Waiting for WINTER!

Everyone at Tahoe has warned us about the winter season. Apparently it snows a lot in the Sierra Mountains :). Locals always seem surprised when we tell them we have never experienced a winter in Tahoe before...yet we made the decision to move here. We say, "Bring it on."

Over the past summer months we have been scouring ski shops for sales and good deals on winter "toys". We have our skis and snow shoes. All we need is the snow to start falling.

The pictures of the "Batchelor House" give a sneak peak at what we are going to be dealing with in a few months.

All Are Welcome...

Our new house has plenty of room for visitors! We would love to take you skiing at Squaw Valley (home of the 1960 Winter Olympics), rafting down the Truckee River, on a hike to Emerald Bay, or to the Paige Meadows.

The house we are fortunate enough to rent is the second home of Tom and Dottie Batchelor. Dottie is the former Executive Director of the Museum. Tom used to manage and restore Bill Harrah's car collection (as of Harrah's Casino). He also completely rebuilt and restored their pride and joy, "Pink Hour" (named after the evening hour on the lake when the water and sky turns pink).

Views of the Lake

We are fortunate to live in an amazing location. I hope we never take our "views" for granted.

Nia learns to swim!

Our move to Tahoe has shaved years off Nia's life. She loves to go on hikes, climb mountains, and hunt the resident squirrels and chipmunks. At five years old, she finally decided she likes the water and learned to swim shortly after we arrived in California. Nia loves to get a drink, take a dip, and fetch pine cones during our mountain hikes and in Lake Tahoe.

When we were housing sitting, we also watched a New Foundland/Great Pyrenees mix who also loved water. I think Nia learned to swim because she didn't want Zella (Margie's dog) to "show her up" and fetch her pine cone from the lake!

Hiking, Biking, and Rock Climbing

Mount Tallac, Alpine Meadows (Five Lakes hike), mountain meadows on the way to Ellis Peak

There are hiking trails, bike paths, and rocks to climb minutes from our front door! Josh usually goes on a hike or rides his bike to the Lake everyday after the stock market closes to take a break from the computer screens and charts. Now that we live in our house in Homewood (we ended the house sitting gig on 9/12), I can walk or bike to work everyday. When gas in Tahoe City runs you $4.19 per gallon, it's nice to know the SUV is safe and sound in the garage!

We have gone on some awesome hikes. Hiking/climbing to the top of Mount Tallac a few weeks ago was a highlight (elevation 9,770 feet). Mount Rose (elevation 10,022 feet) is next on our to-hike list.

A full social calendar!

Lake Tahoe is really a resort community and vacation destination. There always seems to be something fun going on every day. The only draw back is when there are two (or three) fun things to do, and they are all going on at the same time on the same day.

We have been in Tahoe for thee months and we still feel like we are on vacation! Working for TMM also means our social calender is full of boating related events and activities.

Tahoe Maritime Museum

Upon arriving in Tahoe, I hit the ground running at the Museum. The summer season is the busiest time of year for TMM, and I immediately started organizing events, building relationships with the members, and promoting the Museum whenever possible. We experienced our first (of many) wooden boat ride, became well versed in maritime and nautical terms (bow, stern, port, starboard, etc.), attempted to learn how to sail with Margie, and took in several classic wooden boat shows during the summer months.

If you are at all curious what a maritime museum is, check out the TMM website - http://www.tahoemaritimemuseum.org/.

The BIG Move

About nine months ago we first started talking about beginning a new adventure and moving away from Kansas City. We knew we wanted to relocate to a place where we could enjoy the outdoors in the West Coast time zone (the market closes at 1:00 pm). We made a list; Lake Tahoe being number one, Eugene Oregon number two, and planned to visit both locations. About a week before our planned trip to Lake Tahoe (June 1 - 8), I began my job search (on a whim) and happened upon an opportunity at the Tahoe Maritime Museum in Homewood, CA. The "working" vacation paid off, as my interview with the Museum went great and a week after returning to Kansas City I was offered a position as Director of Development.

Everything seemed to fall into place (rather quickly I might add), and two weeks after accepting the position, we found ourselves packing our belongings into a POD and traveling across the country to our new home. Needless to say, we never made it to Eugene.

Because everything seemed to progress so quickly, we had to get creative with our housing plans. We had difficulty finding the perfect house to rent, and finally one week before "moving day", we found a great place but it wasn't available until mid-September. We used Craig's List for the first time in our young lives and found a woman in Tahoe City who was in need of a house/dog sitter from July to September. After a brief conversation with the homeowner, Margie, we accepted the offer and made plans to store all of our belongings in the POD warehouse in Reno and live out of suit cases (and anything else we could jam into the SUV) for three months.

We said goodbye to KC on June 29, and leisurely made our way across the West. As we drove across Utah, we took a quick side trip to Arches National Park. They do not allow dogs on the trails, so we took the "handicapped" tour and viewed the arches from the car. We were able to get up close a personal with a few arches; however, we had to race to and from the car because we didn't want Nia to cook in the 100 degree heat. ANP was awesome, and we will be back (without Nia).

We arrived in Tahoe on July 2 and celebrated our five year anniversary on the 5th with a new tradition, the Annual Meek's Bay Fire Department Pancake Breakfast!