Lake Tahoe

I have started and stopped writing several blog posts over the last month and a half.  Nothing ever felt right though so I didn’t publish any of them. 

But I’ve been visiting my blog frequently so I could click on my blog roll and see what everyone else was writing and I have enjoyed my time as a reader but my lack of writing led to a big problem for me: I got really tired of seeing the same pictures on my blog’s home page every day. So this post is partly just an excuse to change up the scenery a little bit.  

And speaking of scenery, one of the more recent reasons I haven’t been blogging is that I spent this last weekend on a retreat up in beautiful Lake Tahoe.  I took a few pictures with my phone to share here.

If you’ve never been to Lake Tahoe before, you should consider it some time.  Between the lake, the mountains, and the casinos it’s got something for everyone.   

For me, the allure of Lake Tahoe is just being among the trees with the water and the mountains always there in the background.  

Here are some fun facts about Lake Tahoe that you might not know about and probably won't remember next time it comes up on Jeopardy.

• Lake Tahoe is the largest Alpine Lake in the United States.
• It is the second deepest lake in the United States behind Crater Lake (which is also a great place to visit).
• There are 63 tributaries that flow into Lake Tahoe, half the rain in the lake is from rain water falling directly on it, and there is just one river, the Truckee River, as an outlet.  The Truckee river flows Northeast into Pyramid Lake.  For some reason that blows my mind.
• One of the ski resorts, Squaw Valley, hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics.
• Because the lake borders both California and Nevada, there is legal gambling along the Nevada side of the lake.  
• TV and Film buffs may know Tahoe's scenery as the background for the opening sequence of Bonanza while a Tahoe estate called Fleur de Lac provided the location for several scenes in The Godfather Part II.
• And if gardening is your thing (I know it is), the Thunderbird Lodge has a spectacular alpine garden that is open to visitors.