Which State Do People Love To Hate?

We've just had a run of unbelievably beautiful weather. 

It's even more amazing considering it's early winter. Gorgeous sunny skies. Snow-covered mountains. Winter days in California are often beyond perfect. And summer days in much of California are temperate and have low humidity. Like Italy in Europe, California may have the best weather in the United States. Add California sights to the weather, and it's a pretty sweet combination.

Yet I've seen multiple media stories about how much people love to hate California.

One wonders why.  

Yes, we have high taxes. But if you do a Google search on states with the highest overall tax burden, you find that by many measures, New York, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Oregon and even Minnesota have similar tax burdens, maybe even higher.

Yes, we have lots of stuffed-shirt politicians. It could even be argued that some of our politicians are certifiable idiots. But that's the same as every other state.

Yes, we have terrible forest fires and earthquakes. But we don't have tornadoes or hurricanes.

Yes, we have lots of people and the traffic that comes with them. But take an area of equal size on the East Coast and it will have twice as many people and the traffic to match.

Yes, we have very high housing costs. But we also have the 5th highest income of all the states. And if you don't insist on living in the Bay Area or L.A., you can find houses at semi-reasonable costs.

Yes, we have the largest tech companies in the world, Apple, Google, Facebook, and those companies can irritate millions on a continuous basis. But do people want to give up what those companies provide?

I'm guessing that much of the reason some people have antipathy for California is shown in these photos. I'll sum it up in a single word at the end of this post.

Do people hate California beaches? I think not.

Redwoods, the world's tallest trees?

Tahoe, the most beautiful, purest, high altitude lake in the world?

Mount Whitney, highest mountain in the lower 48 states?

Some of the best surfing in the world?

Some of the best skiing in the world?

Some of the most beautiful coastline in the world?

Some of the grandest city views in the world?

Yosemite, with several of the highest cliffs and waterfalls in the world?

So what is the reason why anyone would love to hate California?

One reason might be envy...

Biggest Holiday Travel Season In Years

The Tahoe Tribune ran an article saying that travel business experts believe we're about to have the biggest travel season in many years, maybe ever. If you don't have your reservations, you might need to hurry up!

Here's the article:

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/officials-predict-holiday-travel-will-be-busiest-in-recent-history/

Ski Areas Open?! Yes!

 Current news is that Heavenly, Northstar, and Kirkwood are opening early. As always, check the websites before you go. In this new world, you have to purchase your tickets online and in advance. You can't just show up and expect to ski. But the new advance purchase means fewer crowds, so it's a good thing.

https://www.skiheavenly.com/

https://www.northstarcalifornia.com/

https://www.kirkwood.com/

Two Big Events Coming

The San Mateo Harvest Festival is coming next weekend, Friday November 11 through Sunday Nov 13. 

The show is in the San Mateo Event Center on Saratoga street. The hours are 10 - 5 Friday and Saturday, and 10-4 Sunday.

The following weekend will be the Sacramento Harvest Festival, November 18, 19, 20. 

The show will be at Cal Expo, and the hours are the same. I hope to see you at either show!

Why Should We Care About The Shoulder Season?

 If you've heard that visiting Emerald Bay is no longer just crowded during the summer, that is correct. It is busy all year long. It used to be that locals waited for the shoulder season (October, November, April, May) to visit the major tourist attractions.

That strategy still works for many places. For example, the Hellman Ehrman Mansion at Sugar Pine Point State Park on the West Shore is a great place that tourists tend to ignore during the shoulder season. 

We were recently there on a weekday, hoping for one last opportunity to walk the grounds before the first winter storm. What a treat!

This is the front that greets visitors.

This is the lake side.

Here is the view from the back deck.

The mansion was built at the turn of the 20th century by Isaias Hellman, the founder of Wells Fargo Bank. The mansion is as grand as they come, and certainly holds its own against the more famous Vikingsholm Castle at Emerald Bay.

To get there, drive to the main entrance at Sugar Pine Point State Park. There is a self-pay machine. Put in $5, get the printed receipt, and put that on your dash.

During the shoulder season, you can drive up and park close to the mansion. The grounds are vast and have many paths that wind through the forest. You can also walk the (rocky) beach for a mile.

For those of you who pay attention to my books, it was in Tahoe Skydrop where Detective McKenna tracks a murderer and a kidnapped child to the mansion. McKenna finds a secret panel that opens up under a kitchen window in the Hellman Mansion. McKenna gets in through that panel and runs up the stairs to the third floor to confront the bad guy.

In this boathouse is the coolest race boat, built in 1926.

The boat, called MERCURY, is all aluminum. It set a speed record for the time at 58 miles per hour.

You can look into the boathouse and see the boat from several angles.

We had a great afternoon wandering the forest and along the lake, and highly recommend stopping by Sugar Pine Point Park.

Weather Pleasures

 Check out the temps the next few days. Looks like Winter is making an appearance in Tahoe!

17 degrees this (Sunday) morning. The next several days have winter lows as well. 20 degrees, 29 degrees, 26 degrees. The ski areas will be making snow. Everyone will be dusting off their ski equipment. 

Something to celebrate.

What Is Crunch Time For Writers?

 Every year in the fall, I realize that I'm running out of time to finish my next book. If you want to have a book out by a particular date, you can't stretch time. You have to simply recognize the immutable laws of publishing. As measured by the calendar, the publishing pipeline is long. But if you don't put the book in the pipe by the deadline date, you won't have a book when you want it.

But what if it still isn't perfect? you ask.

As I've said many times, you'll never make it perfect. And done beats perfect every time.

Translation: Yes, you want the book to be good, but you have to get it done. So get typing.

As I stare at the looming date on the calendar, my wife often steps in to help. She does many things that make it so I can write uninterrupted. Ten pages a day. Maybe fifteen pages a day. The typewriter gets warm from use. The ribbon needs changing. But the pages pile up. I'm enormously grateful to her for her help.

Is it enough to finish the book on time?

Tune in next summer.

Do I have a title yet?

Sort of. It starts with TAHOE...

What's Best About The Bay Area?

 We're currently on the peninsula (San Carlos), where I'm helping with my wife's art exhibit at the San Carlos Art & Wine Festival. It's relatively close to Tahoe, a good thing. The town and festival itself are nice, a good thing. The event is crowded, a good thing. And the weather is perfect, a very good thing.

Tahoe locals always claim that mountain weather is the best. Cold at night, hot sun during the day. But the Bay Area has amazing weather as long as you don't mind some fog in the morning. (Wait, that's not called fog. It's called The Marine Layer, which usually burns off by late morning.)

Regardless of the month, it never gets very cold and rarely gets very hot in the Bay Area. That's a feature of life near the Pacific.

We take down Sunday evening, head back to our AirBNB in Emerald Hills, then drive home Monday.

P.S. Like all of the festivals across Northern California this year, business has been good for both art and books. No recession in these parts.

Unbelievable

 Where else in the entire world can you go sailing, motorboating, swimming, diving, and parasailing on the purest of high-altitude lakes and still have an entire beach to yourself?!!!

 The storm last week brought us a couple of days of rain. And when the clouds cleared...? SNOW

Here's what Freel Peak, Tahoe's highest mountain, looked like.

Why does snow matter on September 22?

3 Reasons.

One: Snow melts slowly while rain runs off. When snow melts it has time to soak into the ground, which makes it less dry than ground where rain fell and ran off quickly. Water-soaked ground is a good thing.

Two: When the mountains are white with snow, it's good for the ski economy. People see it and start planning their trips to the mountains, booking their hotels and rental cars.

Three: It is a psychological boost to everyone to see that, despite climate change, global warming, and drought, we can have white mountains on the Autumnal Equinox!

The Sweetest Words To A Californian

The forecast calls for rain.

We're always grateful that we don't have much in the way of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other problems. But we do have fire. This time of year, the fire danger cranks up.

So looking at a weather forecast that shows the next few days bringing rain is great.

Another Big Fire Near Tahoe

 We almost felt guilty leaving the smoke that the Mosquito Fire has sent to the Tahoe Basin when we headed to the Mountain View Fine Arts Festival this weekend. The weather on the peninsula south of San Francisco cooled off and the air was very clear.

As of this writing at 8:30 Saturday night, CalFire's Mosquito Fire Incident report shows the fire has grown to 33,000 acres. For a size comparison, last year's Caldor Fire eventually torched something over 200,000 acres. The Mosquito Fire is currently 15% that size. But no one knows how much or how fast it will grow.

In classic fire expansion (as I worked into the story of Tahoe Blowup) the Mosquito Fire is making its own weather with a heat-created storm.

Here's what it looks like from a distance.

The good news is that few if any houses have burned so far. The fire is mostly in a wilderness. 

The bad news is that if its direction shifts much, there are communities that could be in its way.

We head home Monday and will get a closer look then.