USA 2013 (2)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

That's the "holiday" part of our holiday over now - we're in Grants Pass, babysitting for Cade and Braeden as their parents return to work. Not that there's much to do - the boys pretty much take care of themselves, which suits us, especially today, as we want to have a "do nothing" day after yesterday's drive back from Tahoe, with all 6 of us in Scott's truck. Scott, as usual, did all the hard work - driving for 7 hours straight - with just one coffee stop, plus a Braeden "huey" - doesn't seem to faze him. When he gets back home, it's straight down to chores for him and Lucy - the grass needs cut, the pool needs treated, cocktails need to be made and ribs have to be barbequed. The latter parts we love - we always look forward to evenings at the Delsie Drive Grill.

You want to see some photos of last week? I'll try to keep it to ones that haven't appeared on Facebook or one of my other blogs - here goes:

Outside the gate to the pool and the quadrangle of apartments we stayed at.

The giant bikes were everywhere in Heavenly Village.

Jo really liked the giant wild daisies just under the Gondola.

You've already seen the looks of fear on the faces of a couple on the other side of our Gondola up the mountain, but here's the more relaxed trio trying to cheer up Jo & Braeden.

The Lesinas on the observation deck at the first Gondola stop.

Panoramic view from the top, showing Lake Tahoe to the left and the northern Nevada plains to the right.

When we got as far up the mountain as the Gondolas would take us, we went walking up further on some of the trails - or, at least, Jo and I did. We made it to the top - over 10,000 feet - and were about to start taking photos when one of the staff drove up in the ambulance buggy and said we had to get off the mountain now as the Gondolas were closing. She offered us a lift down and this was our view as we clambered on board:

Glad I didn't take the seat at the back - I would have had a face full of dirt at the end of the ride.

The following morning, we went along to listen to a presentation of the new Marriott Points system - they no longer sell weeks and we wanted to find out more about how it would now work. Inevitably, we ended up buying more - we had bought our initial week on our 25th Anniversary trip, and now, here we were not long after our 40th, upgrading.

Immediately after the presentation, we took a walk over the State Line to Nevada and came across a statue commemorating the famous Pony Express, which used to run this route:

The climate at altitude is wonderful, but sometimes the sun can get a bit much so we come in to cool off and read:

Why the hat's still on, I'll never know.

Lastly, a view of Mount Shasta on the drive home yesterday, as we stopped to clean up after Braeden's little sickie: