Thankfully, the sunshine has arrived! It's finally starting to feel like summer and it came just in time for Jen's visit. Phew. The only thing Jen said to me was "I don't want to come out there if it's still snowing". Good thing she came when she did because just 5 days prior to her arrival it was snow city. We lucked out though with a week full of perfect weather. Clear blue skies and a sparkling blue lake. We couldn't have asked for more and we took full advantage of it. I think we did just about every activity you can do in Tahoe. We kicked it off with a hike on the Tahoe Rim Trail. I alluded to this briefly before but Jen and I were hiking along and per usual, I start thinking I'm a super hiker and can climb anything. I suggest that we scale this rock peak to check out the view at the top. It was a steep climb but the view was beyond worth it. You could see the entire lake and all the surrounding snow capped mountains. Absolutely breathtaking. After taking in the sights we climb back down to where we think the trail is...silly girls. We couldn't find the trail! We hiked around for a while trying to find it but had no luck. I look up to see where we came from to orient ourselves and some how the rock peak we climbed had multiplied and now there were 4 rock peaks! I couldn't even figure out which one we came down. Luckily though, Jen is one of the military's finest and used her internal compass to point us in the right direction. I was a little nervous we'd be hiking back through the forest climbing over fallen trees, rocks and ditches but Jen pulled through. My hero...but like I said. Stick to the groomers!
Our adventures didn't stop there. We spent an afternoon horseback riding in the sierras once again taking in some amazing views. Appropriately enough, I was riding a hungry horse and every chance he got he was snacking on grass and flowers. A horse after my own heart - taking snacks for the road. Jen's horse was a little tentative trotting down the rock covered trails. Jen said she was a little nervous during this. How she isn't nervous riding a raft through class 4 rapids but she gets nervous riding a horse going 2 mph I have no idea. We also went stand up paddle boarding which if you haven't seen is essentially a giant surfboard that you stand on and paddle your way around. I loved this! In fact, at one point I was telling Jen how much I loved paddle boarding and how peaceful it is and beautiful but apparently paddle boarding didn't love me because next thing you know I was stumbling off the back of the board straight into the lake. At a cool 45 degrees, I felt like the life got sucked out of me. My money and debit card quickly sunk to the bottom of the lake. At 15 feet, it was no easy feet to retrieve it. I attempted and failed twice to grab it. Jen, being the Navy Seal that she is, gets it in one dive. Once again, my hero!
It really was an incredible week. A great way to kick off the summer. Here's to hoping it's an adventure filled (and snow free) summer.
