Glamping Days

 Well, you can see where I was today.    Outside the art museum, I found these funky benches.  All of the museum's exhibits are temporary, which is an interesting approach, The exhibit on the Ghost Army of World War II was especially fascinating. This unit, which included engineers & artists, built fake installations to make the enemy think that our troops were someplace that they were not; they'd "hide"  blowup tanks under camouflage & other ingenious fakes. A view over Reno from the roof of the art museum. My interest in cars is almost nil, but the National Automobile Museum is a fabulous place. Their collection of cars is stunning, & the exhibits are extremely well done throughout. Even the handles of the restroom doors were made to look like fuel pump handles.  A nearby parking garage picked up the antique auto theme.  Per sister Lynne's suggestion, I had a late lunch at the Truckee Airport Red Truck Cafe. It was fun watching the privat...

Took a little hike that my brother-in-law Dave suggested. We walked to the top of Diamond Peak Ski Resort above Incline Village, & found more beautiful views of Lake Tahoe at the top.  This afternoon, we visited a bit more, & then sister Lynne took me to a great roadside tamale stand. Has been just fab to catch up with Lynne & Dave these past 2 days.

Visited with my step sister, Lynne, & her husband, Dave, today. We had lunch here overlooking Lake Tahoe. They live just up the hill from this beautiful spot.  

Spent the morning at Sand Harbor, a particularly pretty corner of Lake Tahoe, & a popular spot for kayaking. Not sure what these flowering shrubs are, but they're ubiquitous all around the lake & at different elevations. The sand dunes here formed a few thousand years ago when the lake levels dwindled, & sand from the former lake bottom blew into this corner of the lake.  The sandy beach makes this a popular spot.  The little coves north & south of Sand Harbor are strewn with boulders & are quite picturesque.  

This morning, I moved from a campground at the south end of Lake Tahoe to one near Truckee, closer to the north end of the Lake. This afternoon, I visited Donner Pass State Park. The story of the Donner Party told at the Visitor Center is heartbreaking.  The memorial is pretty impressive.  Along the nature trail, this mama duck was tending 8 ducklings - very cute. Donner Lake isn't Lake Tahoe, but it's quite pretty. The town of Truckee is a classic western town. 

Today, I toured another summer house from the turn of the last century.  In the parking lot, I ran into this lady, who was taking her dog on a SUP (stand up paddle board) for the first time. The dog likes kayaking, so he should do fine. He was too cute in his life jacket. He got a tad nervous when I approached to take his pic (after asking), but he immediately sat when she gave him the signal. Another beautiful home... ...with a beautiful view.... ...and beautiful gardens to boot. The last owner brought a staff of 35 to run the house & grounds.  This is a Sarcodes sanguinea aka snow flower. There were a number of these oddities scattered around under the pines. I just had to look them up: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcodes.   

My exploration today took me to Tahoe Palisades at Olympic Valley. This ski resort was know as Squaw Valley, site of the 1960 Olympics. A short hike up a canyon along this creek was a lovely start. Then I took the gondola up to the top of the mountain, where the views were fab. According to our gondola operator, Walt Disney opened those Olympics; he was inspired by the rocks in the foreground of the second & third pics below to create theThunder Mountain ride at Disney World.  The Olympic symbol (5 rings) is ubiquitous around the resort.  

The internet connection last evening was too unstable to post, so I'm catching up here this morning.  Yesterday was History Day of me featuring the Nevada State History Museum, the Capitol, & a walking tour of the oldest section of town. Carson City is a modest, but well-kept place, a lovely combo of old & new. Had a lovely lunch on the plaza across from the Capitol & thoroughly enjoyed the place. I found the following 3 panels in the history exhibit in the old senate chambers in the capitol. Seems that Nevada moved heaven & earth to allow Lincoln to save the Union - love this new-to-me bit of history. Sorry not to be able to rotate that second pic.  

The big adventure today was taking the gondola at Heavenly Ski Resort. From the resort, you can see one of the gondola towers & the gondola's route part way up the mountain. At the top of this pic is the midway stop.   The gondola travels 2 miles up. Pics from inside the car show the scratches in the window. The views from the platform midway up the mountain are terrific. Yup, that's snow in the foreground. This view is looking west across the southern end of the lake.  And this is looking northeast along the eastern/NV side of the lake. The overnight temps have been near freezing the last 2 nights with daytime highs in the mid 50's, but it will be warming up over the next several days. 

Three great activities filled my day.  First was a short hike up to a vista point above Emerald Bay. I've been seeing lots of wildflowers & finally got to a good spot to photograph a clump on the way up. The view from the rock outcrop was worth every step of the steep rocky climb.  Pine Lodge is another century old "summer house" that i toured. The house itself is beautiful... ...but the view from the front porch is even more beautiful.  The highlight of the afternoon was a 2-hour cruise on this sailboat. Two dozen of us & 2 crew filled this 50 foot long boat. There may have been wine involved. 😊 The railings of the boat nicely framed the mountain views.   

The water in Lake T is extraordinarily clear.  Some of the shoreline is a real sandy beach. Steller's jays here are similar to blue jays in PA.  Overlooking the south end of Lake T.  Still some snow on some peaks above the lake.