Aloha all,
you have been spared by these lengthy updates because it had been way too long since Sandra and I went on a road trip. Another long trip like 2008 and 2010 is always on our mind, but it will be a little while before it becomes a reality. So we decided to do a little 'mini road trip' to shorten the wait. We've been back for a few days, but in case you are not on Facebook, you might not have heard much about it.
We picked Sacramento & Lake Tahoe mostly because we had never been there. But still, the first evening in Sacramento was very predictable: Within hours from landing, we walked to the State Capitol (because we like state capitols and there is none on Maui), we found a great Indian restaurant (because we like Indian food and there is none on Maui) and found a bar (because we like margaritas and surprisingly we had to go to Sacramento to find out that they taste really good with coconut in them).
The next day we got our first history fix taking a tour through the California State Capitol. The building looks impressive by today's standards. To think that they built it in 1860 when the population of California was only 1% of what it is today is mind boggling. One can argue whether it was visionary foresight of how important California was to become or whether it was just another government wasting taxpayer's money. Either way, we enjoyed it and learnt a lot on the free tour.
We also visited the Leland Stanford Mansion. He was the Governor of California in the 1860's and founded the prestigious Stanford University. He was one of the business men who struck it rich during the gold rush, not by looking for gold, but by selling things the gold prospectors needed. Even more interesting was the Governor's Mansion, where several Governors lived up until Ronal Reagan moved out, apparently it was not the best neighborhood then. It's a fine area now, we stayed right across the street from here and even Jerry Brown, the current Governor moved into a condo just around the corner from here. I am glad he did not want to move back into the historic Governor's Mansion, that leaves it available for Joe, our tour guide, who turned it into his own comedy club. His humor was lost on the school kids on the tour, but we were so amused, I actually considered taking the tour a second time.
Because we like boat tours and underground tours, we took a boat tour on the Sacramento River and an underground tour of Old Sacramento. With a bucket of crab for lunch in between and another Indian dinner afterwards. Old Sacramento is a very authentic looking western pioneer town. Since it was built right next to the then unregulated river, it got flooded so often that they had to raise the whole town by one floor. What used to be street level is now the basement. Surprisingly, that was easier than moving the town to a drier area. I don't know what it is about underground tours, but just as in Seattle, it does seem to attract the comedian type tour guides. We loved it.
We also visited the historic "Fort Sutter". That used to be THE place to go if you were a pioneer who just arrived in California. John Sutter was instrumental in opening up California to the masses that followed. He was Swiss, but just happens to be from Kandern, Germany, only a few dozen miles from the towns where Sandra and I are from. The courage and determination of these early pioneers is pretty amazing anyway, but the fact that he grew up in the same area as I did, makes it even more impressive. It was at his mill where the first gold was found in California in 1848. But even though he was at the seemingly right place at the right time, the gold rush actually ended up bankrupting him rather then making him rich. That fate he shared with many of the "49ers" who came here in America's biggest mass migration in the year following the gold discovery, with very few of them actually finding a lot of gold. Can you believe it, I did not know or even think about why the San Francisco 49ers are called the 49ers? We still have a lot to learn!
On our way from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe we stopped at the Sudwerk Riverside Brewhouse. By lunchtime it was about 100 degrees. The cold beer alone did not cool me down enough. Luckily, this Riverside Brewhouse is right by the side of a river. Very refreshing. That night we went to an 80's party at the Amphitheater at Thunder Valley, hosted by Pat Benatar and Cheap Trick. They both have been playing music for over 30 years and still seem to enjoy it just as much as we enjoyed listening to them.
Lake Tahoe presented itself in three distinct shades of blue so colorful that it truly impressed us, even though we are spoiled by the view of the Pacific Ocean from our lanai. The "beaches" were actually packed and there were more stand up paddle boarders than here in Maui. But the very idyllic 'Tallack Historical Site' was not busy at all, so that's where we went. I think if you had told me in high school that I would rather visit a historical site than go to the beach, I would have called you crazy. Considering how much we enjoy historical sites now, it's surprising how little Sandra and I enjoyed history lessons in school.
Facebook can be a silly waste of time, but sometimes it comes in really handy. We did not even know that our friends Ron & MaryAnne had a place on Lake Tahoe. But after seeing our post, they spontaneously invited us over for a barbecue at the cottage that Ron built himself in 1959. We also took another fun little underground tour at the Cal Neva Resort. During the heydays of this resort, which obviously have passed, they built tunnels to smuggle alcohol, mafia bosses, Frank Sinatra & Marilyn Monroe between California and Nevada. Our tour guide had some interesting conspiracy theories, including some that seem to suggest that he thinks that even the weirdest conspiracy theorists don't have a clue about what is REALLY going on;-)
Lake Tahoe on a sunny Sunday can get pretty busy even in early June. Our plan A was to leave the crowds behind on a hot air balloon ride. But apparently the balloon company was worried that due to the prevailing winds, we might get too long of a balloon ride for our money, so it got canceled. But we did enjoy our plan B: getting away from the crowds by doing a hike a little bit away from the lake. I had not realized that the drive to the trailhead was already so remote that we were actually glad we were driving what others have described as a "Jellybean" rather than an RV. We did two awesome hikes to Grass Lake and Eagle Falls, interrupted by an awesome lakeside lunch at the West Shore Cafe.
On Monday we did two more hikes, around Spooner Lake and along the rugged shoreline of Lake Tahoe by Chimney Beach. We found out why it's called Chimney Beach: There is a big chimney right on the beach, but why? Maybe it's to warm you up after skinny dipping since there is a nude beach close by. I would have considered going swimming if the chimney had been in use. The culinary highlights that day were both made possible by Yelp. Lunch at the "Wild Alaskan" was voted as the best value by Sandra and me since we got to use the 50% off deal from Yelp on the happy hour prices. And dinner at the "Himmel Haus" was voted the most fun meal of the trip. Usually, I am suspect of Germans looking for German food on vacation. But since our options for Spätzle and Bratwurst are very limited on Maui, I felt justified to look for a German restaurant. Little did we know that the "Himmel Haus" is THE local hangout in Tahoe. At least it was that night, possibly because it was 'open mic night' and the local softball team won their game that day and had their party here. We sat down at a large table, quickly were joined by others and discussed German food, beer and Hawaii and played yenga. I had just told the guy next to me that I thought the food was pretty authentic, when I found out he was the owner of the joint and that his cook is not German at all, but an Italian Jew from Chicago. The beer tasted so good that Sandra bought an actual Himmel Haus beer stein. She claims that the beer tastes better out of it even here in Hawaii .
On our way back to Sacramento we went to the actual site where the very first nugget of gold in was found in California, causing the Gold Rush: Sutter's Mill at the Marshal Gold Discovery Sate Park. We got an almost private tour from a park ranger. Of course we also tried our luck at gold panning. Judging from our success, Sandra would have been a lot better prospector than me. She found more than twice as many flakes of gold. Even the tourist version of panning for gold was hard on the back. I don't think I am sorry we missed the actual gold rush by 160 years.
On our last night we had another bucket of crabs at "Joe's Crab Shack", which is kind of a Bubba Gump on steroids: Lots of dancing, singing, silliness and crabs... our kind of place! Overall, we enjoy all kinds of surprises on a road trip. But what we do not enjoy and did not even know that they still had in California is smoking rooms. Can you believe it: Two hotels insisted on giving us smoking rooms. I hate to be a complainer at the Front Desk since I am usually at the receiving end of that, but smoking rooms in 2013, really? Well, Priceline and Hotwire came to the rescue when called. Overall, I have to say I was pretty surprised that all our hotel rooms cost only about as much as what we charge at the Royal Lahaina just to upgrade your room from a garden view to an ocean view. But I will continue to offer those upgrades so that we can take another road trip soon. Maui might be our favorite place in the world, except being on the road…
And that's the news from Lake Tahoe, where all the hikes were awesome, all the food was delicious and where life was even more good than average.
Chris & Sandra
