Say Ahhh...

Time to get into some serious relaxing. We thought we'd take a break from driving up and down mountains. We had tickets for a sunset cruise on Lake Tahoe in the evening, so we spent the day relaxing in the hot tubs. There are seven of them, some hotter than others. With the warm breeze and the heat wave attacking this part of the country, it was a great way to spend a few hours. As hot as the weather was (each day was at least 95 degrees, but of course there's no humidity), sitting in the hot tub with the strong breeze on your face feels incredibly good. That, plus the fact that the antibiotics seemed to have started to work their magic.
In the late afternoon we headed back over the mountain to Zephyr Cove. We left early so we could explore South Lake Tahoe a little bit. South Lake Tahoe is the center of activity on the south side of the lake. Most of the big resort hotels are there, along with huge Harrah's and Harvey's casinos. Lots of shops, some of which were fairly nice. This is not, however, a shopping destination. Nowhere in our travels did we see anything in the way of shopping as we know it in the big city. It was a reminder that Nevada is a very sparsely populated state, and that with the possible exception of Las Vegas, you are not going to find interesting shopping opportunities here. Nevertheless, we did see a few fairly nice art galleries. One of the best parts of this vacation was that we bought absolutely nothing.
At 7:00 we boarded a beautiful catamaran sailboat and headed off for a two hour cruise around the lake. Once we were far enough away from shore and the sails were raised, the engine was shut off and it was incredibly quiet and peaceful. Still light out at 7:00, the water was a stunning blue. This cruise offered free champagne, wine, beer and soda (other drinks were $5) and our shipmates were taking full advantage. We sat near a group of people who were obviously traveling together and knew each other from home. Very loud, very eager to show off. The men were all golfers and talked about it incessantly. They started drinking as soon as they got on the boat, and didn't stop until we docked again. At first their wives weren't drinking, but eventually they caught up and were just as obnoxious as their husbands (one woman said to her husband, who was talking about business, "You may run it, but I own it!" Then she wiggled her tush in another man's face while her husband laughed). In some ways it was amusing to watch. These people obviously had money, and were old enough to know better, but they didn't have too much class and didn't seem to mind making a spectacle of themselves.

But once the sun started to go down it didn't matter. It was so beautiful, and so peaceful on the lake. The heat of the day disappeared and the air was cool. We saw the paddlewheel boat (the same one we had taken a few days earlier) coming in from its last cruise, and watched the lights go on in the houses and hotels all around the lake. It was a wonderful evening. Of course, we had to drive over the mountain again to get home, but compared with Route 89 our mountain road (called the Kingsbury Grade) was a piece of cake--it has guard rails.