Tahoe is awesome during the summer and D & I

were lucky enough to head up to South Lake a few weeks ago!

of course I had to bring mr. bear along for the ride…

just in case we ran into any real ones!

D had been talking about Echo Lake and what a beautiful hike it was since we first met, so I was very excited to finally do it.  And how cool is it you get to start off with a boat ride across the lake!

I loved this part when we went from the lower lake to the upper lake.

the views were just stunning

especially when you keep on climbing up and up the mountain!

 so high up actually that we hit snow, and couldn’t keep going along the trail…

I still can’t believe that there was snow in July!

 sadly we had to give up on our plans for a picnic lunch at Lake Aloha,

but luckily Lake Tamarack was below the snow-line so we headed there instead!

turn right for sandwiches!

lunch with a view

a Safeway turkey sandwich with kettle chips tastes a whole lot tastier

when you’ve hiked up a mountain and are covered in mud and dust, trust me!

N & D marks the spot

how great is this tree?

the lake is spotted with all these adorable little wooden and stone houses…

it would be fun to rent one sometime!

speaking of houses, how adorable are the shutters on the cabin?

I packed lots of silly reading

first up?  The Hunger Games

Thank goodness Sara had also leant me the second and third

in the collection so I didn’t have to wait to finish the trilogy!

we barbecued every night

our chef’s bite fell through the grating, sadness

At least there was nothing sad about the end product… our version of steak frites: filet mignon, with organic oven fries and sauteed spinach.  It was delicious!

the bbq becomes a fire pit

simple s’mores …

a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate digestive biscuits

The next day we hit up Zephyr Cove… pretty funny, there was a group of wild women behind us who proceeded to drink more and more beer as the day went on.  Classy.  I think they must have been reliving spring break 1985 or something!

That night there was a wee bit of a storm…

of course it had to happen while we were barbecuing

but we persevered and soon had a lovely meal of homemade burgers

with grilled red onion and corn on the cob

this was pretty tricky to eat

On our last day we hiked to Fallen Leaf lake, another one of D’s favorites spots in Tahoe.  We had tried to hike to it during the wintertime but it was too snowy but it was well worth the wait…

How beautiful is this view?!

And look, it was in the news recently!