One more weekend

You can almost see it coming, can't you?! Another one of those trip reports. You guessed right. We set our sights on Lake Tahoe this weekend. Lake Tahoe is a lake (duh!) about 4 hours north east of here. It is famous for skiing during the winter months. But believe me, it is really pretty in the summer.

We started driving about 9am Saturday and reached the campground, Goose Meadow close to 1:30pm. Ashish had very efficiently booked 3 sites next to each other. Kritika, Ashish and I started putting up Tent #1 when the other car with Jaggi, Ashwin, Renuka and Suhanya showed up. With 7 pairs of hands working on it, we soon had both our tents up. After a quick lunch, we took off for the Heavenly Gondola ride (Thanks Jyo for getting us dicount tickets!). We did not wait for the people in the third car because they were still setting up and said they would join us at the Gondola place. Heavenly Gondola ride is a cable car journey that takes you up the one of the rocky mountains surrounding the lake for astounding views. The lake is blue, true blue. Feast for the eyes. Some photography, some chit-chatting and one strawberry-banana smoothie ensued. The ride back down was eventless, other than a little acrophobia for some folks.

We sat around at the lakeside for a bit, watching the sun go down with a spectacular show of colour. Splashes of pink and orange mixed with the blue of the sky, all reflected in the gentle ripples of the lake. With our senses filled in that twilight zone, we indulged in some Cold Stone icecream and drove back. Goose Meadow campsites have a really good barbecue grill and a campfire pit. We soon had both going and finished up dinner under a sky crowded with a million twinkling dots. Sat around the tent, talking and narrating ghost stories for a while, under a flashlight. Soon, we cuddled up in our respective sleeping bags and settled down for a quiet night, there was no sign of the thunderstorm that had been predicted.

We were up Sunday morning and ready to head out for the watersport place by around 9am. Kritika and I decided to do some kayaking, something we have never done before. It was a lot of fun, especially once we got the hang of it and were comfortable enough to stop concentrating on the way our hands were moving! The water didn't get any deeper than 5 feet at any point, so it was not exactly like us charting the stormy waters or anything. We did get ourselves considerably wet though. Renuka and I then took the waters on for a bit too. I think we all agreed that this was the nicest part of the trip, when we felt like we had experienced the lake. After that, Ashish, Kritika and I started driving back home while those guys stayed on for some jetskiing and stuff.

Overall, I really enjoyed the camping experience (notably the water hand pump). It was perfect weather for camping, unlike some of my previous rainy, stormy and extremely cold experiences. Although I am not sure if everyone will agree with me, some of us did not enjoy the unusual restrooms, the lack of morning coffee and the absence of warm showers. Nevertheless, all's well that ends well.

And almost unnoticed, seemingly irrelevant to some, Independent India turned 57. What should we gift our country on her birthday?