Lake Tahoe

One of the first things we noticed is the almost absolute quiet of our surroundings. Standing on the deck early in the morning the only sounds are birds and the breeze coming off the mountains. The air is amazingly fragrant due to the sage that grows everywhere, along with lavender and, of course, various kinds of pine trees higher up on the mountains.

We drove to Lake Tahoe on our first day, which is only about eleven miles away, but those eleven miles are on a climbing, circuitous road that goes over the mountain. We begin at around 5000 feet elevation, climb to more than 9000 feet, and descend to the lake which is about 6000 feet. The views are spectacular, but it does take some getting used to the roads--only two lanes, very curvy, and very high. We drove to Zephyr Cove and got our first look at Lake Tahoe. It is utterly gorgeous. Lake Tahoe is the worlds' second largest alpine lake and was formed when the Sierra Nevada mountains pushed up out of the ground and created the crater that would become the lake. Then the glaciers, along with volcanic action and lava finished the job, carving out the lake and feeding it. Lake Tahoe is 99.7% pure and clear: a white dinner plate can be seen from a depth of 67 feet. At its deepest point the lake is nearly 1700 feet deep and is very cold. Because of its purity, the lake mirrors the color of the sky so on a clear summer day the water is a perfect deep blue color. It is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and covers a surface area of 191 miles. The coastline around the lake is 72 miles. The lake holds over 39 trillion gallons of water, enough to cover a flat area the size of California to a depth of 14 inches. If drained, it would take 700 years to refill the lake. Lake Tahoe never freezes because the huge volume of lake water is always in motion. Each winter, the cold water on the surface sinks while warm water rises from the deep.

We decided to take a paddlewheel (imported from the Mississippi) boat tour of the lake, and spent two hours on the water. The cruise took us to a part of the lake called Emerald Bay, so called because the water in this portion of the lake is a beautiful bright green color.
On Emerald Bay is a castle called Vikingsholm, the summer home of millionaire heiress Lora Knight. She built it in 1929, and because the rugged mountain scenery and sheer granite cliffs surrounding Emerald Bay reminded her of the fjords in Norway, Knight chose a Scandinavian design. It’s a house with many unusual features, including a sod roof seeded with wildflowers and dragon-heads at the peak of the roof. There is an island in the bay, just in front of the castle. On top of this island she built a tea house, also made of stone. She and her guests would take a boat to the island, climb the steep hill and have tea in the afternoons. We also learned that the Jeffrey pines covering the mountains are all less than 100 years old. When the Comstock Lode was discovered in Virginia City, the silver mining industry deforested nearly all of the trees in order to build mines, homes, other buildings as well as for heat and everything else a boom town needed . Despite their size, the trees now covering the mountains are relatively young.

After we returned, we went to the ticket window of another cruise company, this one offering sailboat cruises. A woman on the plane to Reno had told us not to miss the sunset cruise, so we asked about tickets. As we chatted with a young guy behind the counter, I noticed he had a Red Sox cap on, so I asked him if he was from Boston. It turned out he is from Concord NH, so of course I asked him what he was doing in Lake Tahoe. He said he didn't want a "real job" immediately after graduating from college, so he works at the Heavenly Ski Resort in the winter and at Zephyr Cove during the summers. Very nice, personable guy and the third person we've met so far with ties to Boston (two in supermarkets, plus this guy).
My sore throat had not gotten any better, and now both ears were plugged. All in all, things had gotten worse. The next day was D-Day: Philip insisted that I see a doctor. I'm wasn't getting any sleep and I wasn't feeling well, so I agreed that I may as well try to get some medicine.