Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe - Part 3

You can read about Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe - Part 1 here <—

Also Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe - Part 2 here <—

With very little sleep Monday night, we were up and at ‘em on Tuesday with items on the agenda.  After brunch at The Original Mel’s Diner, we headed to Truckee, California to hike the Historic Summit Tunnels, which is a 4+ mile hike out/back though tunnels built into the sides of the mountain.  

The tunnels have wall-to-wall artwork and graffiti, some appropriate and some not and a few of the tunnels contain bats.  We never saw any bats but you could hear them and you could smell them.  Yuck!  The details we learned ahead of time suggested a headlamp and there are some dark places in some of the longer tunnels.  There are four total tunnels and while the distance to hike all of them is quite long, the end of the hike is worth the views as you get to see the lake. 

Our drive south back to Tahoe took us along the southwest side of the lake where we stopped in Tahoe City to share a beer flight and have a bite of lunch at Tahoe Tap Haus. Outside the brewery was an ice cream trailer that served the best ice dream in the smallest containers I’ve ever seen.

The drive south was picturesque and at one points we had 360 views of water on all sides of the windy road, we just had to stop and snap a few pictures. 

We made a final repeat stop at South Lake Brewing Company as Phoenix had a Groupon to redeem for two pints and two souvenir pint glasses.  We chatted with a few people in the beer garden and enjoyed the misters to keep us cool.  Tahoe was having unseasonably warm weather.  

With exhaustion on our side, we stayed in for the night and went to bed early.  

Our last full day in Tahoe included the beach and drinks!  We went out with a bang spending the first part of the day at the beach with a tiki bar.  We also visited with a gal from Virginia who was there with her kids.  

After we had enough sun (for Phoenix and Nicole, I pretty much covered up and stayed in the shade) we had a bite to eat at Fox & Hound before getting dolled up for our last night in Tahoe.

Thanks to Uber, we were dropped off to wonder around on foot and landed at X Crows, a BBQ place and a hotel all-in-one that had live music. 

PorterHaus Music, a trio of brothers that just happened to grow up in Idaho, put on a great set. We met people from Texas and Nevada as we sat around the outdoor campfire chatting. Afterwards, one of the band members and one of the Texans wandered with us to two other bars before grabbing a bite to eat and catching a Lyft back to the condo.  PorterHaus Music will be in Boise later this year.

We made our way home and a last minute decision to stop at Say When as we knew they had clean bathrooms and I had hoped to get something to eat.  I had already lost so much money gambling what is a little more?  I put $10 into a $1 machine and own $150.  I cashed out and put $20 into the $1 machine next to it.  I won $480.  With $630 in my pocket, we headed towards home and after traveling over 1,200 miles in the car this week, that wrapped up Girls Weekend 2021.

We had a fabulous time and I am so thankful for my gal pals that came along for the fun.

Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe - Part 2

If you didn’t read my recap of Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe Part 1, you can read it here <-

We started our second day in Lake Tahoe with donuts at Glazed and Confused and ended with ice cream sandwiches at The Baked Bear.  You know it is going to be an indulgent weekend when donuts and ice cream are involved.

My coworkers had recently visited Tahoe Bike Co. and shared all about their time with a four-person bike rental.  We used a rental like this during our Girls Weekend in Bend, Oregon.  It turns out this was both entertaining and a huge workout.  Naturally we needed to treat ourselves afterwards and on a recommendation from the guy at the bike shop, we went to Beacon Bar & Grill for their signature drink, Rum Runners.  They were delicious along with some amazing views of the lake. 

I had two Groupons that needed redeemed at South Lake Brewery, which turned into one a very large beer flight.  Afterwards, we made our way back to Hard Rock Cafe Casino where we used the free public parking to do some gambling, walked around the Heavenly Village Shops and took in some of the live music.  We finished our night with delicious pizza at Lake Tahoe AleWorX before heading back to the condo to relax for the night.

Monday we needed to head back to Reno so we could put Dawny on the plane home to Spokane, Washington early Tuesday morning.  With a late start to the morning, Dawny and I ventures out to find delicious bagels at Dragonfly Bagle Co.  Boy did they hit the spot.  I love bagels.  

Another Groupon deal secured our hotel at Sands Regency and included five free drinks.  That was a great deal.  After checking I, we went to Sparks, Nevada to visit a brewery and In and Out Burger was nearby.  This was a first visit for several in the group and we were a bit underwhelmed.

We visited another Boise Brew Buddy Hub, Great Basin Brewing, which was in this really fun shopping center that looked like a ghost town.   

Once we got back to the hotel, we made our way out on foot to walk the Riverwalk and stopped into The Eddy, a container bar for a drink.  We also found a spot to share a delicious top shelf watermelon margarita at some Mexican restaurant along the way, and lost a bunch of money gambling.  

With that, we said goodbye to Dawny and still had another couple days left back in Tahoe.

Girls Weekend Lake Tahoe - Part 1

Girls Weekend started a few days earlier when Dawny flew into town allowing us to spend a little extra time together.  She didn’t feel 100% after her turbulent flight so we kept it simple with lunch at Café Rio and shared a sweet treat at Goody’s in Hyde Park, an espresso milkshake.  We made up for lost time the following day starting out with breakfast at Bacon in downtown Boise. 

 

This was a first visit for me and sadly it was underwhelming.  I will go back at least once more to try out a sandwich next time.  The bacon flight was really delicious and beware there is some spicy bacon.  Afterwards we stopped over to Guru Donuts to redeem a gift card last used in 2016!  Donuts are so delicious.

 

We both had a few hours of work commitments standing between us and vacation.  After those were completed, we had dinner at Tucanos and enjoyed a few beers on the patio (well beer for me at least).  The following day, Dawny and I enjoyed breakfast at The Egg Factory including their lemon poppyseed pancakes.  I will be back for those on a future visit.  We picked up Phoenix and her sister Nicole and headed towards Reno, Nevada.  The first stop along our journey was lunch at Winners Inn Casino in Winnemucca, Nevada.  The service was terrible and thus we did not stop for a bite to eat there on our return home.  Dawny had fun taking photos of the big dice bathroom décor.

 

We stopped at Say When Casino in McDermitt, Nevada where Nicole won some money.  She took her winnings as we continued to Sparks/Reno.  Our first stop was Revision Brewing Company, which is a Boise Beer Buddies Hub.  The beer was excellent and I was not expecting it.  They had a great atmosphere too.

 

Our next stop was a tour and tasting at FerinoDistillery.  The tour left a lot to be desired but the tasting was pretty good.  I left with two different bottles.

 

We had parked next to The Depot Craft Brewery Distillery which seemed like a logical place to grab a bite to eat and also share a beer flight.  We loved all our small plate appetizers and the beer was good too. 

 

We made the final leg to Lake Tahoe and checked into the condo before heading downtown to check out the nightlife and gamble at a few of the casinos.  I could have never imagined in a million years that I would see a celebrity on stage at a casino in Lake Tahoe…Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton on The Fresh Price of Bel Air.  The man to the right of the photo in the blue shirt is Charles Barkley.

 

I had no idea the American Century Championship Golf Tournament was in Tahoe that weekend along with some celebrities.  It was a real treat to see them entertaining the crowd.

 

More to come…