Honeymoon in Tahoe

I can't believe it's been over a month since we got married. We decided to wait a little bit and let the wedding excitement die down before going on our honeymoon. That way we could drag the celebration out a bit. Plus fall just seemed like a good time for a getaway. So this past weekend Joe and I headed to Tahoe for a three day weekend. I went there for my bachelorette party a few months ago and I immediately wanted to bring Joe back with me. There are so many outdoorsy things to do and I knew we'd have a ton of fun. 

Cue the weather:

Notice how it was sunny every single day except the three days we were there? We're lucky like that ;) 

We weren't about to let a little bit of rain ruin our fun though. We started out bright and early on Friday morning with breakfast and sightseeing in Sacramento which I'll save for another post. 

Around noon we hit the road again and even though it was raining pretty much the whole way the scenery was so amazingly beautiful. I made Joe stop about a dozen times so I could get out and take pictures. I couldn't get over all the colorful trees lined up next to the river, the yellow meadows, the scent of pines, the gray clouds rising up out of the trees... I don't think words or photos really do it justice, but that didn't stop me from snapping a few hundred.

Even though we stopped at pretty much every single scenic turnout along the way we still made decent time and got to our hotel a little after 3:00. The hotel was cute and cozy with a fire burning right when you walked through the doors, a giant pine tree in the middle of the lobby, a pond with super friendly turtles, and a huge skylight ceiling so it felt like we were outside, even though we were nice and warm and dry indoors. 

After we were settled we got ourselves some delicious Mexican food, then we wandered around all the shops in the rain. First purchase? An umbrella and gloves. Somehow I managed to forget my jacket at home. I distinctly remember it not fitting in my suitcase, so I took it out thinking I'd carry it along with me. Nope. It stayed home on the bed. Thankfully Joe brought an extra hoodie or I would've froze.

Since it was gloomy and dark we decided to hit up the casinos. We were staying right on the stateline so all we had to do was walk across the street and we were in Nevada. We visited three of the casinos and I made sure to play at the same slots that I was lucky at last time I was here. Somehow I got lucky again and won a hundred dollars. A very nice way to end our first day in Tahoe.

The next morning we woke up to...sunshine! We ate at the hotel breakfast buffet and then hit the road for some sightseeing. I had a few things on my list that I wanted to do while we were there: hike to a waterfall, wander around the lake, and see some colorful fall foliage. We figured we'd head over to Emerald Bay for all of that...but then we found out the road was closed due to a fire :( 

Our Plan B was to wing it, and that turned out to be the absolute best thing. I typed waterfall into Yelp and we went to the closest one not affected by the fire. A tiny windy road led us directly to the waterfall. We were able to park and walk close enough to actually touch the water. We made sure to take a ton of photos and walked around a bit, but then were like, "now what?" 

We decided we'd just keep driving up the road and see where it led us. Turns out it dead ended in a parking lot near a small lake. We got out and I immediately spotted some beautiful red trees. I rarely get to see fall trees in all their colorful glory, so I was like a moth to the flame with those trees. I was just flitting along from one tree to the next with Joe gamely following along. The trees wound up leading us to a gravelly pathway, which was perfect because it wasn't all slippery and muddy from the rain, and we just walked along snapping photos and exclaiming how beautiful it all was. 

I'm not exactly sure how long or how far we walked, but we were lucky that it stayed nice and sunny for a long time. The path was relatively flat, and it was right alongside a little stream, and some marshes, and off in the distance we could see the lake. Then all of a sudden the path started climbing up and the clouds got very dark and stormy looking. We decided we'd hike up just a bit to see the view from up higher.

Turns out there was another waterfall up there! It was beautiful. We could also see snow up on the mountains, and so many different colored trees. I wish I could live right along that path every fall because it was the most gorgeous place I've ever been. There were actually a couple houses along the way and Joe and I kept trying to guess what they did for work, or how they were able to live out there in such seclusion. 

Our timing wound up being perfect (for once) because right as we turned around to go back down we felt a few drops of rain. And then all of a sudden a ton of people were walking up the path. We literally didn't see a single person the whole way up, and we kind of thought we were on a lost forgotten path. Turns out we were just ahead of the crowd. The seclusion added to the charm.

We walked back down to the little lake and wandered around there for a bit until the weather got cooler and the skies looked even gloomier than before. Then we drove back down to a bigger lake called Falling Leaf Lake. It was pretty deserted since everything was closed for the season but we walked out onto a dock to check it out and snap a few pictures before we started feeling more rain drops and decided to head back toward civilization.

After all that walking we were ready for some lunch. We found a sushi restaurant along the way, and went a little crazy ordering four rolls. We wound up eating every last bite. So delicious. And we followed it up with dessert. It's not everyday you're on your honeymoon, right??

The next order of business was coffee and some relaxation. We settled into our room and got sucked into this morbid show on the Weather Channel called Why Planes Crash. It was so sickly addictive. I guess after watching Mickey Mouse on repeat day in and day out we went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum with a show all about death and destruction. We finally pulled ourselves away and decided to try our luck at the casinos again. Spoiler alert, I said goodbye to that hundred I won the day before. Well played, slot machine. Well played. Joe thankfully won, but then we lost some more, so I think we were right about even when we left. It was a pizza, wine, and netflix kind of evening, since the rain had kicked in full force again. We watched Big Short, which I highly recommend. A movie about mortgages and bankers doesn't sound interesting, but it actually was. 

We took it easy the next morning, slowly packed up our stuff, and hit the road (in the rain) again. We stopped in Sacramento for lunch and entertained ourselves in the car by trying to answer all the trivia questions on The Chase. We are Game Show Network addicts over here. Even Ez and Declan can agree that Steve Harvey takes precedence over Mickey Mouse. 

In the end the rainy weather actually worked out well for us. Just enough sunshine to get out and explore, and enough rain to feel ok being lazy and staying in. It was the best of both worlds.

Two kid free days were amazing, but I think all parents can agree that the best part of a break is being reunited at the end. Mommy got all the snuggles, Daddy got climbed on like a jungle gym. Balance was restored ;)

If you somehow made it past the overload of pictures, thank you for following along!