Forget Black Friday. North Lake Tahoe has something for everyone on your list. This first in a two-part series highlights gifts for the people who have everything. Give the gift of experience.
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Today we are thankful. Thankful for a warm, inviting home. Thankful for healthy, happy children. Thankful for delicious, lovingly prepared food. Thankful for immediate family, extended family, and our chosen family of friends. Thankful for the rain in the Aptos mountains, filling the stream behind our house and watering the apple trees. Thankful for the first snow falling at Happy Cabin, where our guests sent a picture of the backyard blanketed in fresh powder.
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Once Maris had the hang of walking in her new snowboard boots, Eben brushed the beach sand from her Burton Riglet Snowboard and attached the new bindings. They were a perfect fit. With the lawn wet from (glorious) rain, Maris decided to try out her new set-up in a puddle of blankets on the living room floor.
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Since the Camp Fire started burning on November 8, near Paradise, California, it has taken at least 79 lives and 10,500 homes. Over 900 people are missing and thousands are displaced, with over 46,000 evacuees. What can we do besides mourn, empathize and worry?
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Winter squash are here. Delicata, butternut, acorn, spaghetti, Hubbard, Hokkaido, sweet dumpling, kabocha, turban and all manner of gorgeous pumpkins. Eben and I can’t resist buying them, because they are so beautiful. But then what?
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We are officially getting excited for snow! Last weekend, with visions of snowflakes dancing in our heads, we took Maris’ new Burton Riglet Snowboard out for a spin. On the beach.
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Calling all skiers, snowboarders, sledders, snowman makers, tobogganers, ice skaters, hot toddy sippers, snowshoers, snow fort builders, snow sculptors, snowball fighters, and snowball lovers! Trusted local snowcaster, Bryan Allegretto at opensnow.com, has officially called it.
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The beauty of a destination Thanksgiving is you get to go off-piste a little bit with the fixings. Nobody is going to fault you for cutting a few corners when you are hours away from home in an unfamiliar kitchen.
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At the end of a long workday, Eben snuck away to Sand Harbor State Beach, just over the border in Nevada, for a dip in the now-frigid waters.
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I assumed that the birds would all migrate south in the winter, looking for sunnier climes. I was wrong. While many birds migrate south to escape the Sierra winter, others stay, making Lake Tahoe their year-round home.
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The multi-day celebration is a time to honor loved ones who have passed on and help them along on their spiritual journey with prayers and gifts.
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I longed for hand-thrown ceramic mugs from local potters in a variety of shapes and colors, each one signed, each one with a story. The kind of mugs that warm the hands and pique the imagination. Gorgeous mugs.
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Visiting Page Meadows to see the aspens ablaze in fall colors was on my family’s autumn bucket list.
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In the far corner of the closet in the downstairs bedroom of Happy Cabin, there’s a hand-written note tacked to the cedar log wall. The paper is weathered, browning and curled at the edges. It seems it’s been there for a while, maybe even since the cabin was first built.
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The family-friendly shallows at our local beach hardly hint at what’s offshore, where the lake deepens, and deepens, and deepens, eventually reaching 1,644 feet.
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Nothing says “cozy” like a warm drink on a cold day. Our favorites are drawn from our traditions and travels.
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Now that we have an excuse to visit Lake Tahoe in the shoulder season, we’re looking forward to experiencing autumn without a packed agenda. We can venture off the beaten path a bit. We can try new things.
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It turns out that the Kings Beach area has always been lively. The town was named after Joe King, who migrated from Texas during the Roaring 20s. Joe was a body guard and bouncer with one eye and a reputation.
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The weather is changing. It seems like just yesterday it was all we could do to keep cool. Now we are eyeing the fireplace at Happy Cabin, wondering if it’s time to cozy up. As the seasons change, so does the menu.
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But what about those in-between months, the so-called “shoulder” season when everything slows down a bit, the locals venture back into town, and the weather is changing, bringing brilliant days interspersed with rain or chill? What are we supposed to do then?
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