didn't even think to take photos we were so in awe!

Photo Credit - City of Placerville

We just knew then that on the way back we had to stop and have lunch at one of the cute little shops. It was day time when we went through again, so even though it was still a very pretty little street, it wasn't as magical as the night we just drove through.

We walked around checking out the restaurants and you can see in the photo above way out in the distance on the right side a sign that looks like it says Mels...well it does. It's a Mel's Diner! Remember Mel's Diner from the movie American Grafitti? Lisa had to eat there and I'm glad we did because it was so fun and delicious. It was packed for a Sunday afternoon but everyone was so nice and patient. I had the Cheeseburger Plate and the fries were fabulous, Lisa had the Chorizo and Egg Breakfast which she said was very good.

On the wall right behind where Lisa was sitting were photos of famous people that had eaten there. One photo of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz even had a copy of the personal check they paid with, I guess the diner never cashed it so they could have the souvenir. Their meal was for $60! They must have fed their whole entourage for that kind of money. I don't know why we didn't take a photo! But we will be back!

Then our adventure in Paradise was over and we headed home. From an elevation of 6,287 feet to an elevation of 348 feet...hard to imagine that we had traveled so far! But we made it home, safe and sound with some great memories made.

Happy Birthday Lisa and I'm ready to go again whenever you are!

The Artist in Me

So it's been a while since I've done a post and my excuse is I've been busy living life and having fun! When I do get some down time, I'm too exhausted from living life and having fun to blog, I just want to sleep!

One of the things that has been keeping me busy is my Monday Art Class. I love it! Oh my gosh! Where has Art been all my life? I thought writing was my calling! I thought I was going to write the great American Novel or at least be Blogger of the Year at a Blogher Convention someday! But now...now I know that I am meant to be the next Bob Ross! Remember Bob Ross? I loved watching him paint, it was effortless for him and I knew that I could never do anything like that!

But I think I can! Well, maybe not be the next Bob Ross, but I think I can be a halfway decent artist. Well, maybe not "sell my art for a million dollars" kind of artist, but a happy artist that can create some nice little pieces to give as gifts to friends and family (if I can ever make myself part with them)!

I need to share some of these with you all.

First, my owls. I'm not an owl person, but somehow I keep getting owls in my head! I love these two little guys and the way they are cocking their heads. It reminds me of our dog Chorizo and the way she cocks her head when you ask her a question. These were drawn free hand from a photo. 

On the weekend of October 6th, my sister Lisa and I went to her semi-annual conference in Lake Tahoe. The last time we went was October of 2014 and you can read about that adventure HERE. 

I took my drawing pencils and pad hoping to get some time to sketch, but we made a stop at a Ross Store and I was able to pick up a set of Acrylic Paints, a set of paint brushes and (2) 12 x 12 canvases for about $20! One afternoon while Lisa was in her classes I set up a little paint studio for myself in the hotel room and came up with this pretty little background. I almost wanted to leave it like this, so bright and cheerful!

But that was not what I had in store for this canvas so the next day I added a bit more in the morning ...

and a bit more in the afternoon ...

I had not really had time to do anything further until last night when I finished this little guy up. I say little guy, but with those flirty lashes, this has to be a girl owl right?

And in keeping with the upcoming Halloween Season, I've done two more paintings. Our instructor wanted us to do something abstract, so I did this painting and then at the last minute added the pumpkin just for fun!

As I kept looking at it afterward it looked to me like a blue sky with a harvest colored mountain, so I added a witch flying through that beautiful sky.

And I loved her! Flying on her broom just enjoying the harvest night without a care in the world; but it looked a little bare. I needed something on the bottom and once I added some headstones I realized that she needed some flying companions and Voila! Bats!

My mom, who does not like Halloween things because they scare her actually loved this so much that she went Goodwilling and found me the perfect frame for it. This was so much fun! And the more creative you get, the more the creative juices flow!

This past Monday our instructor wanted us to paint a Sugar Skull. It's a two hour class and this is as much as I completed. He needs a dental visit badly, but other than that I think he's kinda cute!

The first picture is almost the completed project. I say almost because a friend asked me to try adding some white dots around the eyes. I was at work and didn't have the actual piece with me, so I used a computer program to appease him and he had a great idea because I loved it with the white dots. I don't have a picture of the white dots I actually did, but they are almost identical to the computer generated dots shown below.

You can see how that one detail really made those eyes pop!

So you can see why I've been too busy to blog. Not to mention that I have been taking a line dancing class on Tuesday nights as well and planning a surprise birthday party for my mom, plus a full time job! The job, I'm finding is really cramping my style! Can't wait for retirement!

The Journey...not the Destination - Part Tres

A continuation of a post about a trip my sister Lisa and I took to Lake Tahoe in October...yes, I know, I'm a slacker, but life keeps going even when I just want to sit and write! This is Part 3 and you can read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE and then you'll be all caught up! Ready to head back to October of 2014? Let's go!

When last we left our intrepid heroines, they were just getting to their hotel in Lake Tahoe after a pleasant dinner and a brisk walk and after a long day of travelling 358 mile from their small hometown to South Lake Tahoe, California. We were bushed! We called it a night early and went to bed.

Now this was not a pleasure trip for my sister, nope...this was work for her. So the next morning she arose bright and early to get ready to meet the rest of her group for breakfast and then meetings and classes all day. I arose a bit later, got ready at a leisurely pace and then went down to meet the wives of all the men in my sisters group for breakfast and then a morning of shopping with the ladies!

This was the first picture I took that day and I love it still! It was breathtaking, and this was just the parking lot!

The ladies and I had a great time shopping. It was nice to just take my time browsing the stores. I bought quite a few things that I didn't need but had to have. The morning went by way too quickly and soon it was time to head back to the hotel to rest and wait for the working part of our group to be done with their meetings so we could go out to dinner.

My sister Lisa had requested that we go to a restaurant there that she loves called Fire and Ice Grill. I had never been there but she had on previous trips.

Fire and Ice is a very unique restaurant in that you line up and grab a bowl and head to their "market". The market has all kinds of raw vegetables, pastas, and legumes. I wish I had thought to take photos of that area but I was busy trying to get the lay of the land, but here's a very similar picture.

Photo Credit - Trip Advisor

Once you've filled your big bowl with veggies, you head on down the line to the proteins section. You can choose from scallops, steak, pork, chicken, sausage, tofu...you name it and they had it. Then you choose a sauce from the myriad of sauces they had such as BBQ, Sweet Chile, Honey Ginger, so many I can't even remember.

I was bit confused and worried about putting raw meats on the vegetables that I was about to eat, but then Lisa guided me to the grill where the magic happened. Just watch this video and see the magic yourself.

It was so fun to watch and it tasted amazing. The only thing is that I put a ton of raw jalapeno on mine and of course when you cook jalapeno it just gets hotter....whoa Nelly that was some spicy stuff! I can't wait to go back again. I had scallops but I wasn't sure how they were going to get cooked and it just seemed wrong to throw a bunch of raw scallops on top of my veggies so I didn't get very many and they were so good that I could have had a whole plate of just scallops!

Here's one last photo of the grill. The cooks were amazing, how they kept track of every one's food just befuddled me! You can see all the different variations of veggies and proteins and that area smelled so good. If you ever have a chance to eat at a Fire and Ice Grill Restaurant I highly recommend it!

Again after that wonderful meal we took a long walk back to the hotel and went to bed. Hopefully I can write and post Part 4 before another couple of months go by.

 

The Journey...Not the Destination - Part Deux

Ok, so for all my faithful readers....all two of you, I present to you Part Two of the most recent adventure my sister and I had. Part one is HERE.

When last we met, I posted a picture and asked you to guess where I was. This is the picture.

Pretty little place isn't it? Lots of pine trees obviously.

Sextant was the only one to play along with my little game and hazard some guesses. His first guess was Yosemite and his next guess was Sequoia National Forest.

Thanks for playing Sextant, and even though you did not guess exactly the place you were close and you win a ribbon just for participating! Here you go!

You really were close and those pine trees were a bit of a give away, but it could be almost anywhere since we headed  North.

But what city/place is this where we were? It was the beautiful city of South Lake Tahoe! It was my first time ever being there. Lisa has gone a couple of times before but she's never really had a chance to see much of it.

As I mentioned, we took the scenic route and once we got closer instead of going into Sacramento, we took the road less traveled. Highway US-50 East. This highway was one that went up, up, up into the mountains. We reached an elevation of 6237 feet above sea level! Now remember, we're Arizona folk, used to seeing miles and miles of desert flat land...this was a whole new experience for me!

Here's some of the shots my co-pilot, my sister Lisa took.

We arrived at our destination and we were already late for a meet and greet that had been scheduled, so we checked into the hotel, dropped our luggage off in the hotel room, quickly freshened up and headed out to meet the others for dinner. We met up with them at a nice little Mexican restaurant called Azul which was about two blocks from the hotel. Azul in Spanish means Blue. Because Lisa and I had eaten such a great lunch in Turlock we decided to keep it light for dinner.

Lisa had a salad which she loved! It was huge too! I can't for the life of me remember what all was in her salad but you can look at the picture and hazard guesses, maybe you can win a ribbon for participation as well! The yellow looks like it could be pineapple, but I believe it was mango.

I chose a Coconut Pork Taco, which was ok, the tortilla was cold and I tasted nothing of coconut in the whole thing. I also ordered a cucumber salad consisting of cucumbers, red onion and jicama in a sweet and spicy dressing, this was very good.

After dinner we walked back slowly to the hotel, stuffed and happy enjoying the cool air. By the time we got there we were all huffing and puffing. Everyone blamed the thin air of the higher elevation, but I think it was really all that food, our age and lack of exercise!

It had been a long day, but it was still only our first day, more adventures awaited the next day, so stay tuned for part three, more beautiful pictures and more food as well!