Lin's Travels: Lake Tahoe, Redwoods, Oakland

The second part of the trip through Northern California included Lake Tahoe and the Redwoods. We left our motel and got to South Lake Tahoe, where we immediately cooled off with a Jamba Juice. The workers there were really chatty and tried to be helpful with our trip planning. We ended up choosing a 4 mile hike to Susie Lake, with the option of extending another 2 miles beyond to another lake. With such a late start in the day (around 4 pm) and the onslaught of mosquitoes near the end of the trail (all near standing water) and the difficulty of hiking on gravel the whole way, we decided to just hang at the lake and turn back.

We filled up on gas (expensive!) and continued north. Christina was in charge of dinner - making a lovely vegetable soup (from a can) with some ramen noodles thrown in. We were sure to store everything in the bear locker - to keep out the riff raff (mostly aggressive chipmunks), as we'd been doing all trip. We got lucky at this campsite and didn't get charged the $11 fee - made up for the $70+ splurge on the motel the previous night.

The next morning we skipped a short hike around Sugar Pine and continued on our drive north, hitting Tahoe City, where we stopped to take an ankle dip into the cold cold lake one last time. The water was beautifully clear, with lots of geese enjoying it.

We drove northwest, along 80, stopped in Sacramento, in search of another Jamba Juice. We had no idea how to find one so decided to ask someone - the first people we sized up didn't look like good candidates. Finally in a state of desperation at a red light, we asked some guy in a truck next to us - he knew exactly where it was and we were close! But somehow we missed it. So we stopped at a co-op and asked for directions. Despite the information worker's disdain in our search for "Junka Juice", we decided to take his directions and go get our free smoothie anyways. We had printed out a few coupons before leaving Berkeley that were begging usage in all the heat.

Smoothies in tow, we took off for the Redwoods, going up I-5. We switched driving at some point (for the first time) and I finally got to do the deer spotting on the side of the road. We even encountered a cow in the middle of the road! She came up to the driver side, then decided to turn round and take off running to a patch of grass. Definitely a safer spot to be standing around. Christina drove to Eureka and then we switched seats again. We stopped at a campground just south of the park. We stopped at headquarters to pick up some breakfast, to meet Christina's only criteria in how to celebrate Independence Day - by eating some pie - blackberry pie.

We got to the Redwoods, saw some ginormous trees and some more wildflowers and enjoyed a loop hike from ocean beach to canyon. We used up some energy doing jumps on the beach for the camera (the hiking wasn't nearly as strenuous as the Yosemite hikes). We did some scenic driving and then turned back south to break up the long drive to the Bay Area. We did it up in another motel, opting for a shower and internet access over monetary savings.

We ended the trip with a wonderful home cooked meal by my cousin Jim, assisted by his girlfriend Susan. They have a wonderful garden filled with fresh herbs in their new house in Oakland. It was a short visit, but Jim was able to share an old photo album with pictures of my nai-nai and ye-ye (paternal grandmother and grandfather) that I'd never seen before. I also test drove their couch for the night - and had a very peaceful night's rest (Christina's sleep talking doesn't really bother me, but I think the presence of someone sleeping right next to me makes me a lighter sleeper - or maybe it was just the wine that put me out deeper than normal). In the morning, I woke up to see hummingbirds at the windows at the feeders. Susan dropped me off at OAK, and I was on my way to TX...