Saturday at South Lake Tahoe - part 1

Nancy had lots of recommendations of things for us to do at the Margaritaville Resort at South Lake Tahoe...

We started at the breakfast buffet... 

Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and a corny dog!

We were able to take over an expansion area of the restaurant in the atrium for our large group!

After breakfast, we walked down to the CVS with a couple of our friends...

... a view of the front of our hotel as we returned to it...

... obligatory selfie!

A look out of the window of our room toward the Marriott resort that was right behind our hotel.

We decided to take a walk down to the lakeshore. As we headed out, we were intrigued by the carriages out front...

"Tahoe Carriage"

We talked with the driver of the "horseless carriage" for a little while -- he said that they use horses in the winter with the sleighs, and they use carriages with horses before summer, but once it gets a little warm, they find that the visitors get concerned about the heat and the care of the horses, so they switch to the horseless carriages.

A couple other horseless carriages that were out in front of the hotel

Carl was interested in how they were powered -- electric motor...

... and lithium battery.

Friends Sheila and KC came out and we asked if they would like to walk down to the lake shore with us, and they were up for it... we had been cautioned by other friends that you couldn't actually get to the lake -- it was fenced off and there was a $30/person admission charge to access the beach (!!!!). We decided to walk down anyway...

Carl was able to get good pictures through the fence...

It is a very pretty lake!

There were a number of people for whom the $30/person was worth it!

It appeared that a wedding would be occurring at an events area at the lake.

As we walked back up the hill, Carl got a picture of our hotel with the mountain behind it.

Those were our daytime activities on Saturday. More about our evening activities in another post!

Heading west to celebrate friends!

On Friday morning, we headed west on I-80 on our way to South Lake Tahoe, California, to join in the celebration of Steve and Nancy's 50th wedding anniversary.

We rode with Gary and Inez in their nice Ford diesel pickup truck -- Carl drove part of the way, so renewed his experience driving a dually!

We were all staying at the Margaritaville Resort...

The front room of our suite

The bedroom with its huge king-sized bed

Looking back toward the front -- the window in the front looked out onto the atrium

Huge bathroom!

Huge shower!

We figured that the suite was about twice as big as our living space in Gracie!

The atrium out from our room

Another part of the atrium where the swimming pool and breakfast buffet was located

Another view of the atrium out from our room -- there was a pretty staircase from the second floor down to the main floor.

Nancy and Steve with her cousin and his wife

Nancy with cousin Ron and Bob and Nancy Balyeat (on the left) and friend Doris (on the right)

Nancy did an amazing job of planning and organizing the whole weekend -- more pictures to come of the rest of the weekend and all the other activities! 

Drone-action at Welcome Station

Carl got our drone because he wanted to be able to take pictures of our campsites at our various stops. On Thursday morning, he got the drone out to take a picture of our site after many of the other campers had left. 

Our site with some of our friends around

He sent it up to do a "follow me" and took a video of it "chasing" him around: https://youtu.be/rwAMHPi49Wo

Some neighbors at the campground

There are horses in the pasture directly behind the Welcome Station campground, and one of the mares had a foal just a couple of weeks ago...

The whole group was up under one of the trees at the edge of the pasture...

... what a cutie!

The horses belong to the owner of the neighboring property, but we get to enjoy seeing them from the campground!

Breakfast together at the rally

Wednesday was our last official day of the rally, and we shared breakfast together...

Carl cooked up a couple of pounds of bacon on Jan's Blackstone grill.

A big spread of food for breakfast!

We enjoy fellowshipping together, and part of fellowshipping is eating together!

Miss Kitty's visitor

Nancy and Steve's dog, Pepper, *loves* kitty cats... seeing kitty cats, sniffing kitty cats... She always wants to come and sniff at our door, and, if the door is open, to come in and *see* the kitty inside. She *knows* that there is a kitty inside.

Miss Kitty is not quite so fond of Pepper...

Usually Pepper just finds where Miss Kitty is and puts her nose up to Miss Kitty's nose for a couple of seconds, and that's good enough. On this day, however, I had sat on the couch with Miss Kitty on one side of me, and Pepper jumped up on the other side... 

I don't know if you can tell by Pepper's expression, but I think that Miss Kitty must have communicated in some way (no hissing or growling or meowing (or barking) involved) that Pepper was not a welcome addition to the couch!

There were no overt issues or words spoken, and Pepper has come back other times and they have touched noses with no problem!

Balyeat Concert on Sunday

Sunday morning, we headed back to Wendover, this time to worship with two churches that were coming together for a common service with a concert by the Balyeats.

The combined service was held in the elementary school in West Wendover.

Bob and Nancy Balyeat sharing in song

After church, we went back to the Salt Flat Cafe (where Carl and I had eaten on Wednesday evening) for lunch. We had shared a plate of nachos then, but we each got our own plate on Sunday...

... it was a *lot* of food!

... for each of us!

We also visited the grocery store while there as they have a full service grocery. 

It was a long drive, but we enjoyed being with our friends.