A week ago, we all drove up to Tahoe, where we have had great weather and little to no smoke.
We have been keeping busy. Rusty has done some mountain bike rides, including one with our Los Gatos neighbor, John. The children all spent the night up at Tahoe Donner with the same neighbors, and went swimming in the Tahoe Donner pool. Later, they played tennis and went for bike ride along the bike trail. The children have also been swimming in Lake Tahoe and hiked up Eagle Rock with our Tahoe neighbors. We have been on a bunch of walks and hikes, too, including trips to Barker Pass, Page Meadows – which is beautiful right now – and to the waterfall up the Tahoe Rim trail.
The dog is exhausted after playing with his sister, going on lots of walks, barking at cyclists, and best of all, learning to swim in Lake Tahoe. We drove by his swimming beach today, and he sat up and started shivering.
We have been really fortunate to have our friend Roy up here for a few days. Roy has a vast knowledge of flowers, something I had been trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to learn a bit about. Roy patiently found and pointed out many, many varieties to us. With his help, Margaret and I started an herbarium (fancy word for pressed flower collection), and tonight I found and identified two new varieties, all on my own.