Emerald Bay & Vikingsholm

June 17 (posted 6/18 due to limited internet)

The main event today was visiting Vikingsholm, a cool house built a hundred years ago. 

The house is near the water's edge below this rock face. The road is visible in the trees, & one parks at road level & walks a mile down to the house. Of course, that means a steep 1 mile walk back up. 

When the house was used as a summer place, visitors would drive down, drive through this entry... 

 

...and arrive in this courtyard. The main house has 6 ensuite bedrooms. The 2 wooden wings housed staff, a garage, & such. The lady who built it was fascinated by the nordic countries, hence the architectural style & features of the house. Her furnishings, all still there, are either 17th c nordic antiques, or reproductions of museum pieces that she had made for the house. 

A view of the side of the house & on to the lake gives an idea of the views from the house. 


This view of the lakeside of the house shows some of the trees that the builder insisted on keeping. One of the ponderosa pines is 300-500 years old. 


Stopping for a breather on the walk back up gave me time to enjoy this view from above the house. This offshoot of Lake Tahoe is called Emerald Bay, & all of the property around the bay was purchased as part of the lot for the house, & is now protected from development in a couple of state parks. 

For anyone interested: http://vikingsholm.com/


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boat tour to wildlife & glaciers

Image
I can now die a happy woman! The boat trip was fantastic in every way. (Major Marine 8.5 hour tour on Orca Song from Seward to the Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park) We saw SO MUCH wildlife, including several rare sightings & behaviors.  Here is the first of 3 sea otters we saw.  This is the sea cave & rocks where we got very close to see sea stars & jelly fish - many, many of each.  A dozen Dall's porpoises swam & played near our boat for a while. They swam so fast that they were hard to photograph, but we saw each one many times. This group of Stellar's sea lions is typical of what one sees in Alaska, that is no babies, just a group of adults hauled up on shore.   Though humpback whales are often seen in this area, they are mostly seen alone or perhaps a mom & baby. Not only did we see a whole pod, we saw them engage in what is called bubble net feeding. Many pods around the world do not engage in this type of feeding. There are...
Read more

Alaska!

Image
Top-of-the-World Highway This road runs from Dawson City in the Yukon into Alaska. The 110-mile drive today was a dirt road with the exception of a 9-mile long paved stretch in the middle - seems odd to have a short paved stretch in the middle of a long dirt highway.  arrived in Alaska! I've wanted to come to Alaska since I was 14. My day trip to Skagway last week was to a small corner of Alaska, but that corner isn't connected to this main part of the state, so this feels like my official arrival.                                         Chicken, Alaska Apparently, the original residents here wanted to name the town after a chicken-like bird called a ptarmigan. However, they couldn't agree on how to spell that, so they compromised on "Chicken". It became a small town when the Pedro Dredge (now a National Historic Site) was set up here to dig for gold. Besides a few crazy tourists who...
Read more

Gros Morne: Trout River area

Image
Exploring this little town, I first walked up a headland to the lighthouse; the old lighthouse was charming, but, like many, it's been replaced by a functional red & white modern little tower.                                    Then, I walked up the headland on the other end of town. A late lunch of pickled herring with onions & sour cream along with a bowl of Newfoundland pea soup (split pea soup pureed with lots of carrots & potatoes) topped off my visit. Adirondack chairs are quite popular here, & many folks have their own version.                                  After returning from my hike yesterday, I was wiped out. The walk was only 4K & not too steep, so I couldn't figure it out. Then, in the evening, I developed a throat tickle that I just couldn't shake - kept me awake for hours. It h...
Read more