RV wk 2 Lake Tahoe & travelling to Yosemite

RV – week 2 – Lake Tahoe and travelling to Yosemite.

We arrived at the campsite to reverse in, in the dark. We were helped in by some Americans from Florida. We sat round the campfire and had some beers with them – and I needed a few beers after the narrow road with drops on both sides! They were travelling by Harley and another bike made by an old Harley engineer from the tip of Alaska to the Grand Canyon over a month or so. Around 6000 miles they said they had done. We had met in our first week a British couple who had shipped their Harley out to New York and had driven across the USA (including on Route 66). They had done 9000 miles over 3 months and were finishing in Seattle and then shipping the bike home again! They claimed they had really enjoyed it. Boy Ewan McGregor and that guy Boorman have a lot to answer for!

Camp Richardson was quite big and well organized – on each morning we did schoolwork (Sunday was a day off for us all!) and each afternoon we did an activity.

First afternoon was on the beach – a relaxing afternoon and a campfire cooked dinner! The water felt too cold to swim.

Second was a bike ride, to other local beaches (Where Toby got us all swimming and freezing) and to find wi-fi for a Skype call with the Kristensens and Bryants for Sheena goddaughters 6^th birthday – Tatjana. We sat outside a coffee shop on a bench with a Macbook Air on a video Skype call to the UK – and we all caught up and saw each other – for free - what technology! We also found the Pope house estate – an old summer estate used by wealthy San Francisans for their summer holidays including the founder of Wells Fargo bank who had also owned it. It was a magnificent estate of the main house and 20 other houses for guests and staff – typical of a range of estates all right on Lake Tahoe that were created around the end of 1800’s. Now they are all owned by the State Parks and been returned to be managed by the State Parks so the USA people can use the beaches around Lake Tahoe for access.

On the third day we took the old trolley bus (tramlike and open sided) and went into the hills (and over that narrow pass again !!) to Emerald Bay – a circular bay with a narrow entrance and crystal clear water and mountains all around. We descended down the narrow track to the beach and enjoyed the beach. There was another small estate on the beach called Vikingholme – this time in a Scandinavian style as Emerald Bay reminded the lady owner in 1890 of the Fjords of Norway and Sweden. She had bought the Emerald Bay land (and water) for $250k and then spent another $120k building the main house and surrounding outhouses – with 200 men that camped on the beach over a 6-month period. Everything came in by water, including the people – as there were no tracks down from the road in 1890 – as there was no road! She also built a little caste tea house at the top of the island in Emerald Bay to have tea on about 4 times a summer – apparently all Vikings in Scandinavia build a castle on the island in their Fjord – but probably for defence reasons rather than to have tea!!

On our last full day (Sunday) we rented a boat and went around Lake Tahoe and saw much of the lake and shoreline. Not as developed as Lake Muskoka in Canada for example but still pretty nice – with the added weakness of the water being really, really cold – I guess because Lake Tahoe is at 6500 ft and Lake M is much closer to sea level and the water is warm in the summer months. We went back to Emerald bay where we had been the day before and landed on the island and the beach! The island was made of rock so Sam & Toby swam with Sheena and Megan in the ringo while I stayed on the boat and we did a landing! They climbed to the (Tea) castle and back and then swam back out to the awaiting boat. We then had to make a boat rescue whose owners had anchored and swum in and climbed to the castle. We could see them in the castle and were shouting at them that their boat was heading for the rocks but they could not hear. So we drove over and luckily they had left their keys in – so I jumped on and it started – but did not initially get into gear – as we floated towards the rocks. Luckily it went eventually and we returned the boat to the owners (who also had a dog with a lifejacket that swam the family on a ringo to and from the island – which probably summed them up!) and disaster was averted! We had another beachside dinner and watched a fabulous “Labour Day” evening fireworks display during dinner and over the lake – very spectacular.

The next morning it was time to go and we got up early, got the schoolwork out of the way and left prepared for a bank holiday drive with loads of traffic. Luckily, after a mile everyone else went off on the Sacramento and San Francisco routes and we turned off the beaten track for a 6-hour drive to Yosemite. Again the scenery was incredible as we went from 6,500 ft to 10,000 and across plains between 2 mountain ranges, where the plains were at 5,000 ft above sea level. A breathtaking drive. We stopped and shopped in the last town of civilization (it had a garage a coffee shop, bar and grocery store!) before Yosemite and did our last emails and blog etc… with wi-fi in the coffee shop before going into the Yosemite wilderness for a week with no internet and no mobile phones!