This past weekend, my sister and her boyfriend came to visit Tahoe for the first time! We hadn’t seen them since our visit to NYC over Labor Day, so we were really happy that they were finally able to make the cross-country journey to see where we currently call home. Obviously Tahoe is a much different environment environment than Manhattan, but I think they enjoyed the experience. We had so much fun having them here, and it was great for the four of us to hang out and spend time together 🙂
Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend…
The forecast was calling for clouds and rain all weekend, so as soon as picked them up I took them right to El Dorado beach so they could see the lake while the sky was blue! (Luckily the weather ended up being better than anticipated!) I clearly got really dressed up for their arrival…kidding. I have been living in Tahoe for way too long!
After checking out the lake, we headed back to our house to relax and catch up…and so they could see Lola of course. Obviously the most important part of their visit.
I think Lola was a little unsure of Ben at first, but she warmed up pretty quickly.
Later that night, we headed out for dinner, with a quick stop for drinks at 19 Kitchen & Bar on the top of Harvey’s Casino to check out some great views of the lake!
The next morning, we started out the day with breakfast at our fav local spot, Red Hut Cafe.
When we have visitors to Tahoe, one of our favorite things to do is drive around Lake Tahoe. It’s a total of 72 miles, but it’s the best way to see all the different little towns in the area and get all different views of the lake. We like to make a day of it and stop at different points along the way, and we wanted to make sure Ben and Melissa got that experience.
First stop? Emerald Bay! We’ve been to this spot many times, but being one of the most photographed places in Tahoe, we obviously had to include it in the itinerary.
It was a wee bit windy!
Ben was loving the fresh mountain air 🙂
Finally a good picture of the four of us!
The weather was getting nicer, so we decided to take the trail down to check out Vikingsholm. This “castle” on the shore of Lake Tahoe was built in the 1920’s by a wealthy woman who also helped back Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. It’s a 2 miles down to the castle and back, so it was a fun little hike to do while at Emerald Bay.
You can really see how clear the water is!
The house is neat to see, but it was in rougher shape than I expected. However, that might have something to do with the fact that it’s currently closed for the winter. It did have some neat Scandinavian style details on the outside though.
Our next stop was to drive up to Truckee, CA. It’s such a cute little town, and a must-see when we’re driving around the lake as there are some fun little shops and restaurants there.
After finishing our drive around the lake, we headed home to watch Michigan play in the Final Four! It was so exciting to see them beat Syracuse!
We headed out for pizza and drinks after our win, but sadly Michigan lost in the National Championship against Louisville two days later. Whomp whomp.
Sunday morning we had brunch at the house…
Then it was off to ride the Gondola! Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten much snow this season so we were unable to ski during Ben and Melissa’s visit like we initially planned. But at least they got to experience riding up the mountain to get some great views of the lake!
I let Melissa borrow my down jacket for the day so she could feel outdoorsy…ha.
No matter how many times I see this view, it still never gets old to me. I just can’t get over how blue it is…the lake, the sky, it is the definition of blue. And I’m pretty sure I said that to Melissa and Ben about 100 times over the course of the weekend. But seriously, it is.
We headed higher up the mountain to Tamarack Lodge to get some hot chocolate and enjoy the sunshine. Although there were people skiing, the conditions were super slushy and I was glad that we didn’t try to go out because the snow was awful.
After our gondola ride, we did some more driving around including a drive down into the valley to see Cam’s office. We capped off the weekend with relaxing at the house, playing Apples to Apples, and eating an excessive amount of puppy chow. Because that’s what my sister and I do when we get together. And it’s awesome.
I’m so glad Melissa and Ben were able to come out to Tahoe, we had such a fantastic weekend with them! My sister and I are really close so it’s really difficult for us to live on opposite ends of the country. On one hand, this weekend made me a little sad because I do wish that we lived closer to one another so we could see each other more often. But at the same time, I know that she (and Ben) are really happy in NYC, just like I really do enjoy living in the West. I’m glad that we’re each getting to do our thing and we’re really good about keeping in touch (and not gonna lie, I love having a reason to go to NYC!). Plus, it makes the time that we do get to spend together that much more special. But I’m already counting down until the next time we can all be together! Have a great weekend everyone! Xoxo