Sitting in the dining room on Monday

Pretty flowers? I've no idea what the bush is called!



It was part of my Friday experience.

Scott and Lucy took us on a trip to The Applegate to visit a couple of wineries and then we tracked down Bierhause - where I came across this bush - and had German food for dinner.
Wiener schnitzel for me, with mashed potatoes and red cabbage. It was delicious!!

Winery no.1 - Troon.


This is the wine that everybody likes, according to the girl in the Tasting Room. I really liked it too :-)


Her's Lucy and Braeden outside in the garden. Hot weather and fountains go really well together!

Inside, Scott and Lucy with the boys sat having a wee snack with non alcoholic drinks...



While Ian and I happily sampled the fruit of the vines :-)



Winery no. 2 - Red Lily...


Is the wine consumed possibly the cause of the slight angle of this photo?
What a lovely location!
This winery sits beside a lovely cool river with chairs and tables invitingly placed along it's edge.

Skimming stones?
Yes, Scott!
Yes, Ian!
Yes, Cade... Not 100% of the time but not bad.
Yes, Josephine!! I kid you not... success on one occasion.



There's Scott off to find some more flat stones. And is that Lucy holding a class on how to make a stone bounce across the water?

Now, isn't that a lovely wall behind Lucy and Ian?!!


I wonder how it would look in my living room?

The Bierhause...
Ian tracked this place down with a bit of help from Scott, and What a great find it was!



Beer and Weiner Schnitzel. Yummy!!
Here's Ian sitting outside in the bier garden after dinner...
That's the pretty flower bush, that opened this entry, behind him!


And here are the boys smiling up at me from down below...


Out at the front, there was a pretty little area where we sat and enjoyed the golden glow of the sun while the boys bounced around on the rocks below.



Check out my action shot - pure accident :-)



And home in the truck with the beautiful sunset...



Do you see the smoke?
Happy days!

Holiday - Sunday 21st July

Lake Tahoe is now just a memory :-(
I think spending time at the lake, in the water...

... and warming up again in the sunshine with crisps and fizzy drinks afterwards is one of my highlights of our stay there!

But, all good things have to come to an end :-(
And this morning, before half past six, we set off in the truck for Stage 2 of our expedition to far flung places - Oregon and Grant's Pass.
Six hours.
Four hours into the journey, wee Braeden threw up all over his mum and the back of the seat she was sitting on, his blanket, himself and his clothes and my hands - after I managed to catch the last of his vomit in a ziplock bag!
We had to evacuate the vehicle and clean up as best we could with a packet of wipes Lucy had packed.
Prior to his unhappy 'event', Braeden had eaten a cinnamon bun so whilst we were forced to endure the smell of vomit, even after wipes and a good rub with antiseptic hand gel, there was a definite undertone of cinnamon!
Definitely a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise very gloomy, black cloud!
... And here we are!
It's a lot hotter here. The temperature is 95 degrees!
Scott has come back to a green pool which he is endeavouring to fix and Lucy and Cade have gone to fetch the little canine Lesinas back home from the kennels.
Ian and Braeden are somewhere doing their own thing.
Me? I'm in the front room writing to you, with a bottle of cold beer and a packet of Doritos.
Oh it's hot!
Jo xx

Thursday 18th July

I'm up early this morning. It's not even seven yet so, I thought it was an opportunity to recall a bit about the last few days.
Ian and I were joining the Lucy, Scott and the boys in the truck for drive from Reno to Lake Tahoe.
It's not a long journey - just a few hours. But we took the opportunity to visit the historical town of Virginia City, which seems to be about half way between Reno and Lake Tahoe.
Virginia City sells itself as a bit of a living museum. It still has the "old cowboy frontier town" look about it but brought to life by the cowboys, and the old frontier men with bird's nest beards wandering about the Main Street.
It sits on top of thousands of tunnels which were mined for silver and was seemingly at one point in it's past, the richest city in America - then the silver ran out and the town died.
We spent a few, happy hours wondering around. We took in the "Gunfight" from the spectator's benches, which happens every hour or so, wandered around the old style shops, ate some lunch surrounded by bric a brac and souvenirs of the Old Wild West and visited the museum where we learned all about mining - old style, and heard stories about the characters who lived in Virginia City in the eighteen hundreds.
Ian thought it would be a good idea to stop cars parking in the Main Street and I think he could have a point and I agree. It was hard to get photos of the buildings and their sidewalks which is a shame!
Anyway, I love Lake Tahoe Heavenly Village where we are staying and Lake Takoe itself is just beautiful. The weather is just right for me - high seventies!
I went out for a walk yesterday morning about sevenish - just a little nip in the air! Lovely. I walked out of California and into Nevada!! Truthfully. The state line is just along the road :-)
What have we done since we arrived? Apart from eating and drinking? I've done rather a lot of that and my trousers are getting a bit tight!!





Note the entertainment provided to keep you happy while you wait for your dinner :-)

Poolside sunbathing. I'm the only one who hasn't yet been into the pool.


Swimming in Lake Tahoe - so far just the once, but it was a good long one!
The water in the lake is crystal clear, it is lovely to swim in.
Lucy, Scott and the boys hired a little peddle boat and spent a happy hour arguing and fighting about who wasn't pulling their weight! :-)
Heading up the mountains behind us in a gondola and further up in an open ski lift!!!
I hate heights!!
Electric shocks race through my body and hysteria rises in my chest whenever I'm exposed to them so the ski lift was difficult. I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth till Ian told me we had reached the top and I would have to open my eyes to see where I was stepping off.
Having gone up and with no trail back down, there was no alternative to my getting back on to go down again. But the funniest thing happened. I felt the impulse to sing!! And having started with the wheels on the bus, I gave it laldy... it worked. The pressure in my chest subsided and I made it down without too much distress. Note however, my eyes were still shut!

Check out the gondola behind Ian.

This is Ian at the top, well almost at the top, of the mountain.
Enough. Duty done :-)
Jo xx

Tuesday of our week in Lake Tahoe

Almost a week into our holiday. I woke up this morning thinking that if I don't record what I have experienced so far, my memories will be lost forever :-(
Maybe some of them have gone already! Probably.
Our flights to Las Vegas...
Does anyone else find they know they have packed everything but still have to stop within yards of home just to make sure?
I do and did!
Ross dropped us at the airport in plenty of time for our flight to London. After he came to Australia, I had hoped that he would come with us to America, but he couldn't because of work.
I've left him in charge of my potted plants and there are lots of them!
Most of them are in the porch or on the top part of the drive to make watering with the hose easier.
However, I left the Japanese cherry and the laurel for Ian and Ross to move through from the back garden because they are in huge pots and Ross was happy to move them until he came over and saw them at which point he decided they would be better off where they were.
" Moving those big heavy planters only to move them back again doesn't make a lot of sense," he said.
"But will you remember they're there?" I asked.
"Yes, not a problem. Don't worry!" he responded.
Just a bit too glibly!!
So I have to believe him when he says he will remember they are there and need watering.
Of course he will!


And here's Ian on board the flight to Las Vegas...

The journey was shorter than expected because the cabin lights were switched off after lunch and I must have slept on and off for a good few hours.
Afternoon tea which was served not long before landing just didn't feel right! I was definitely looking for breakfast!
Las Vegas...
Taxi from airport to hotel. MGM Grand Signature - Tower 3. Very nice little apartment as opposed to just an hotel room so spacious which was good.

The photo below is the view from one of our hotel room windows.

What did we do? What was Las Vegas time? I think it was about teatime.
I'm happy enough to give Ian his head, so I found myself in The Pub in Monte Carlo having a couple of beers.

This is Ian in The Pub, in Monte Carlo.

And here he is as we wandered the streets.
Next day? What day of he week was that?
Thursday...


This was our chosen breakfast location...
Ian had waffles and I had an omelette and we waited around long enough to experience the rumble in the jungle when this fella - not Ian, the elephant -waves his trunk up and down and trumpets for all he's worth!!

We bought a 24 hour monorail ticket on the Thursday and took ourselves to the end of the line to the brewpub...

Here's the place -

And here's Isn enjoying some beer and prawns inside -


And so, happy and contented we set off back to The Strip...

... where we wander along enjoying the spectacle.







Including a trip on the canal in the Venetian, in a gondola with a singing gondolier. I didn't want the gondola experience when Ian first suggested it but I'm glad I changed my mind, it was really fun!!



Then, not having time to go back to the hotel, we had dinner at Bubba Gump...

Advice from 'restroom' - when in America let's speak like Americans :-)



... before we went to see Cirque de Soleil - Love.
The end of a lovely day :-)
Friday, we set off for Reno. I think I've made a good start so I'm going to stop here for today but hopefully, I'll bring us up to date tomorrow :-)
Jo xx