If we missed seeing Crater Lake, we'd make up for it by seeing Lake Tahoe that evening.
We had a generous offer to stay at with my cousin Norman in South Lake Tahoe, but it fell to Norman to dash down the Sierras from his home just miles from the Nevada border to help his mother recover after a brief hospitalization on the other side of the state just miles from the Pacific.
Due to our detour to Crater Lake and unfamiliar travel times along the backroads of sparsely populated NE California, our 6 o'clock arrival to meet Natali and her daughters got pushed back to well past 8 o'clock. Once we did arrive, we were announced by Barley, a good dog and then warmly greeted by Natali. They had waited for us long past the girl's dinner time and as promised I was good for the dinner tab at a place of their choosing. The first option was closing as we pulled in, so we opted for an Irish Pub a 1/4 mile down the road. Lana, the youngest was not doing so well, having forgone a meal awaiting our delayed arrival, but once she got some food in her, she started to look and act a lot more chipper like her sister Melanie. Natali grew up in southern Russia and was eager to know all about us, strange cousins appearing out of the woodwork. We tried to fill her in on who we were and what we were about, all the while I was eager to hear her story. Again, this was one of the many visits in this trip that offered much promise and pleasure, but was derailed by the clock and travel schedule. Natali insisted that we must come back to Tahoe and ski or enjoy the Autumn or for some reason. I do hope that it can happen.
I was so looking forward to sitting down with Norman, a fellow geologist, who makes a portion of his living as a consultant aboard research vessels around the Seven Seas, acquiring seafloor samples for contract oil and gas exploration programs - or that is what I think I understand. I had long ago pegged Norman and having the unique spark of entrepreneurship, and as I suspected he has got a lot of projects going, including his business Tahoe Maps, where he annotates and prints satellite images of interesting locations and sells them as images suitable for hanging and decorating. In fact we own one of the San Juan Islands off of Washington State, beautiful. Natalie told of their experimentation with harvesting and processing pine nut for retail purposes, and how Melanie and Norman have researched and planned for the perfect restaurant for South Lake Tahoe. All interesting people and ideas that deserved more of our time.
Natali and Norman live right next to the National Forest, and when we arrived on Wednesday, it was trash night. Which also meant Bear Night. The trash cans are placed in front of the residences and the bears know which neighborhoods have trash pick up on which mornings, so they make their scavenging circuit accordingly. Natali said they resorted to a 'bear-proof' screw on lid for their garbage can, but it took the smarter than average bear, two weeks before Natali saw her sitting with the can held between her knees and using her paws, unscrewing the lid. After the bear have picked through the refuse, the coyote packs follow and they scavenge the leaving and spread the trash across the entire neighborhood.
Because of the coyote packs, Barley has to stray inside at night, but he stood watch at the front window looking for those bad guys, while Melanie created a board game for us all to play. I was a beta tester, and ended up bouncing between a go back 7-spaces where I was instructed to move to the next red square. Being caught in that eternal loop led me to concede the game and head for bed.
We left a note of great appreciation for the accommodations provided on the kitchen table and quickly showed and left early the next morning.
We had a generous offer to stay at with my cousin Norman in South Lake Tahoe, but it fell to Norman to dash down the Sierras from his home just miles from the Nevada border to help his mother recover after a brief hospitalization on the other side of the state just miles from the Pacific.
Due to our detour to Crater Lake and unfamiliar travel times along the backroads of sparsely populated NE California, our 6 o'clock arrival to meet Natali and her daughters got pushed back to well past 8 o'clock. Once we did arrive, we were announced by Barley, a good dog and then warmly greeted by Natali. They had waited for us long past the girl's dinner time and as promised I was good for the dinner tab at a place of their choosing. The first option was closing as we pulled in, so we opted for an Irish Pub a 1/4 mile down the road. Lana, the youngest was not doing so well, having forgone a meal awaiting our delayed arrival, but once she got some food in her, she started to look and act a lot more chipper like her sister Melanie. Natali grew up in southern Russia and was eager to know all about us, strange cousins appearing out of the woodwork. We tried to fill her in on who we were and what we were about, all the while I was eager to hear her story. Again, this was one of the many visits in this trip that offered much promise and pleasure, but was derailed by the clock and travel schedule. Natali insisted that we must come back to Tahoe and ski or enjoy the Autumn or for some reason. I do hope that it can happen.
I was so looking forward to sitting down with Norman, a fellow geologist, who makes a portion of his living as a consultant aboard research vessels around the Seven Seas, acquiring seafloor samples for contract oil and gas exploration programs - or that is what I think I understand. I had long ago pegged Norman and having the unique spark of entrepreneurship, and as I suspected he has got a lot of projects going, including his business Tahoe Maps, where he annotates and prints satellite images of interesting locations and sells them as images suitable for hanging and decorating. In fact we own one of the San Juan Islands off of Washington State, beautiful. Natalie told of their experimentation with harvesting and processing pine nut for retail purposes, and how Melanie and Norman have researched and planned for the perfect restaurant for South Lake Tahoe. All interesting people and ideas that deserved more of our time.
Natali and Norman live right next to the National Forest, and when we arrived on Wednesday, it was trash night. Which also meant Bear Night. The trash cans are placed in front of the residences and the bears know which neighborhoods have trash pick up on which mornings, so they make their scavenging circuit accordingly. Natali said they resorted to a 'bear-proof' screw on lid for their garbage can, but it took the smarter than average bear, two weeks before Natali saw her sitting with the can held between her knees and using her paws, unscrewing the lid. After the bear have picked through the refuse, the coyote packs follow and they scavenge the leaving and spread the trash across the entire neighborhood.
Because of the coyote packs, Barley has to stray inside at night, but he stood watch at the front window looking for those bad guys, while Melanie created a board game for us all to play. I was a beta tester, and ended up bouncing between a go back 7-spaces where I was instructed to move to the next red square. Being caught in that eternal loop led me to concede the game and head for bed.
We left a note of great appreciation for the accommodations provided on the kitchen table and quickly showed and left early the next morning.
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