Thanksgiving in Tahoe 2010

This year for Thanksgiving, five of us and the pups went to Northern Lake Tahoe to spend the holiday weekend in a cabin near Tahoe City.  We cooked a full traditional holiday meal and enjoyed every bite!  It was extremely relaxing, cold and snowy!  Just what we were looking for!


Kevin, Chris, Me, Gita and Gretchen





Ingonish and Cabot enjoying the snow on the balcony





The view of the mountains and Lake Tahoe from our cabin



Ingonish really wanted Gita's breakfast the next morning.  I think they were bonding!

Gita and Gretchen outside our cabin. 





It had snowed quite a bit the weekend before we arrived.  Luckily, by the time we drove up, the roads were all clear.  There was still plenty of snow for the dogs to play in on the side of the road.  The last time they played in snow was at our house in Canandaigua.  I wonder if they remember it..........?



Our Cabin





View of the lake from Tahoe City



By the time we woke up on Saturday, a big storm was well underway.  It snowed all day long.  What a perfect day for skiing!  We started the day with a big cooked breakfast and then headed to Alpine Meadows.  Kevin played with the dogs in the snow while Chris skiied and Gita, Gretchen and I took a ski lesson.  We all had a great day!  Unfortunately, it was so wet out that I couldn't bring a camera to the slopes.  It was all I could do to stay upright.  They even had to stop the ski lift since I never got off and started to ride down.  The lift will one day be the death of me!

What a difference from the sunny skies we had the day before!



After a stop at a local coffee shop for drinks and Tiramisu, we went back to the cabin to enjoy pizza, games and good friends!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



Walt Disney World

My niece Sam graduated from 8th grade this year and wanted to celebrate in Disney World.  I joined Kitty, Ed, Mare, Harry, Sam and Dana for a fun week-long vacation at the Shades of Green military resort.  Kevin had to work and would rather cut off his arms and legs than go to Disney, so I went solo and still had a great time.  The rest of them had been to Disney many times and knew all the great places to go.  I was a Disney virgin and enjoyed everything we did.

 

Animal Kingdom



 The first day was spent in Animal Kingdom.  We rode a crazy topsy turvy roller coaster in the dark and saw a cool 4-D movie where you got wet and poked.  It was based on A Bugs Life.  We also took a fun safari ride.  Even though we saw animals typically seen in a zoo, it was cool the way it was laid out and animals are always fun to see.  I loved the mama and baby giraffe eating together.  Mama lion was unfazed sleeping in the sun.

During the evening we went to Hollywood Studios.  I haven't been on fast rides in a long time.  It's amazing how I can't do the things I used to be able to do.  I had to ask what each ride was about before going on it so I wouldn't get sick.  When Sam said "It's fun, it goes around, you'll be fine", I knew I was in trouble.  I think they were having fun at my expense!

This roller coaster played Aerosmith tunes the whole time.  I was nervous about all the twists and turns in the dark, but decided to do it anyway.  Sam, Dana and I waited 45 minutes for this ride.  We got on, it took off really fast, they snapped our picture, and it stopped.  We broke the ride!  This picture is of the ride that never was.  They left us harnessed in for at least 10 minutes with the lights on in the middle of the enclosed ride while they played bogus emergency messages and emptied out the waiting line.  By the time they let us out, the ride was deserted.  Thanks a lot!  The weird girl next to me was freaking out.  I was trying to not have a panic attack since I couldn't move from my harness.  I never went back on.  That was it.  It gave me the courage to do the Tower of Terror ride while dropping to what seemed like certain death.  I'm much better at scrapbooking!

 

Magic Kingdom



I loved Magic Kingdom.  It was very happy, fun and festive.  The entrance was set up like a quaint Main Street with shops and restaurants.  Who wouldn't love it?  One of my favorite rides was Splash Mountain.  Once again, the family said you only get a little wet.  Well, I got soaked down to my undies going up the ride from the splashing off another group going down the mountain.  Can you say wet hairspray and mascara?  The topper was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It's a water ride, but not a fast one.  "There are no drops" they said.  "You don't get wet on this one" they swore.  So I felt pretty confident sitting up front.  Guess what?  There was a big enough drop in the dark that once again I got wet.  I think I was the only one this time.  Now I'm sure they were lying.



The ice cream made me feel better about being soaked!

 I think my favorite park was Epcot.  There were tons of food vendors there for the Food and Wine Festival.  The World Showcase representing a variety of countries was the best.  Below is the United States lit up at night.  It was beautiful.  It reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg.  We had dinner in Mexico, dessert in France and shopped in Japan and Italy.  What more could you want?  I couldn't leave Disney without shopping!  There was a beautiful fireworks and light show over the water before the park closed.  Everything was first rate.

Our last night in Disney was spent in Magic Kingdom.  We ate at an Italian restaurant and watched the light parade go by.  My dessert was delicious!  Can you see Lady and the Tramp stenciled in chocolate next to my tiramisu?  Classic!

The night ended with a beautiful fireworks display over Cindarella's Castle.  I later found out that many people I knew were also in Disney at the same time.  It's a small world after all........  Sorry, it was fitting.



Las Vegas, NV and the Grand Canyon

We decided to go to Las Vegas with friends for our 17th wedding anniversay. We stayed at the Luxor, but walked all over the Strip to see what all the hotels had to offer.  My personal favorite hotel was the Venetian.  The main courtyard looked like you were outdoors.  It was almost midnight when the picture was taken, but you wouldn't know it!



Luxor





Venetian



Friday night we saw an Andrew Dice Clay show.  No nursery rhymes, it was all new stuff, but still as raunchy as we remembered.  He's just a tad older than his poster represents!

For our anniversary on Saturday, we took a helicopter ride over Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.  It was an awesome experience since I had never been in a helicopter before.  However, I got intermittent motion sickness from the movement of the copter while trying to take pictures.  We have never been to the Grand Canyon before and you could never get the view like the one from up above.  It was pretty cool!



All strapped in for the helicopter ride.



Hoover Dam

Remember the end of the movie "Thelma and Louise" when they drove off the cliff to avoid arrest?  Well, apparently it was filmed at the southern end of the Grand Canyon.  See the photo below of the dropoff:

The camera just can't do these pictures justice.  Views from the helicopter.

The ride was over and not too soon.  I was a wee bit queasy at this point.  I don't think I need to get in another helicopter anytime soon, but I'm sure glad I did it this time!

Moss Landing Kayak Trip

Labor Day Weekend on 9/4/10, we went to Moss Landing near Monterey with friends John and Bridget to Kayak among the otters.  We knew the otters were prevalent there, but had no idea just how many!  I love watching them and in the past, it has been so hard to get close enough to photograph them.  Not this trip.  They were everywhere and some even seemed to pose for the camera!

The otters were definitely the best part of the trip.  It was really hard to photograph them with the kayak bouncing up and down.  But they must be used to humans because our presence didn't seem to phase them too much!

Cool pic of a pelican's beak outstretched showing off for the others.

Mojave National Preserve

After our trip to San Diego we headed east - to the Mojave desert!  Many of you already know how much Kevin loves the desert.  I like it too, but I was a little nervous about being there with our dogs in August.  Thank God for air conditioning!  The dogs had their noses so close to the vents in the RV that they had nasal and throat irritation for almost a week afterward.  At least we were able to keep them cool.

As we got into the park, the sky became more ominous.  A brief storm passed through.  As you can see, the temperature outside was 116 F late in the afternoon.  This was the last place we expected to see rain this time of year.

When the storm clouds passed into the evening, a beautiful sunset graced the sky.  The temperature dropped into the low 90's with a great breeze, but for me, it was still a pretty hot night.

*********************

Between 6-9am, the temperatures were very pleasant.  You could see the tracks of all the creatures walking around in the middle of the night.  Our RV is in the picture above to the left.  This was where we spent our first night in Mojave.

Kevin had the dogs off leash early in the morning.  They loved running around in the soft sand!

********************

Yucca

Joshua Tree (a type of yucca, not an actual tree!)

********************

 

Although no stranger to the desert cliffs, we certainly were surprised to see this bighorn sheep so close to the road.  Apparently, they are very hard to spot because they usually are found at higher elevations on rough terrain far away from people.  Had this sheep not been at the top of the rocks, we would never have seen him against the dark background.  This made our day!

The first sheep had a friend close by!  How lucky for us to see two at the same time!

Bighorn Sheep Video Clip

********************

Here are some shots of the desert landscape.

********************

On the second night in Mojave, we stayed at an actual campsite around 5000 feet up.  During the day it was much cooler at 86 degrees.  I even had my jacket on from the nice cool breeze!  Kevin cooked dinner on the grill and we had a great night relaxing.  The dogs got to play a little outside.

We thought these were watermelons growing in the wild.  After a little research, we found out they are desert gourds and are very prevalent in this area.  They will climb anything!

As we drove away from our campsite back to the hot desert floor, we passed cattle and an actual ranch along the way.  I don't know how they stand the heat!



Heading home!