July 4th Weekend

Jim, Katie and I went up to the lodge for the 4th of July weekend. Mary Beth could not make it since she is attending masters classes at Holy Names in Oakland.  I got there on Thursday and did a bit of clean up before Jim arrived on Friday.  We had a bit of rain on Thursday, which helps to keep the fires at bay.

We had a few surprise guests on Friday - one of my best friends was heading to Reno for a birthday party, so she stopped by at lunch time and one of Jim's friends from work stopped by on his way up to Sierra City.

They had a few people in tow with them so we gave all a tour of the lodge.  We forget how cool some people think it is and how much of a wreck others see it as.  But it was fun and we all ended up sitting on the deck for quite some time before they had to get on the road.

After they left we took our dog, Quincy, to Lake Valley Reservoir for a swim.  It was a bit to late and breezy for us to go in.  I wonder when Lake Valley actually became a lake?  I know that Crystal Lake was since it is mentioned in most books about the area, all the way back to the late 1800s.  But I am thinking that Lake Valley was "built" as part of the PGE string to support Spaulding.

On Saturday (the 4th), we drove down to Dutch Flat for their parade.  We love their festivities. The parade goes around the town twice (since main street is so short) and people throw water balloons at the parade and the marchers throw water back.  It is wet and fun.

After the parade, we headed up to Carr and Feely Lakes (above Fuller Lake) for a short 2 mile hike.  The last part of the dirt road to get there is quite an experience.  Carr and Feely are part of the string of lake in the Grouse Lakes Wilderness area.  Quite lovely.

We were supposed to go to the fireworks that are over Donner Lake and watch them from the summit - but it was overcast (and raining a bit) so we stayed home and watched the Music Man on TV.

On Sunday we went jet skiing on Spaulding Lake - the water is down about 20 feet right now from the drought.  But it made the creek that enters the lake into a bit of a gorge that was nice for swimming and rock jumping.  We got to the lake early, so we missed the crowds that gather on the shore and only had to deal with them as we loaded the boats to head back to the lodge. That afternoon, my friend stopped by again on her way home and this time made it for lunch. We had a lot of left-overs from the 4th since a few people canceled on coming up.  Ribs etc. Yum!

On Monday, Jim and I took the dog to Lake Valley again and this time it was warm enough to swim.  Jim headed home that night.

Tuesday I went to Reno to visit my favorite thrift stores and worked on varnishing some cabinet doors that we are putting in the kitchen.  I also painted part of the laundry area (we had to open the drywall there to fix some chipmunk chewed electrical).  Then, once the temperatures cooled a bit, I mowed the upper part of the property.

Headed home Wednesday after finishing the projects from Tuesday.  All in all a great weekend.