Lake Tahoe  18th August 2017

Yesterday we drove from South Tahoe around the west side of the Lake up to Tahoe City. This is the steeper side of the terrain and just as beautuful as we had been expecting. The traffic was steady but not difficult except at the viewing spots which were without exception congested with cars waiting for a parking spot. At one Bob just drove around the parking area while I hoppd out, took the photo and hopped back in. We allso found a couple of laybyes to stop in briefly. There is one area where we climbed a switch back up from the lakeside and found the top was a ridge just wide enough for the road with a plunging drop a few thousand feed either side to the lake. The water was blue geen in the sun today but the day was not too warm.
We had forgotten that in places like this Americans don't have many casual picnic spots and had packed the makings for lunch. There were plenty of entries to the State Park areas but these are places where it is anticipated that you will be camping or at least spending the day. Hence there is the usual $8 - $10 entry fees. You can imagine that once again Bob was not having a bar of that. At about 1pm we were driving through one of the small communiies where there was a large complex of buildings for hiring sport equipment such as boards and skis. At the back of the large car park servicing a cable car station thre were some tables and benches. I convinced Bob that as the cable car  station was a winter thing and was currently locked up we could be cheeky and use the table. He was feeling nervous about being challenged until I decided to walk over to the bar/restaurant to buy a drink and use the toilet. It was a huge building with one small office the only part occupied and open, spacious and recently cleaned toilets.we settled in and enjoyed our lunch. Tahoe City was very busy with the usual holiday  village offerings so we drove through and then retraced our route home.  Coming from the bush one of the things we really enjoyed were the huge fir trees along the road. These doesn't seem to be as much damage from beetles in this area and the trees are tall and beautiful. Not like our commercial plantations as they are still in their natural parkland growth.
We had a delicious Italian style meal last night with both of us choosing some rissoto instead of spagetti for the first time. We both had seafood combined with it and it was fresh and well cooked.
Today we are heading east again and will be in Eureka, Nevada for the night.