No Time for Pictures!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Can you believe I spent 4 days in Lake Tahoe and didn't take one photo? Sad but true. The only excuse I have for myself is I WAS HAVING TOO MUCH FUN!!! There, I said it.

Wednesday we arrived in Sparks to our usual first stop on the Hot August Nights tour, Victorian Square. We got there around 2:30 and found the Mexican restaurant to have some well needed lunch. We sat outside and ate while looking at the cars parked along the street. Then we went walking and looking. We stopped at the official HAN tent to pick up t-shirts and hats. The hats were sorely needed. After spending a couple hours there, we decided to make our way down to Virginia Street, which is like The Strip and Freemont Street in LV all rolled into one. We have a special spot down by the Atlantis Hotel where we sit and watch the cars drive by. The spot is a strip of grass and trees in front of the local Smith's Food King which makes it very convenient to get drinks, food and use the facilities. Unfortunately, they have closed the grocery store. The parking lot is full of cars from who knows where and we have no drinks or ice or food or restrooms handy. Not so much fun. But we managed as best we could and enjoyed the sun going down and the cars going by. It actually felt good after walking through the car show across the street at the Atlantis.

Thursday, Chet and Steve spent all day at the Swap Meet. It really does take about 2 days to go through it all. I stayed with Raka and we decided to go for a bike ride. I rented and we rode from Tahoe City to Squaw along the Truckee River. What a beautiful ride. Lot's of people riding and walking, plus many rafters floating the river beside us. We had lunch at Squaw at an Irish bar. We sat outside and had wonderful spinach salads. We were kind of in a time crunch as Raka had to be in Reno for a workshop to take her Residential Design test this Thursday. So, we were not sure we were going to make it back in time. If the truth be told, I wasn't sure I was going to manage to get back at all. But, it wasn't any hardship at all. I must be in better shape than I thought. We made it back in plenty of time to stop at the store and pick up some wine before she left. After she left, I had a nice quiet time by myself to drink that wine and read a book. Fabulous!

Friday, we sent the boys off to Reno again and Raka and I decided to grocery shop for dinner and get stuff ready for bbq that night. Then we took off for a canoe ride. We had lunch at her boss's restaurant. Pretty good food. Then we went across the street where their canoe is at a friend's place on the lake. I decided not to take my camera (thank god). We loaded our drinks and put our lifejackets on the seats to sit on. We managed to launch without much trouble and paddle our way out beyond the bouys. We talked and paddled and paddled and talked our way around the coves and had a real nice time. I showed Raka how to turn into the waves as boats passed. We were really enjoying the day. As we decided to head back we found ourselves in the water and the canoe full of water. In an instant we went from lazy fun to watery shock! One of the boats with a couple of boys knee boarding had gone by, and we didn't quite get perpendicular to their waves. It didn't seem like a real big deal until we found ourselves swimming for our life jackets. We had pretty much assumed we were going to have to abandon the canoe when the boat that had swamped us, came back to help. Thank you please. The two boys managed to get the water out of the canoe and we rode back in the boat while they towed the canoe. Raka and I had our adventure for the day. We decided to swim since we were already wet, after we got the canoe back on solid ground. It really turned out to be quite fun, and a good story over supper. It just goes to show you how quickly things can turn dangerous when you least expect it.

All in all though, we had a great time. I sure did miss having Erica along though. That would have been super.

You'll have to ask Steve and Chet if they had any fun, but I suspect they did.

Here's to great adventures!

k