What To Do In April?

While April is a winter month in Tahoe, it is a glorious time for spring skiing. We have massive amounts of snow, but the weather is relatively warm. So grab your boards and come up the mountain.

This photo is the view looking south from the North Shore. On the left are the ski runs of Heavenly, Tahoe's highest resort at 10,067 feet. On the right are the scree fields of the Freel Peak Massif, which, at 10,886 feet is the highest mountain on the lake. (If you go a little south of the Tahoe Basin - toward Yosemite - you come to many higher peaks.) Freel's scree fields are long tracks of crumbling rock in the summer. They look like ski runs in the winter. And they are sometimes skied by serious back-country skiers. But beware, they are also avalanche paths!

Reno Literary Crawl

Two weeks ago, on September 16, I participated in the Reno Literary Crawl. What a great event!

There were dozens of authors who gave talks and readings and participated on panels. I didn't get a count of how many readers attended, but it seemed like hundreds.

The events were scheduled three at a time, at multiple venues around Reno, from the Nevada Museum to Sundance Books to many of the old mansions that stretch north from downtown Reno toward the river.

I sat on a panel about publishing and I also participated in a reading about suspense called "Things That Go Bump In The Night."

The keynote talk was by Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson, Stanford professor and author of the The Orphan Master's Son. Johnson spoke at the Nevada Museum.

The closing party was at Sundance Books, which went all out with music in their large yard and poetry performances up on the mansion's deck. There was a food truck, and the place was strung with festive lights.

The vibe among some attendees was, "All this in Reno? Who knew?!" Other attendees seemed to take it for granted, as if they have known for years that Reno is a literary hotspot.

This impressive gathering celebrating the written word was put on by the Nevada Humanities. Here's the link:
http://nevadahumanities.org/programs/nevada-humanities-literary-crawl

I highly recommend you make plans to attend next year. I know I will.

A large crowd in the yard listened to a poetry reading up on the balcony of the Sundance Bookstore mansion, just behind the Nevada Museum.

Tahoe Farmers' Markets

As summer approaches, people start thinking about Farmers' Markets!

But can you find any up in the mountains?

Yes, you can! As of this writing, we have a bunch scheduled all around the lake! I've organized them by territory and weekday.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE

FRIDAYS

June 5 - August 28 from 3 - 8 pm

Located on Ski Run Blvd, just up from Lake Tahoe Blvd.

South Lake Tahoe, CA

Website: Ski Run Farmers' Market

TUESDAYS

June 2 - October 5 from 8 am - 1 pm

Located at the American Legion Hall parking lot

2732 South Lake Tahoe Blvd (Hwy 50)

South Lake Tahoe, CA

Website: El Dorado Farmers' Market

STATELINE

WEDNESDAYS

May 6 - September 16  4 pm - 7 pm

Located at Kahle Community Park

236 Kingsbury Grade

Stateline, NV

Website: Lake Tahoe Farmers' Markets

INCLINE VILLAGE

THURSDAYS

May 7 - September 24  4 pm - 7 pm

Located at Tunnel Creek

1115 Tunnel Creek Road

Incline Village, NV

Website: Lake Tahoe Farmers' Markets

CRYSTAL BAY

FRIDAYS 

May 8 - September 22 (except July 3) 10 am - 2 pm

Located at the Tahoe Biltmore Hotel #5 U.S. Highway 28

Crystal Bay, NV

Website: Lake Tahoe Farmers' Markets

TAHOE CITY

THURSDAYS

May 28 - June 18 & August 27 - September 24  8 am - 1 pm

Located at the Tahoe City Commons Beach

Commons Beach Rd and North Lake Blvd.

Tahoe City, CA

Website: Foothill Farmers' Market

Also on THURSDAYS

June 25 -  August 20, 8 am - Noon

Located at Tahoe City's Tahoe Lake Elementary School

375 Grove Street

Tahoe City, CA

Website: Foothill Farmers' Market

TRUCKEE

TUESDAYS

June 2 - October 20  8 am - 1 pm

Located at Truckee River Regional Park

10500 Brockway Road off Highway 267

Truckee, CA

Website: Foothill Farmers' Market

Outdoor Tahoe House Tour

As you would expect, Tahoe has a whole lotta spectacular houses. People of means from all over the world often choose Tahoe for their nice second (or third or fourth) homes. Of course, the rest of us are curious about these abodes that belong to people with everything. As long as we don't cause a problem, and as long as we stay on public property, there's nothing wrong with looking from the public street.

For the big picture, take a drive around the lake. Clockwise is best because then you aren't looking across traffic to see the lakeshore homes. Going during the shoulder season (October, November, April, May) will give you the least traffic to deal with.

Many of the nicest homes are on the lake and out of view from the road. But it is still fun to see the area and peek through the gates. If you have access to a boat, you can see these houses that are out of view to everyone else.

People often wonder where is the greatest concentration of spectacular houses. That would be Lakeshore Blvd. in Incline Village. You can find it on Google Maps. 

This is Incline Village from above (The overlook on the Mt. Rose Highway).
Lakeshore Blvd. runs along the lake on the lower right side of the picture.

This is a 3-mile piece of road, sometimes referred to as Billionaire's Row. The houses on the "mountain side" of the road are generally very nice. The ones on the lake side of the road are mostly out of view. They are mostly owned by business and tech titans. You would recognize many the names. Some are Wall Street fund types, and a few own big companies in several areas of business. Perhaps the most common category are the software moguls, from the companies whose products and services you use.

Some people imagine that this is where the movie stars have houses, but these out-of-view houses are mostly too expensive for movie stars.

The Eastern end of Lakeshore Blvd. starts near this sign on Hwy 28 

I made a quick check of Lakeshore Blvd. on Zillow.com (zoom in until the map turns to satellite photo, and each lot shows a price) and saw the following prices: $17.8M, 20.9M, 23.2M, 16.6M, 32.6M, 10.5M, 10.4M, 21.4M, 32.9M. Yes, the M stands for millions. And those prices are for individual properties. Some owners have two or three or even four contiguous properties. Not long ago, I saw a sales listing for 65M. For perspective, Zillow estimates that the mortgage payment on a 32M property would be $123,000 a month. That would give a $65M two-lot property a mortgage payment of a quarter million dollars. A month. (I wonder what brand of Scotch the owner drinks.)

There is a nice sidewalk path that runs most of the 3-mile stretch.
You can park at one end and have a beautiful 6-mile round trip hike.

There are many nice houses you can see...

And there are many more hidden behind gated drives...

Lakeshore Blvd. makes a nice hike or drive. Enjoy.

Just after this blog posted, the Wall Street Journal ran a story on a property that is just a bit west of Lakeshore Blvd., one that used to be owned by the Hills Brothers Coffee people. Here's the link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/a-lake-tahoe-beachfront-home-for-34-5-million-1415905150

Here's the pic by Jarvis Photography:

The Tahoe Lake-In-The-Sky Air Show

A few weeks ago at the end of September, we had another "Lake In The Sky" airshow at the South Lake Tahoe airport. It was great fun.

Three biplanes flying over Cave Rock

For airshow snobs, it might not be much compared to the monster shows like the annual Oshkosh, Wisconsin airshow. But I've been to the Oshkosh show, and I can tell you that our Tahoe show is better in many ways. 

First, you don't have to park a mile away and fight monster crowds. Second, and even better, you get to see cool planes flying "Right There!" above your head or a only hundred feet away to your side. Compared to Oshkosh where you need binoculars to see the planes fly, Tahoe's show is amazing.

The variety of planes was impressive, and the flying was spectacular.

Here's the link to the Lake In The Sky airshow.

Below are a range of pictures. (Can you tell from them that the 12-year-old boy inside me is alive and well?!)

Here they come!

A Hellcat heading out onto the tarmac

A Japanese Zero following him. Will they have a dogfight?

Zero and Hellcat ballet at 300 miles per hour

In Front of Trimmer Peak

After the Hellcat and Zero show their moves, it's time to check out the other aircraft.

Classic warbird

Flying boat

Flying wing

Here's a Canard design, with the small wing forward and the main wing aft.

 Next, comes the biplane air show, beautiful planes, amazing maneuvers.

#1 of what I thought of as the Three Musketeers

#2 (This was flown by an 81-year-old pilot!)

#3 Sweet Paint job!

Up we go

Three's company

Pulling 6 Gs

Up and over

If you don't go all the way over, you do a tail slide until you flip around

Soon, come the choppers.

In comes the Sky Crane. This one is outfitted with a water tank.

The dangling pipe is for sucking up water when they hover over a lake.

Then they fly to the fire and drop their load.

This chopper arrived while we all watched, flown in by a woman pilot and set down so smoothly a glass of water on the dash wouldn't have spilled a drop. The announcer loved telling all the girls at the show about the woman pilot. "You want real Girl Power, learn to fly one of these!" he called out.

At the end of the show, the planes all flew off into the gathering clouds

It was a great event for all.

Up, Up, And Away - Ballooning At Lake Tahoe

When I was a kid, the 5th Dimension had a huge hit with the Jimmy Webb song Up, Up, And Away. It was about hot air ballooning, and it fueled fantasies about what it would be like to go up in a balloon.

Years later, ballooning became popular, and you can now do it all over the country. 

But where might be the most beautiful place to go ballooning? Tahoe ain't a bad candidate...

The balloon takes off from a large boat.

You can hear the whoosh of the burner, which heats the air and makes the balloon rise up.

By controlling the altitude, the pilot can take advantage of the onshore and offshore breezes and go over the land or come back over the water.

When the pilot turns off the burner, the balloon is completely silent. Gradually, the air in the balloon cools, which makes it contract, and the balloon loses some of its buoyancy. The balloon slowly drops down toward the lake.

For thrills, the pilot brings the balloon right down to kiss the water. Then, with a blast of the burner, the balloon rises back up. Eventually, the pilot brings the balloon back down, and the mother-ship boat comes underneath it for landing.

If you are interested in one of life's great experiences, here's the link to our local ballooning company.