Thanksgiving in Tahoe

Wednesday morning, at the crack of dawn, we set out on a quick car ride up to Lake Tahoe. Going up 395 along the Eastern Sierra is all apart of the vacation, so the 9 hours in the car doesn't seem that long.

Starting from Moorpark at 5:30am, we headed towards Lancaster.



Along the way we had a beautiful sunrise. We had breakfast in Mojave at the local Micky-D's. We stop for a bathroom break at the Coso Junction rest stop. If you have never been to or heard of Coso Junction, imagine a desert, and in the middle of that desert, imagine a Gas Station and a Cal-Trans rest area. That's it. I would like to see a Rest Area Janitor featured on the next Dirty Jobs.



After going thru Lone Pine and looking at Mt. Whitney, Independence, and Big Pine, a little while later, we stop for gas in Bishop. You look at Bishop, and you have to wonder how in the world that many people live there. How can you make a living in any of these small towns?


Next up, we pass by Mammoth Mountain and another bathroom stop at what Laura's family calls the forest rest area just North of Mammoth. Going from Mammoth to Lee Vining (Mono Lake) and Bridgeport, we saw some interesting cloud formations caused by high winds.

We had lunch in Bridgeport and that was our last stop until South Lake Tahoe, where we arrived about 3pm.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning to about an inch of snow on the ground. Just enough to stick and step in. It was nice not having a huge storm blow in while we were there because that always seems to happen when I'm in Tahoe, but the ski resorts really need the storms to start rolling in. Mammoth, June, and Heavenly all looked sad with no snow.

We had a good Thanksgiving Dinner and a good weekend with family. While we were in Tahoe--stayed with Laura's uncle by the way--we helped him set up a wireless router, new LCD TV, and Playstation 2.

Saturday morning we left after breakfast and got back to Moorpark in time for dinner.

Today we got a start on Christmas shopping after reading the Sunday ads. But most importantly, I had another one of those rites of passage that every homeowner needs to do--put up Christmas lights on the house. I will post a picture up after I take one tonight to prove it. I fully expect any other first year homeowner to do the same (TODD).

House Warming Party

We have been busy unpacking our new home. Every week our recycle bins have been stuffed with cardboard. We've also been continuing to go to Fresno for the football games--unfortunately things aren't going so well with that.

Last weekend we got our first taste at yard work. After 2 hours, we had our yard bin stuffed.

Yesterday we had a House Warming Party/Open House. It was very well attended--around 40 people showed up. We had lots of friends and family come over for 3 hours of food and socializing. Unfortunately, no pictures. I had the battery plugged in and charging, but forgot to grab the camera.

The next few weeks get busy again. We have 2 football games the next two weekends. Then we are going to Tahoe for Thanksgiving.