Lovely Lake Tahoe Days 1/2

I am absolutely blown away by the beauty of the West! It leaves me speechless, seriously, like I can't blog speechless. I don't have words for the magnificence of God's creation. It's that good. This travel life is that good. As we arrive at new places I am so over stimulated that I am emotional. However, I have to put that aside and get some words and pictures on my blog so I can remember it forever. Despite all the "vacationing" we seem to be doing, my hubby is working hard. He loves the hospital here but it is still work. So while he is working we are sightseeing on his days off. We never know his schedule more then about 4 weeks in advance so really that is all the time we have to book something. We cannot take an extended stay at a location like a real vacation so we are just experiencing what we can in small increments...like lovely Lake Tahoe!

Lake Tahoe, really? I never imagined I would ever get to see it in my lifetime. Not on our list of places to go and very pricey too. 

We had no idea it was this close when we landed in Winnemucca. We knew we were about 2 1/2 hours from Reno, but so close to Lake Tahoe too? So we took a little drive to Reno to visit the outlet mall in Sparks, which by the way was fantastic, lots of great shops and restaurants! 

Lo and behold we saw the Lake Tahoe signs... and of course we had to see Lake Tahoe for ourselves!  

Who would pass up a chance to visit this beautiful Lake Resort?

Not us, so I booked us a 4 day 3 night stay at Forest Suites Resort at Heavenly Village

http://forestsuites.com/

 Totally affordable in the off season and so much to see and do! 

Located right at the base of the gondolas! 

They literally run right over your head at the hotel! 

The base camp area is filled with great restaurants and shops! 

like Base Camp Pizza

http://basecamppizzaco.com/

The perfect way to relax after a day of riding gondolas, ski lifts and conquering the blue streak zip line at Heavenly Ski Resort

http://www.skiheavenly.com/

Yes it is really that blue! 

Steve took a lot of gopro videos, I just don't know how to add them to the blog.

This guy loves an adventure! 

Wow! the view is amazing from the gondolas! 

Spencer and I at the observation deck!

Now to ride the ski lifts to the highest point of the mountain for the Zip lining! 

http://www.skiheavenly.com/the-mountain/adventurepeaksummer.aspx

The air and sunshine ... breathtaking

I rode first with Spencer! Here we are just getting off! 

Such a rush I've never experiences before in my life! 

Here comes Steve, gopro and all!

A perfect landing!

Success! 

So the Heavenly Ski Resort straddles 2 states... 

We had some fun with that... I'm in Nevada...no wait I'm in California! 

lots to do at the top of the mountain, here's the breakdown of activities on the NV side and what's on the CA side, too!

but it's time to ride back down and prepare for more adventures tomorrow! 

In the afternoon we took a drive over to Camp Richardson

http://www.camprichardson.com/

so beautiful...

lots of kayaks

boating too

and a mama raccoon with her babies!

I'll blog more about day 3/4...

parasailing, kayaking, and the wonderful evening dinner cruise!

Super fun memories! 

Winnemucca Nevada

So much has happened since we landed in the beautiful high desert of Winnemucca, Nevada. We've explored Reno and Sparks at least 3 times. We've vacationed in Lake Tahoe and visited Ca. We rode gondolas, ski lifts, zip lines, went kayaking, para sailed, and enjoyed

 an evening sunset cruise. Sometimes I just get caught in the moment and I don't take the pictures I should and I certainly don't take the time to blog as I should. But, life is good and I treasure these moments. I'll blog more about Lake Tahoe soon but here's a picture from the top of Heavenly Mountain...just amazing!

Winnemucca is a beautiful peaceful place surrounded by pink mountains, sandy desert, and wildlife. No beautiful christmas trees here like Washington State, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the area. Life is slow here and I mean slow. It took 7-10 days to get parts for the jeep repair, 1 hour photos from walmart, and tires for the jeep. Parts have to be ordered and technicians have to be flown in. Then the repairs have to be scheduled.  No one and I mean no one is in a hurry.  So different from the fast paced city life in Houston and Tacoma.
The land is beautiful and we gaze off in the distance quite often. In the evenings there are wonderful pink and purple sunsets and each morning we are greeted with the same in the sunrises. Just this morning I got a glimpse of a herd of antelope in the distance right out my bedroom window. This is what we enjoy... seeing the vast wide open spaces.  As far as you can see til the horizon meets the land nothing but blue skies. 

Our apt sits on higher ground overlooking the city. At night we see the stars sparkling and the city lights shining like a beacon in the darkness. It's really dark here at night. So still, cool and quiet.
We were even able to catch a glimpse of the supermoon in the clear cold sky ...

These things I want to remember forever. 

Humboldt National Forest

So we went on an adventure last Sunday 6/22, not surprising, I know. This is what we seem to do best... pack a lunch, fill up with gas and just drive any direction. Thank goodness we grabbed our cameras this time. Steve decided we would go in search of a ghost town just north of here in Paradise Valley. 

We paid $4.19 a gallon for gas just outside Winnemucca, NV on Us Hwy 95.

We started off with a clean jeep and a full tank...

It really was a little paradise on the banks of a little creek right smack in the middle of the high desert.

 I didn't expect this much, but we really found a ghost town...

just on the edge of town...

or what was left of it!

beautiful old trees too!

maybe an old saloon or store? or both?

Then as we were leaving we noticed this sign directing us to the 

Humboldt National Forest

so Steve said...OK, let's go!

and we drove...

and we drove...

down miles and miles of gravel roads...

til we stopped at what appeared to be the summit...

Hinkey Summit to be exact!

and what a view...

so vast... in every direction!

Nevada has miles and miles of uninhabited BLM land...

As far as the eye can see in every direction! 

There were some trails that were passable only with ATV's

we even stopped to smell some wildflowers...

really pretty...right in the middle of the desert!

There was still some patches of snow too!

We drove over cattle guards and finally...

saw some cows! lol

  our jeep took a beating...but she made it! 

as we were leaving I snapped a pic of this sign!

Land of many uses....hmmmmm... and we didn't see much "forest" either,

but none the less it was beautiful in its own desert sorta way! 

Goodbye Dear Washington State Hello Nevada

I started this post right before I became very ill.  I wanted to get back to it but I have just now (2 weeks later) begun to feel well enough to think clearly. I loved our time in Washington. It was definitely our Northern Exposure and I will remember the last 6 months for the rest of my life. What a gift we have in travel, having exceeded all our expectations and so much more than we ever imagined. 

So somehow I landed in the ER on June 4th with high fever, high blood sugar and a whopper of a headache.  We soon found out how very ill I was... UTI, bladder and kidney infection that spread to my bloodstream. I even have kidney stones...who knew? I am so thankful for the ER staff and the PCU staff at Tacoma General Hospital. They were so good to me. Since we travel we are forced to participate in "medical tourism", partaking in whatever medical care is available. I can honestly say that while I do prefer receiving medical care in Houston, Tacoma was a good experience. 

I was released just 36 hours before we were to drive to Winnemucca, NV for Steve's next assignment. So, I didn't get to say all my goodbyes to Washington. I really wanted to see *my* Mt. Rainier one more time, but it wasn't to be... We left about 3am in the dark on Monday June 9th. We had a pleasant uneventful drive all through southern Washington and down through Oregon. Arriving in Nevada about 2:15pm. Our wonderful brand spanking new apt was all ready for us and we moved right in...aaah the beds are fabulous, cable tv and wifi!!!

High Ground Village Apartments
http://highgroundvillageapartments.com/index.html

5750 US HWY 95 N
Unit D6
Winnemucca, NV
89445

the lovely view from our front door!

our apt D6

It's big, about 1400 sq ft

large dining area and bar into kitchen

brand new table and chairs

perfect spot for our printer and laptop

looking into the kitchen through the dining room

beautiful kitchen...I would have chosen black or stainless appliances, 

but these are very high quality frigidaire! Love them!

big screen tv with direct tv...I'm dreaming of the beach!

new microwave still in the box...beautiful granite counters! 

The hallway divides the 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a laundry room at the end. This apt is set up for room mates, sometimes 2 nurses will share an apt when they work opposite shifts. 

one of the 2 bathrooms

larger of the 2 bathrooms 

our master bedroom, no picture of Spencer's room, but it is much the same

bedroom view

Our apt backs up to the mountains too! 

This is a new complex built just for corporate temporary housing. There's no permanent residents. All our neighbors are travel nurses and contract workers from all over the USA.

It's so quiet here. I'm hoping this will prove to be a great place to rest up for more fun adventures! 

Looks like a visit to Reno will be next!