Travel Diary: Tahoe

January 27, 2016

Tahoe! I knew as soon as I moved to California that I wanted to make the trek up to the beautiful mountain area of California/Nevada once winter came. Coming from the Midwest I'm a big lover of snow, and I wanted to get my fix. We decided that MLK weekend was the perfect time to take a little trip up north. We don't ski, and we're not huge outdoorsy people, so you may be wondering why we went at all. You're not the only one! Everyone kept giving us blank looks when we explained we just wanted to spend the weekend relaxing, eating and drinking surrounded by natural beauty. That's exactly what we did too. Pretty much went from place to place eating and drinking and taking it all in. My favorite kind of vacation :)
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in North Lake Tahoe. I did some research on South Lake versus North Lake and found that North Lake is more laid back. I'm ultimately glad we chose the north side. There are no boats allowed on the northern half of the lake, and there were less casinos. All-around nicer. Anyways, we had a great experience at the Hyatt. It was beautiful (see above picture for mountain views from the hotel). There were several heated pools and hot tubs, many yummy restaurants, and direct lake access. Not many hotels (or apparently any) have direct lake access. On our first night we just wandered around and walked by the water. Isn't it stunning?
Then on Sunday we drove over to South Lake Tahoe in the hopes of doing the gondola ride at Heavenly. Unfortunately, it was too windy, so the gondola wasn't running. I was really bummed about that, but will definitely want to go back so I can do the gondola. It seriously looked amazing, so if you're ever there you should check it out. After we couldn't do that, we explored the little town and headed over to the lake. That's where these pictures were taken. Since I didn't grow up around mountains I'm kind of fascinated by them. They're so majestic! 
We decided to do the next best thing to riding a gondola to the top of a mountain: head to a casino's top floor bar. Lol, okay not exactly the same, but the views were pretty great. The above picture was taken there. Doesn't it look so quaint? It was fun to see South Lake, but it just confirmed that we'd made the right choice about staying in North Lake. It was so busy
Sunday night we had dinner at the Hyatt's Lone Eagle Grill, which is right on the beach and a really beautiful space. I don't think either of us was that impressed with our dinners, but the Baked Tahoe (above) was pretty delish. So maybe just go for drinks and dessert.
It was finally sunny on our way home Monday so we could see how blue the lake was, although we agreed that it was eerily beautiful in the rain and fog too. 
It was a short trip, but I think two days was the perfect amount of time. I was super nervous about the drive, but we didn't have to use the chains we bought for my car (returned 'em!) and it just wasn't as scary as I was expecting. I think Tahoe could be fun for everyone: obviously for skiers and outdoorsy people, or even for people who just want to chill and drink mimosas all day! If you've been, I'd love to hear what you thought! Especially if you've been during the summer, because now we want to go back and see what it's like during the completely different season.

xo Catherine 

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