Friday, June 5^th
This was my Friday off, so we were able to take our time getting ready with the dogs, packing etc. We arrived late, around midnight. Instead of getting a taxi to the Marriott, we negotiated an extra 12 hours for the rental car. I hadn't planned to find the Mariott, but lucky we found the hotel pretty easy. David decided he didn't want to put up with Remy's snooring, so he negotiated a separate room for them.

We each got up at different times and had a late breakfast in lobby restaurant. The food was good, but the only coffee choice was Starbuck's burnt offering.

After breakfast, we headed south towards Lake Tahoe. Stopped at the Golden Nuggett in Carson City where we all lost gambling. It was too early for the $12 Prime Rib special so we would have make another opportunity for that deal.

Continued to State Line where we checked in at Ridge. We met Boyd and his wife Linda there. Apparently his GPS sent him on a somewhat longer journey to here than normal. We then all headed to church at Our Lady of Tahoe Catholic Church which is close by in Zephyr Cove. It's location features a lot of pines trees, so it always has an inviting view and smell. Father Oliver does an excellent job of welcoming the people and making the mass interesting so we normally go to this church whenever we are in Lake Tahoe.

Boyd has an obsession with using the GPS to find things. His GPS appears to prefer out of the way longer routes. We had to double back and try again for the church. Remy rode with them this time to override the GPS directions. Technically we were a few minutes late, but Father was still talking about the Mass coming up when we entered, so I guess the Mass hadn't really begun yet.

Today was the feast of Corpus Christi, so his talk on the feast was quite appropriate for our stay. Afterwards when he asked where we are from, we could answer the City named for the Feast Day. Unknown to me, Aida was either having an anciety attack or a stroke after mass. It got pretty scarry and she ended up in an ambulance to the little local hospital. They transferred her and David to Reno where they have facilities to address stroke issues.

We decided to do the Virgina City trek since that would allow us to visit Aida on the way back. This was on Boyd's wish list and we generally do this trip with visitors with us here. You pass through Carson City, then up the mountain. The main feature is a train ride that takes you by the various gold/silver mines. There is a guide who explains what you are seeing.

Next there is a Catholic church, St. Mary in the Mountains, and an Episcople church, St. Paul's, that have some interesting history with the city during the gold and silver rush time period.

We took highway 341 into reno and visited Aida and David at the Renown Habilitation Hospital. It was really a city block. Aida was doing much better and anxious to get released, but they wanted to do more tests. After the visit, we headed back to Ridge where we ate pancit, lumpia,and other goodies that Linda made and brought with them.

Monday: This was our planned hiking day. I was debating beween a 20 mile hike along the Tahoe Ridge Trail from Spooner Summit to Tahoe Meadows or the Tahoe Meadows to Mt. Rose. The latter trip ended where it started so we wouldn't need to be picked up, in addition it offered reaching some peaks, so I chose that one.

We reached trailhead around 9am and headed up. Right away we got some excellent views of Lake Tahoe. Then the trail turned north and we ran into a lot of snow and ice, which I hadn't thought would still be around. We met a couple that we talked to, but they were much faster than us, so we let them go on. At milage 3.2 we came to a waterfalls that a lot of people go to then return. While we were there we found that couple again. They apparently got off the trail so we beat them. The were heading back, but we turned to Mt. Rose trail.

Once we left the tree line, the trail got pretty steep and narrow. Boyd was getting dizzy so we turned around, and headed towards Relay Peak. We ate a snack at a cross roads and decided to follow the trail along the power lines towards Mount Houghton. A couple of miles up the trail we ran into a deep snowpack.We tried to work our way around it, by headubg East and looking for a route back up to find it again, but we got pretty far away from trail. The turn back North was not possible because it was too steepso we kept working our way east. Eventually decided to try a fairly steep approach. In order to try it, I left my bag behind to lighten the load. when we reached what I thought was the peak we found the trail again and the peak was still a distance away. We almost made the peak, but we again ran into deep snow, so we were a couple stone throws away.

I had left some tissue on a rock where we found the trail so I would be able to find my way back to the back pack. I found the tissue easily, but the on thetrek down the mountain I got off track. I couldn't find the pack and I lost Boyd. I went back and forth looking for the packa and for Boyd seveal times. I had suggested he follow the trail and work his way through the snow where it wasn't so steep since he was having so much trouble with steep steps and thought he had done that, so I kept checking the suggested meeting place, then trying to retrace to the back pack. Finally I decided to make one last effort for the pack by back tracing twice as far as I thought we went, and getting above where it could possible be and head back, looking down each plume. I found it on the second plume and was able to call Remy to find out that Boyd was ok and heading back to the car, so I did too. I met him at the car and we picked up chicken and sushi from Raley's on the way back. Aida and Dave returned during the day and got tired waiting for us for dinner, so they went into Stateline already.

The next day we all ate a late breakfast, then Boyd took some photos along the entrance to the Ridge. He was heading back today we explained the need to stop at Emerald Bay for photos, hopefully his GPS will function properly.

We went into town and did a little bit of shopping. I bought a camel bag like Boyd had so that I won't need to carry water in a back pack next time. Then we ate a good lunch at the Tahoe Resorts Hotel, just on the California side near to Harrahs. Dave and I both ordered the Lobster Raviola, but they only were able to provide one serving so I has the Scallops Pasta. Then we gave our money to Harrah's.

I had our clubs shipped by UPS and they arrived when scheduled, but I had a little bit of trouble finding them at the Ridge, but after a few calls they delivered them to our room. My plans were to play one day in the Genoa Lakes area, one at Incline Village where we would drop Dave and Aida to do the Thunderbird Lodge tour, and one at the Tahoe Paradise public course just past the airport. Since the weather was calling for rain in both areas, I reserved an afternoon tee time at Empire Ranch just outside Carson City. We had played there many years ago. It has some good views of the mountains. When we arrived there were not many people waiting to play, so we got off early. It was a good thing because it got pretty dark and was starting to rain as we finished. Remy was struggling to keep going and started playing every other hole of the back side.We stopped and had the $12 prime rib at the Golden Nuggett in Carson City on the way back. Rather than golf tomorrow we left a message to add us to the Thunderbird Lodge tour with Dave and Aida if a opening comes up.

Since Remy was clearly not in shape for golfing, we tried to join Dave and Aida on their tour of Thuderbird Lodge. They had scheduled the lake trip that leave from Zephyr Cove and includes a tour of the Eastern shore of the lake. Fortunately they had four cancellations and we wer able to fill in for two of them.

From Zephyr Cove we followed the shore to the north and the guide pointed out the various homes and the history of the area. There were stories about the Harrah's, Harvey's and others to go with the houses we saw along the way.

When we started the lodge tour, it was clear Remy could not handle the steep stairs, so she remained behind at the boat. We heard the stories about George Whittell, Jr., the millionaire owner of the Lodge. He was born into great wealth and used it to collect exotic animals, elegant automobiles and boats, beautiful women. He was a notorious playboy indulging in a succession of marriages and liaisons. In his later years he became a recluse. The house includes a boat slip for the Thunderbird, signals for the casino girls when he was having a party, they had a back stairs entrance for their convenience. He had the beginings of a swimming pool so he wouldn't have to go out in the public beach area. Carrier's model A air conditioner is on site as well as some movie studio quality cameras. On the walls hang the skins of his pet cats. There is a side room the chinese workers talked him into adding as they dug the tunnel. This is where they took their coke breaks. We saw the Poker Room, where apparently some great fortunes passed hands.

The Brad Paisley show was awesome. Mickey Guyton led off. She has powerful voice, but she only sang two or three songs. Later she did a duet with Brad, "Whiskey Lulaby". Justin Moore then played a bit longer. He too was awesome. Brad played about an hour and half. He did a lot of selfies with people in the crowd and had a little boy play a Mario game on their 60 foot screen. He gave away a signed guitar to a little girl with a pink cowboy hat on. It got cold after the sun went down and my phone photos got a little fuzzy with the lighting. Whover did the background videos that complemented the songs did a very good job of matching video content to the songs. In addition it was nice to get the large cam shots of the singers on the side screens to make you seem closer.

On the way back to Reno we drove along the lake to Emerald Bay. This is a must stop on any trip to the area. You could see a yellow streak of pollen floating just off shore. We had seen the yellow dusting coming from the pine trees when we were at Incline Village overlooking from Thunderbird Lodge.

So concludes another of our trips to Lake Tahoe. We'll be back again in 2017.