July in Tahoe

Looking now at the highlights from July, it appears we spent a lot of the first half of it in the Tahoe area! Patrick is around there a lot for his job anyway, but our recreational activities took us there as well.

Our friends Phil & Vanessa were married at The Hideaway (check out the website- the place was awesome!), where we stayed in our tent on the grounds but had access to plumbing in the fantastic giant "cabin" the wedding party stayed in, built by the owners that live on the back of the property. The house was on a small lake, with an overlooking deck and an adjacent hot tub dug into the Granite bedrock, and there was also a "saloon" on the premises, with pool table, air hockey and a bar counter where Patrick and I set up the food for the cocktail and hors d'oevre hour.

Earlier in the day, we went on a hike in the back parts of the property. Here's a view of the cabin, from afar!

While exploring, I saw this crazy looking, but pretty plant (especially with the butterflies). There was a creek not far, formed from what was probably snowmelt, and it created little waterfalls over the rock faces. We just laid near it under the shade of a tree for a bit and I thought, "It doesn't get better than this!"

Something we thought was really unique, and awesome in concept, was between the dinner and dancing, all of the guests gathered on the deck overlooking the lake to light floating candles in honor of the occasion. Unfortunately, the wind or slight movement of the water choked the flames right out, so it wasn't quite the picture taking opportunity we all had hoped. But it was certainly fun for all of us to attempt.

I had to work Friday, the 5th, so we returned to Merced, but on Saturday we headed North again! I camped with Patrick and shadowed him as he scouted out a couple potential places for more work equipment installs.

In between Patrick taking GPS coordinates and making notes, I took a moment to marvel over the look of this twisted fallen tree.

Car camping is full of comforts!

And even at the crowded campground, we managed to get a spot on a rock outcrop that placed us high enough to see the surrounding hills hit with the setting sun.

After our day scouting, we hiked for fun to Round Top Lake. The sky was clear, the temp was comfortable, and the scenery was beautiful, with particular emphasis on all the wildflowers that were out. I think this is in my queue of fave expeditions.

And while the lake was nice, our actually objective was in scaling Round Top itself.

The view from 10,000 or so feet, after a successful ascent. (Although we did have some trouble in figuring out how to get to the actual top after running into some sketchy stuff we decided to avoid.)

Patrick is slightly camouflaged in the lower right.

The summit made an excellent lunch destination. Especially since my lungs needed a serious break! I felt like I had to stop every few steps on the way up, huffing and puffing!

I love seeing the distinction in colors between the two water bodies.

As I said, there were flowers everywhere, of many varieties and colors!

Couldn't help getting a close-up. Too perfect a subject to resist!

End of July we headed home to Michigan for a visit, so clearly we're not caught up on things yet. But I'm glad to finally have shared these photos with you. The sights were too lovely to hoard. :-)