We wandered round Tahoe, remembering former holidays there, but looking for somewhere nice - with wi-fi - for breakfast. It was Saturday and it was July 4th. Everybody, but everybody was out for breakfast/brunch and the lines at the attractive-looking places were too long. Eventually we spotted Applebee's across the street but that didn't open for another hour or more, so on we rolled. Jo came up with the idea of walking away from the main resort. "Let's try the brewery" she said. We started to walk but very soon realised it was a long way away and one eye on the heavens above told us it wasn't wise to try to walk too far in case the forecast storm broke. We had managed to avoid all the weather yesterday - there were reports of flash floods all around us, but we dodged them all.
Just after we turned back, the first raindrops fell. Heavier and heavier it got and soon we had to take shelter - initially in the doorway of a closed restaurant, but then, as the rain reached torrential levels and hailstones started to fall, we were rescued by the staff at the Holiday Inn across the street, who invited us in for shelter - and a cup of tea thrown in. Perfect - and half an hour later the storm was over and Applebee's was open so that's where we had brunch.
Here's what it looked like from our first, temporary shelter:
The rest of the day was spent wandering round Tahoe. We were planning a trip up in the Gondola but there was another storm system just 20 miles away and all the facilities at the top were closed and it was likely that we would have to evacuate quickly if this storm hit the area. In the end, it didn't, but we opted out of the Gondola ride anyway and strolled around - mostly from pub to pub.
We decided on an early evening and bought some groceries - and a bottle of wine - and had them in our apartment.
On Sunday morning, part II of our Road Trip adventure got under way. We knew LAX was 8 hours or so away so we set off early to make sure we were at the airport in good time to meet Gary and Luca, who were flying in.
Some interesting - and changing - scenery down the main highway between Yosemite on one side and Death Valley on the other. Jo had my camera and took lots of photos through the windscreen but none of them came out particularly well - although she also took this one of me munching my breakfast muffin en route:
There were still some noises coming from the car, but generally it was performing OK, which was just as well, as we were at times a long way from civilisation. We made it in good time and waited for the arrival of two-thirds of the Inverurie clan. By the time they got through all the usual Immigration, Customs and Baggage Claim, it was 5 pm, USA time, although this was 1 am Monday UK time - technically no longer Gary's 40th - but we celebrated anyway once we got to our resort at Newport Coast.
Luca was still going strong and was happy to play around with his cousins:
Gary cut his cake:
Monday was going to be a quiet day.
No comments:
Post a Comment