[chevelle]

PROLOGUE:

Why Lake Tahoe??

With the temperature at Sacramento hovering around 105 F mark and summer vacation nearing an end, I was desperate to make a trip to Lake Tahoe which would help give me a break from work schedule and very hot summer days. The temperature at Tahoe hovers around 75 F, so it is pleasant there. though hot compared to some Indian cities.

Bad Luck Intervens!

What better way to do a trip to S. Lake Tahoe than my fiance's brithday. I planned a surprise trip for her to Tahoe on August 12th. Little did i know that it was gonna be a huge failure. Initially, as per plan, I took a day off from work and asked my fiance to do the same. Her manager didn't obliged even after a request from me and the plan to Tahoe went under the table and there i was sitting on my desk on her birthday desperately trying to think of an alternative.

One week later, she had a day off on Tuesday(Aug 18) and I decide to make most of it. This was no longer a surprise trip as she came up with a suggestion to escape the heat of sacramento.

Planning and Implementation

It was a one day trip, so had to plan accordingly. After lots of research i narrowed down my places of interest and activities to be done at those places. I also booked a Chevrolet Malibu through Enterprise. The cost for a day rental came out to be $45 for car rent and $24 full insurance. so it was $70 for the day.

The distance from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe is 100 miles one way. To reach there we took US 50 E.

Places to be visited that i selected for the day were:

(1) Ski Run Boat Company for Parasailing, Pedal Boat
(2) Lunch at Pizza Hut
(3) Emerald Bay
(4) Vikingshlom Castle
(5) Pope Beach
(6) Fallen Leaf Lake. (Couldn't make it due to time constraints)

Here is a teaser pic of Emerald Bay. Detailed travelogue coming soon.

P.S: This is my first travelogue, please pardon mistakes. Your comments are welcome

[ambivalent_98]

Probably the first comment .... add few more photos....

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Probably the first comment .... add few more photos....

yes sir, i will be adding more photos and complete the travelogue soon.

i am resizing them a=nd sorting around 1000+ photos.

appreciate your wait

thanks

[sami316]

Hi,

Very good pic to start your Travelogue. Dont worry we won't be scrutinizing this post for your mistakes. :-) Just go ahead and complete this at the earliest. Can't wait to see the other snaps.

[wanderernomad]

Keep posting as you keep sorting. One thing that is disliked on this forum as you might be aware of is the need to keep pressing F5 and getting nothing in return for the effort except an aching finger.
Dont procrastinate especially after such a teaser of a picture.

[Rudra Sen]

chevelle, where are the pictures?

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

chevelle, where are the pictures?

Rudra sir, please delete the previous post. so i can post a new one with photos. in hurry i clicked on submit even before the pictures very uploaded.

sorry about that.

[chevelle]

So, with para sailing and pedal boat in mind i called a couple of water sports company for their best rates. initially i opted for action watersports. than i looked online for its review and they weren't very encouraging. so i looked for another company named Ski Run Boat Company which had positive reviews.
We booked parasailing time for 1.30 pm. Everyone is required to be at their office at least half and hour before so as to complete some paperwork.

In morning, at 9 am we went to enterprise showroom where we were given Chevy Malibu. The car had 28200 miles on board, and felt in good condition. We started at 9.30 am towards Tahoe.

Here are some photos clicked along the way.

(1) and (2) Interior of malibu
(3),(4) and (5) El Dorado National Forest
(6) and (7) Water Stream along the way
(8) Scenic view of El Dorado mountains and valley
(9) Twisted Roads complimented mountains beautifully
(10) Malibu felt quite stable handling the curves.
(11) Lake Tahoe airport and first spotting of lake tahoe (15x opt zoom)
(12) wide angle view includes airport strip and lake.
(13) and (14) photogenic chevy malibu. didn't let us down

The maximum speed on these curved US-50 varied from 20 mph to 40 mph. at some places there were passing lanes where the road were widen to allow faster vehicles to overtake slower vehicles. also at some places, shoulder was widened to stop the vehicle and appreciate natural beauty.

in the next post, i will include lake tahoe as well as ski run boat company's private area.

stay tuned.

p.s: all the photos are straight out of camera, none have been processed. we visited yesterday so haven't got time to process them. sorry about that.

[chevelle]

At little over 11.45 am we arrived in South Lake Tahoe. We went to Ski Run Boat Company and decided to do an hour of pedal boating before we go for parasailing. please note that once you book parasailing, you should be on time else they will charge for no show. if you wish to cancel, its recommended atleast 12 hours before.

The lake tahoe appeared serene with beautiful mountain backdrop. We could clearly see three types of color in the lake. The first one had a muddy brown color owing to very shallow nature of lake, the second was light blue which was a little bit more deeper and at far end it was dark blue that was the deepest part.

We took our pedal boats for an hour at rate of $30/hr. After finishing pedal boating, we went to finish paperwork for parasailing.

Here are some photos and videos of lake tahoe, parasailing

Here is a video of para sailing

YouTube - Parasailing at Lake Tahoe

(1) Varied colors of lake. Also, aqua cycles, pedal boats visible
(2) Wooden ridges on lake with mountains
(3) Serene Lake Tahoe
(4) Ducks with backdrop of beach and mountain.
(5) Privately owned houses along the beach. Gondola route to extreme left
(6) S. Lake Tahoe
(7) Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
(8), (9) and (10) me doing parasailing at 800 feet. that was one awesome experience. a must-do

[NRKUMAR]

Nice pics. It looks totally different during winter. The experience is worth it

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by NRKUMAR

Nice pics. It looks totally different during winter. The experience is worth it

yes, lake tahoe is one of those destination which changes color with each season. worth the experience in summer and winter. i am waiting for dec, jan to make the trip again. this time for skiing and paragliding.

still more to come.

[Nitin]

Beautiful pics!I've always wanted to go see Lake Tahoe, but haven't had a chance yet.Its supposed to be very pretty in winter too,and with some of the best ski slopes it would be a fun trip.
Keep the pics rolling in,buddy!

[chevelle]

Parasailing was one of the best experience i ever had. never done that before, so it was an unique experience. felt like a bird in the sky.

once done with it, we shopped for some souvenirs. ended up buying keychains, mugs, tees. being almost 3 pm, we were hungry. landed up at pizza hut and munched on some veg pizza. was good.

at 3.30 we started for emerald bay. its around 10 miles from ski run company and the curves and twist that came were perfect to test handling of any car. malibu handled quite good though it use to nose dive while braking very hard. may be it has been abused before and was not repaired.

there are many views from where we can view emerald bay. we choose a spot near eagle falls. i will let the pics do the talking.

(1) Emerald bay
(2) Tahoe Queen exiting emerald bay
(3) Me sitting on the rocks
(4) The road to vikingshlom castle trail
(5) and (6) water flow from eagle falls
(7) miniature waterfall
(8) mountains
(9) another view of emerald bay. just couldn't get enough of the view
(10) Somewhere down there is vikingshlom castle.
(11) Straight view of emerald bay.
(12) handheld shot of flowing water. very tough.
(13) view while on rubicon trail a.k.a vikingshlom trail
(14) first view of vikingshlom castle.
(15) (16) a squirrel
(17) misc photo
(18) Tried something different.
(19) castle, beach, trees.
(20) emerald bay from emerald beach.

in the next part, it will be pope beach.

[ambivalent_98]

Amazing stuff.....keep them coming....if you manage to put out most of those pics...your thread might make the home page with max hits ... by the way nice Chevy...!!!!

[prince_pervez]

Nice pictures! The car is quite a looker. Thanks for sharing.