Tahoe, Day 3: Emerald Bay and Steph's Wedding

I was looking at the Google Maps app to see what there was to do around the area that we were staying in. I pulled up this thing called Emerald Bay. Hm, it looked familiar and then I realized that it was on one of the postcards that we bought at CVS the day before. It was going to be a 30 minute drive. Perfect!

The drive there was a little scary.  It wasn't too bad in the dark, but in the daylight you could see that some places on the road had no guardrail and there was no protection between you and the edge of the cliff.  Robyn kept her concentration on the road (thankfully, since she was driving) and I was trying to concentrate on not looking down.  There were some cyclists that we had to share the road with too.  That must take a lot of self-confidence and faith in the drivers that you're not going to fall over into the abyss!

After we parked the car, we took in the scenery and it was tough to imagine that we could walk down to the Bay since it seemed like such a far way down. We took the 1 mile trail down to the water and wow, how beautiful! :)

We headed back so that we could relax at the resort before having to get ready for Steph's wedding.  The invitation said that we had to plan to take the gondala up to the Heavenly Resort for the wedding ceremony and reception.  The Food Network helped us pass the time.

I chose to wear a new dress that I bought at JCPenney this past summer.  I was planning to wear my hair up in two rope braids, but when I looked in the mirror, I could see the discoloration left behind from the shingles and while normally, I wouldn't care who saw it if I was at home or at the office, I was going to a wedding where the majority of folks don't know what my situation was. I didn't want to get any weird stairs.  Fortunately, I learned how to curl my hair using the flat iron.  Yay!

Robyn and I drove up to the gondala area at the base of the mountain.  Steph's aunt was behind us in line so we chatted with them.  The gondala ride up the mountain was beautiful and once we got to the top, we were seated for the ceremony. Not too long after everyone sat down, it started to sprinkle.  They made an executive decision to move everyone inside and that was a good decision because it started to pour right after we all got inside. The pink paper parasol that we got as a wedding favor wouldn't have held up.

The ceremony was short and sweet and then we moved into the cocktail hour before dinner.  One of the friends was asked to show off his yo-yo skills.  Another friend was asked to show off his Rubik's cube solving skills.  Steph and other musicians played "Marry You" which was cool.

Dinner was a buffet (mac and cheese, sea bass, vegetables and a carving station).  Then there were toasts from the father of the bride, father of the groom, best man, and one of the bridesmaids.  While all this stuff was going on, we could help ourselves to the shaved ice station (this was in place of wedding cake) and the photo booth.  The couple had a cake for the cake cutting ceremony, and that cake was cut up for the guests, but by the end of the night, I thought I had eaten too much already.  Then it was time to dance the calories away.  I spent most of that time catching up with Steph's family since the last time I saw them was Christmas time. My feet hurting was a sign that it was time to head back.  We drove Steph's aunt and uncle back to the resort since we were all going to the same place.

Me with the bride

Me with Steph's parents and brother

Green tea shaved ice, the bouquet that was made by the bride's aunt (made all from paper!), and the welcome table

Tahoe, Day 1 and 2

Day 1: Since our flight didn't leave DCA until after lunch, Robyn and I were able to get some work done in the morning before heading to the airport separately.  The flight to Denver and then to Reno were uneventful.  

That was until I got an email from Steph's fiance, Eric, saying that Route 50 might be closed because of the area forest fires and that we should go around the west side of Lake Tahoe (as opposed to the east side) to get to Aston Lakeland Village, where we were going to be staying. Uh oh.

Robyn went to get the rental car, while I went to get our bags.  When Robyn booked the rental car, she got a wildcard.  Not sure what that meant, but it sounded like it'd be fun.  The wildcard happened to be a Fiat 500.  I was a little worried that Robyn would be uncomfortable with a smaller car since she's almost 6' tall, but the car was surprisingly roomy on the inside. She asked the rental car lady about the detour and she gave us a map to show us how we could get to the resort.  

The drive to the resort was very...dark and a little scary and there was road work being done so we needed to stop periodically.  We finally rolled into the resort around midnight and got settled into our room.  There was a pull-out couch on the ground floor and a king bed in the loft.  I gave Robyn the king bed so that she could be more comfortable. We took out the pull out bed from the couch and there were popcorn crumbs on it.  Um, no.  I'll sleep on top of the couch, thanks!  It was the perfect size for me.

Day 2: Time to have some fun!  We headed out to look for some breakfast and fortunately, there was a place called Heidi's right next door. The interior decor was Heidi (as in the book) themed.  How cute!  I went with a lighter breakfast with oatmeal, and Robyn went with some pancakes. We also went to Safeway to get some breakfast food for the next couple of days and CVS to browse (ended up with toiletries and a pack of postcards).  

We went to check out the private beach that the resort had to offer and it was a beautiful view.

We also went to Bijou Community Park to get our Fitbit steps in.  This place had a dog agility park and had the setup for disc golf.  They also had a fitness course that we tried out.

 

After getting some exercise, we went to get some Indian food at Nikki's.  I had been thinking about it since this morning when we got breakfast since it was near Heidi's.  We got butter chicken, butter lamb, some sort of fried vegetable dish, samosas and naan.  Yum! 

The movie Pacific Rim was on tv. It was surprisingly good. I didn't recognize Charlie Hunnam because I'm used to seeing him on tv with facial hair on Sons of Anarchy.

A Trip to NaiNai's

I went to lunch with my coworkers today (Michelle, Ben, Surili and Hilary).  Ben and Hilary had been talking about this dumpling place nearby and of course, the rest of us had to check it out.  The place was called NaiNai's.  I ordered 6 of the beef dumplings and 6 of the pork ones.   Yum!  (But mine are better, tee hee).

Hiroki's Wedding

1-hour spin class (check).

When I was in class, my cousin texted me some pictures of my cousin's wedding that my parents went to in Japan.  It was nice to see them dressed up and having a good time with family.

I watched my third movie in three days: The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  I would say that I liked this one and the first one equally.  I liked the chemistry that Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield have.  Well, it probably helps that they are a real life couple. 

For dinner, I went to my uncle's house for dinner along with my 2 cousins and Julie.  It's rare to have a family dinner without my parents, but they are off having their own fun.  After dinner, each of us was able to take some leftovers home, yay for an already prepared meal for tomorrow.

Yard Sale Find and Captain America 2

My coworker sent me an email earlier this week, letting me know about a yard sale that was happening this weekend.  I went there this morning, but only found a Sterilite container for $1 that I though I could use for my craft room.  I went to the mall afterwards to browse when I got an email from that same coworker.  She was asking if I had gone to the yard sale yet and that there were good finds there.  She ended up with a scarf and a purse and something else.  She said that she thought one of the dresses would look great on me.  I didn't want to add anything more to my closet since I bought several dresses over the summer.

I spent much of my afternoon doing some organizing of my craft room.  Yay!

Tonight, I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier and it was so good.  I thought it was better than the first one (how rare it is that a sequel is better than the original??) and there were instances where my mouth fell open with shock.  I enjoyed it more than Divergent, which I watched last night.  I returned the movie and because I had another coupon code for $1 off a rental, I rented Spider-Man 2 to watch tomorrow.  Lots of movie watching this weekend! :D

Ah, Friday!

Yay, Friday!

I got an hour spin class in this morning, so it was nice to start off the day on a good note!

I got some work done and also took a break to pick up the Redbox movies that I rented (I had a rent 1, get 1 free coupon in my email).  :D

I rented Divergent, which I watched tonight.  I hadn't read the book, so the movie trailer was the only reference that I had. Meh, it wasn't the worst movie, but I didn't think it was the best either. I thought it had shades of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.  Plus, I wasn't really convinced that the girl that played Tris was believable.  This is contrast to how I felt Jennifer Lawrence played Katniss. Tris's professing her love for Four at the end of the movie made me roll my eyes. Yawn.

Four was easy to look at though ;)

The other movie I rented was Captain America 2 and I'll wait until tomorrow to watch that.

RJ's Follow-Up Appointment

I worked from home this morning and then took RJ to the vet for his follow-up appointment to make sure that his urinary issue had been resolved.  The vet tech called me yesterday and told me that he needed to have a full bladder in the morning so they could get a urine sample. 

Okayyy.

I fed him some wet food and shut the door to the litter box.  He circle around and tapped the door knob several times.  He looked at me and the door, as if to say "Mommy, I really have to pee."  Ugh, I tried to hold on as long as I could, but I couldn't see him pathetically circling around. Fine, go pee in your box.

Surprise, surprise, he didn't have enough in his bladder for the vet to get a urine sample.

She said that I have two options: "You can try to get one yourself or you can keep him here.  We'll give him fluids to get a urine sample out of him."

How am I supposed to get a urine sample?  My friend at work was really funny when I told her what happened.  "It's not like you can squeeze him like a orange."

I left him at the vet and went to work and got a call around 5:30 PM saying that he peed and the urine test came back with good news.  Red and white bloods cells were normal.  Whew!

On another note, when I got home from the vet the first time, I turned on the tv and watched some clips of the Today Show.  They were talking about one of the surviving rescue dogs from 9-11.  It's hard to believe that day was 13 years ago.  I had just started freshman year of college.  It was hard not to tear up a little while watching the remembrance clips they showed on tv.  And it's also hard to think that a lot of the struggles with fighting evil then still continue today.

Never Forget.