Fun and Favorite eats around Squaw Valley, North Lake Tahoe
Having just spent a really enjoyable 4th of July weekend up in my small condo at the Village at Squaw Valley in North Lake Tahoe, I realized that I have had this place for over 5 years now and I have not written a blog about my favorite food haunts around here. I also didn't realize that there are so many interesting summer activities here. I spent half the day on Saturday kayaking on the lake. It was 70 degrees, yet the mountains still have snow caps due to abundant and late spring rains. I started kayaking at 10.30 am. Around noon, I noticed that many speed boats were heading towards an area with red and blue umbrellas and realized that it’s one of my favorite Tahoe restaurants - Sunnyside - which is right on the lake. Normally, I go there for dinner after a day of skiing for a terrific filet mignon or salmon with beans. Well, for this mid-day summer visit I didn’t have (car) parking issues on this busy 4th of July weekend because I kayaked all the way to the beach, pulled the kayak onto the sand (more like gravel stones actually) and walked up to Sunnyside's huge outdoor deck. After a leisurely lunch of a tasty Shrimp Louie, I climbed back onto the kayak and started paddling back towards Tahoe City, where I rented the kayak from the nice folks at Tahoe City Kayak.
I badly want to get my dog Pepper (a 10 lb shih-tzu poodle) onto the kayak for the next kayak adventure two weeks from now, so I bought a float for Pepper and will be acclimatizing him for the event – he's never been swimming. I'm going to do it first in the bath tub, then the pool and hopefully, he’ll be ready for Lake Tahoe.
At night, there was a free stargazing session up at High Camp at Squaw Valley. They do it on most weekends in the summer. Since I have a free cable car pass, I rode the cable car up to High Camp and waited for the sun to set and the stars to appear. Two very nice astronomer ladies and a gentlemen were there with their giant telescopes. After a brief introduction and some astronomer trivia, the giant telescopes were calibrated. One targeted at Saturn and boy, I must say it was fascinating to see Saturn, with a distinct ring around it and it's line of moons. Another one was targeted at Mars, but all I could see was a shiny star. It was a unique and memorable experience in the thin, cold nighttime air at 8200 feet in the High Sierra.
On Sunday, I trooped down to Truckee for their annual 4th of July parade. It was cute - a small town parade with participation from the community – from the local pizzeria, the local roofing company, youth sailing club, to the Contractors Association of Truckee. After the parade, I had a wonderful lunch at Smokey’s Kitchen where the beef brisket and pulled pork were just heavenly, accompanied by Cowboy beans and Southwestern slaw – delish!
Another of my favorite restaurants around Squaw is Pianeta, an Italian restaurant in old Truckee town. I especially like their home-made pastas and pork loin with mustard -- truly one of the best Tahoe area restaurants.
