Baldwin beach and Leaving our dream
Downtown was lovely but we had more places to see! We spontaneously drove to Baldwin Beach which was a cute little sand beach, perfect for summer time. It was a bit ridiculous trying to get in there though! First of all it cost 8 dollars!!! What? Coming from Sweden where you can access everything that is not owned by somebody, that is just nuts. We were allowed to use that same ticket to visit other beaches on the same day, but who goes from one beach to another? Don't you just want to chill by one? The guard also asked us several questions which felt a bit overprotective. She asked if we were bringing any surf gear, if we were going to make a fire and if we planned on swimming... I get the fire thing, because they want to know who is responsible if something happens but who cares if I am going to sit on a paddle board or not?? It was still beautiful and a calm place to take a break from life at.
One happy Nick!
Nick made some friends who he shared his food with :)
On our way back we simply HAD to visit Taylor's Creek again! We didn't walk around the whole trail this time. We just checked out the pretty view.
The creek is surrounded by gorgeous wooden benches with local animals carved into them.
Since we had checked out from Fairbridge Inn, it was time to check in to Hotel Becket! This place was awesome. Super clean, warm, cozy, comfortable bed!
Notice that beautiful painting of Lake Tahoe on the wall :)
Nick took a short nap and then we headed downtown, again! While looking at the moon and trying to find one of our favorite restaurants, we took some selfies. Once again a random guy stopped and asked if he could take our picture for us. People were seriously so sweet. Thanks to them we have several photos of us together in front of beautiful locations.
We had my birthday dinner at the Stateline restaurant!
Nick surprised me by sneaking off and speaking to one of the waitresses about my birthday. So they got me this dessert with sparkles coming out of it like fireworks! It was pretty funny though because just when the waitress offered to take a picture of me with it, the sparkles went out xD lol oh well!
On our last night in South Lake Tahoe we made another stop at the casino, trying to re-capture our luck from the other night. But yeah.. that sure did not work out! At first our favorite machine was taken by someone else who kept winning on it. And when it was our turn, we lost all of our money again! It's a fun thing to do when you are on vacation, but this will definitely not be a place that we'll visit very often when we live here xD
This is how Hotel Becket looked like, very cozy! In the morning we checked out and then had breakfast at IHOP, where we ran into one of Nick's old friends. She recently moved to Tahoe with another friend. So we have been staying in touch with them to get some advice on good areas to live in etc.
The next morning we wanted to drive around and simple absorb the last few moments we had... we knew we'd miss it so much. So we went back to the first place we even saw - the view of the lake from Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Me and Nick sat there breathing and feeling the wonderful calm of the city. Not missing San Jose one bit.
These little fellows are darn cute!
"Look, that leaf looks like a heart!" - Nick
I can't wait to spend my summer days here, swimming and playing...
My favorite view
Bye lake!
We tried driving back up to the Inspiration point but the traffic was way too crazy for that. So instead we reluctantly accepted that it was time to leave. The last stop was McDonald's to get food for the road. Funny thing is that we ended up staying there for almost an hour because Nick struck up a conversation with an older couple from Sacramento. They were so sweet and very positive! They said "Of course you should move up here! You guys are so young that if it doesn't work out, you can just move again!".. which is so true and exactly how we feel about it. Leaving this city felt a bit easier when we drove along Pioneer road. This gorgeous snowy mountain was right in front of us and in the forest on both sides, we saw one dreamhouse after another. Our smiles were huge because we felt content about our future plans and what we want. We know what our dream home looks like and we will try our hardest to get it someday. We know that we have a long road ahead of us and that we'll live in an apartment first. But we are determined.
Look at these beautiful roads that leads you in and out of Tahoe..
On our bathroom break in Sacramento I happened to find a store called "American Legacy" by accident! They had tons and tons of Native American things. Not in a disrespectful way. Just in a very honoring kind of way, according to me at least. I couldn't get enough of it. I ended up buying this poster and T-shirt that I have actually been wanting to buy for a while. I wore the T-shirt outdoors a few days ago and two people went "wow I love your T-shirt and totally agree with it - what a great message!".
