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?!!!