Butterfly Forest

We left Tahoe today and took the scenic route back to the 5. It involved a not-so-scenic leg in Carson City, NV where we bought gas for $3.95 a gallon! Then we looped back around to California and started to notice cars covered in orange bugs. Turns out there was a huge cloud of butterflies near Lassen (northern CA). We drove through butterflies for about 8 or 10 miles. It was really neat, but sad to kill so many of them. At one point we pulled over and got out so we could see them better. The ground was covered with dead butterflies and they were just flying all about. We think they were Painted Ladies.




We're staying in Medford tonight (about 30 miles into Oregon) and will move on to Portland tomorrow. We're planning on going to the zoo and the girls are so excited. They're definitely getting restless without any real exercise, so a few hours at the zoo will be wonderful. But I doubt we'll see anything as interesting and exciting as a bunny in a hotel tub.

Ashley and the Giant

We went to Ashley and Mike's wedding today (Ashley is our niece). This was our first time meeting her husband Mike. He's a good guy, and very, very tall. So is his Dad and all the rest of his family. It was like walking among redwoods. It was a very pretty location on a terrace overlooking Lake Tahoe. Julia and Charlotte enjoyed counting the kayakers and Canada Geese as we waited for the wedding to start. Frankie quickly made friends with Chris' Aunt Arlene and kept busy nesting her polly pocket doll in Arlene's hair. She was such a good sport about it. His aunt is 80 and does line dancing, golfs, plays tennis every day and is learning Spanish. Really she embarrasses us all. Chris had to suck in his gut around her!

Ashley was a beautiful, happy bride and Steve and Kathy looked so proud of her. Mirissa and the girls looked lovely as ever. Mirissa had cute little dresses for each of them and did their hair up all fancy. Everyone thought Mirissa was going to give birth any second. She's so huge! No, no October 13th...


The wedding ended at around 4pm. We went back to the Seven Sneeze Inn and relaxed for awhile then went to dinner. We walked up to a BBQ place on the main strip. The traffic here is unbelievable. South Lake Tahoe is not your quite little ski town. It's a mix of Reno or maybe the fringes of the Vegas Strip, Coney Island and the 405 and 101 interchange. There are so many little motels right up to the Nevada border then there is a giant Harrah's and an equally giant Harvey's casino. By the way, "Harvey's"?? Supposedly they have a good buffet. The one downstairs one, not the one on the top with the good view. The girls love the hustle and bustle and looking for taxis. A pastime we suggested in a desperate attempt to get them to settle down the other day.

We're pulling up anchor from Lake Tahoe tomorrow and cruising our trailer up to Medford, OR.

Yipee Kay-yo Finally in Tahoe!

What a long day. Charlotte and Francesca had their final ballet camp this morning and a cute little performance afterwards. This picture is of them with their teacher, Miss Pam (they're all called "miss" even if they are married).

We went home, made lunch and got in the car at 12:45. We made it half a block to the mailbox to grab the last delivery but forgot the key. Since I didn't want to back the trailer up to go back home I walked that long half block to get the key. Good thing I went back. The garage door was wide open!

After that sputtering start we finally put it in gear and headed out. We had a remarkably uneventful drive. The girls were quiet and happy most of the way, really only bugging us about when they'd get to watch a movie. We didn't even stop before four hours of driving. But it was a long drive and after about 8 and a half hours on the road, they started to get restless. Poor Frankie was tired, but too cranky to fall asleep and the older two wanted a mile by mile countdown of how much longer we'd be in the car.

After 30 windy miles on Hwy 50 we finally pulled into the 7 Seas Inn. If it weren't for the fact that they are so animal friendly here (since we have the dog and a bunny) I'd call this place a dumpy, run-down motel. Well, OK it is that. But they are friendly here. There's probably 1,700 motels/hotels in Tahoe. There is probably another place that takes pets that you don't have to jiggle the key and twist the knob on the door to get it to open.

Ashley's wedding tomorrow. We're looking forward to it.