Tahoe Trial

Finally we were off to Lake Tahoe, the place where we are having the "holiday" part of the holiday. We have had this place booked since July which is unusually organised for us! Lake Tahoe is a ski destination in winter and we have high hopes for a white Christmas.

We left the quaint goldmine town of Sonora and headed for "them thar hills".

You can see the original water line. California has been in
severe drought for 5 years.

Bridge over the lake which we also drove over.

More snow capped mountains.

Redwoods

 We had been travelling for about two hours, and were driving through some beautiful snow country, had Christmas songs playing and feeling generally pretty good about life in general. Then we came across this:

ROAD CLOSED!

We had just driven two hours for nothing and now had to return almost back to Sonora to take a different route. Frustrating beyond words! We had no choice but to turn back and go the other way.

Sun setting again as we drive

 As it got darker and we ascended the mountain ranges it got colder and foggier, and the roads seemed narrower and steeper. It was a white knuckle journey. Unbeknown to Jason and I, we each wondered if we would reach our final destination tonight, we just didn't verbalise our doubts out loud at the time. Jason did an amazing job of driving and getting us all safely to Lake Tahoe (a few prayers helped as well).

Iced over lake with snow drifts

We made a last stop at the Walmart and stocked up on a few groceries and some snow gear. Then it was only a "short" 10 miles up another dark foggy hill to our final stop. It was with a huge sigh of relief we made it to our apartment, and we don't have to move for a whole 7 days. It's very disappointing that there is no snow, however, we have full bellies, hot showers and warm beds awaiting. Maybe the snow will come for Christmas.