We squeezed a lot in this year and while we feel like we had a great vacation, we're ready to go back at a moment's notice. There's already talk of staying two full weeks next year. I have no idea how anyone will swing that with their boss, but where there's a will, there's a way.
First I feel the need to reiterate how important South Lake Tahoe is to this family. A couple years ago on Christmas Brett's parents gave us a photo album labeled 100 Years of Lake Tahoe 1909 - 2009.
This is a photo of that album. One of the pictures says 1904 though - so actually the family has been vacationing there for 107 years now. It began with Brett's ancestors Minna & Adele Freiberger. They started a lasting legacy.
And here we have the tradition carrying on in the 50's too. Brett's Dad Phil is in the canoe.
As you can see - the Smith family doesn't mess around when they say Tahoe is a part of them. It truly is. They're thinking of having shirts made...
The last time we were in Tahoe was 2008 and it was high time that we made another trip.
Chad, Katie & Brady began driving Tuesday the 13th and decided to make a pit stop at our place. The girls were already in Colorado with Phil & Cindy enjoying a week with Grandma and Papa. The next morning we woke up at 4:00 a.m. which was nice considering the original plan was to be out the door by 4:00 a.m. I had an extremely hard time falling asleep the night before. After I finally fell asleep I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and laid there for an hour. It was pretty rough but at least we'd be on the road and I could get a nap, right? After getting ready, packing some last minute things and doing double checks we were on the road at 6:00 a.m.
The drive isn't very eventful or scenic. I had planned on reading for most of it and reading aloud to Brett as well. Luckily I have a Literati eReader so I wouldn't have to bring 3-4 books. I have about 40 books on there - its very nice. Around the time we hit the salt flats, I decided to get the eReader out for some reading. Except when I turned it on, instead of the nice Literati logo, there was a big mess of broken screen. The kind that you can't fix. I was devastated. I actually still am. I got it for Christmas - it's been my favorite item since and it broke. There'll be no saving it either. However, I learned that the site that hosted my book purchases, the only one that I could buy books from, is going out of business. So I guess that's the silver lining.
We stopped in Winnemucca Nevada for lunch. We also made another stop at Walmart to get snacks and a magazine to stave off boredom.
Brett drove the whole way because he was on a mission to get there in good time. I didn't even offer to drive...because I'm nice like that. I was mourning the loss of my favorite luxury item.
We arrived in South Lake Tahoe around 2:30 (3:30 mountain time) and while check in isn't normally until 4:00 pm, our townhouse was ready. While we were in the lobby, the front desk told us that there was a free party at Harrah's that night put on by Charles Barkley. The Celebrity Golf Tournament that's held at South Lake Tahoe was the reason our vacation was planned during those dates - you see Michael Jordan was there. And any guy around our age flocks to that name. Immediately it was put on the agenda for that night.
But first we needed to settle in. We ended up getting the townhouse exactly across from the one we stayed in 3 years ago. It was a great location - #474 - close to the parking lot, a 1 minute walk to the pool & beach and there was a view. It was ideal! After working out where everyone would stay - the guys were suddenly in there board shorts ready for a dock dive.
We were still waiting on the rest of our party to arrive but they heard the call of the Lake and needed to go. So I followed them down to the dock with my camera because I wasn't ready for a swim yet.
The dock at Aston's Lakeland Village
The water was much higher this year than it was in 2008. Brett couldn't do a dock dive then. Before that the last time he'd done a dock dive was 2006 - it was long overdue.
I believe it's against the rules to dive off the dock but it hasn't stopped Brett & Chad before.
Chad getting a running start.
Brett flying off the dock.
The water was freezing, as it always is, but tradition was held and that's all that matters.
After the boys had their dock dive, Brady wanted to play on the beach so he did. We watched him run into the water, feel how cold it was and run away. Each time he'd get in the water a little more and when you know how extremely cold the water is - it was pretty brave of him.
Running from the insanely cold water.
The dinosaurs came along too.
He eventually jumped in all the way and came up shocked and smiling!
We headed back and everyone else got there. After we got the groceries put away, Brett's cousins showed up. Brett's cousin Shane was in town and had been in California since July 2nd! His wife Riley and son had to be back in Utah for a family reunion but Shane decided to stay for the weekend. Also Brett's cousin Eric and his wife & kids came for the fun too. The guys decided that they needed to go to the party Charles Barkley was throwing and while I tried to play along that I wanted to go, I was exhausted and the 3 hours of sleep had caught up with me. It ended up just being the guys who went. The rest of us ended up going to sleep at 9:45.
While they were there they saw a TON of celebrities. All of them were up on stage, drinking, singing and dancing. They got to watch Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) sing on stage. They watched Charles Barkley get friendlier and friendlier as he kept buying the crowd round after round. They got a picture with Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office) which is on Eric's camera. They saw Marcus Allen (former NFL football player), Ray Allen (NBA player, plays for the Boston Celtics), Shane Battier (NBA player, on the Houston Rockets), Emmitt Smith (NFL Hall of Famer), and many, many others.
After a while the guys decided to walk around to spot more celebrities. While they were walking around a woman approached Chad and inquired if he had any cocaine because he "looked cool." He had to disappoint her. Later on the guys noticed that all the celebrities were in the High Rollers area of the casino, but it was blocked off to the public and curtains were drawn. There was security posted at the entrances and security had to tell the guys to back up a little. But while the security guard's back was turned, Brett snuck in! He ended up walking right up to Charles Barkley's table, stood shoulder to shoulder with Emmit Smith and watched Charles gamble for about ten minutes. Brett said when he walked up there Emmit looked up at him with a strange expression, perplexed who this random guy was standing next to him. He said at one point Charles Barkley looked up at him with the same expression too. Brett was surprised how short Emmit Smith was. (5'9" compared to Brett's 6'4") He said after the 10 minute mark he started feeling really out of place an awkward, he also wanted to walk out instead of being kicked out so he left.
The guys ended up coming back around 2:30 a.m. smelling like a casino and starstruck.
Overall it was an eventful first day and night in South Lake Tahoe - one Brett will remember for a long time.
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