Saturday Night at the Grand Sierra Resort!

 Saturday night's theme? "Yeah these are fake eyelashes, what of it?" Hahah. Fake eyelashes are hilarious.

 Yeeeeeeee!!!

 After three sets were finally in place...

 And the rest of our get-ups were in place....

 We hit the casino! Specifically, the "Wet Ultra Lounge." Regretfully the dancing-girls-in-the-pit are not well represented other than the one directly behind Shelby's head. And oddly, the Tailhook thing that was happening with the Navy folks in full regalia is barely visible directly behind me. WHO WAS PHOTOGRAPHING THIS EVENT? GEEZ.

 Hee hee! Mostly the lounge was kinda a bust. We danced a bit, and there was a minute when we thought the DJ was gonna go off on a Bon Jovi turn, but it was quickly reigned in. There was a kinda sad bachelorette party sitting in the back corner, each wearing pink T-shirts that said "Marcy's Entourage," or something like that, but mostly they were men's cut t-shirts with those weird velvety cut-out letters like you might get at the T-shirt shop at Triangle Mall circa 1984.

So we took our private dance party back to our room. We realized we hadn't remembered to have dinner! We had a few assorted snacks, but with no refrigerator (or coffee maker!) we didn't have much, so decided to get some late-night room service. (That apparently we had to pay for!?! WHAT? Hmph.)

We had a lovely late dinner of pizza and assorted other bad-for-you foods brought to us by a nice man in a black vest. After enjoying our meal, we had difficulty figuring out how said vested man unlocked the code for negotiating our linen-covered table through the entryway. Yay for Fake Eyelash night!

Donner Memorial Park

The last major stop on our adventure to California (other than to the Jack-in-the-Box for smoothies), was Donner Memorial State Park, preserving the 1846-47 site of the ill-fated Donner Party, which as we all know, resulted in survivors resorting to cannibalism. Yuck.

Despite the fact that they could really use some landscaping, we took on a hushed reverence for the area, as one would be expected to do...

But one can't help but make jokes about why they didn't pop over to the Chevron Food Mart. In a hushed tone, of course.

We weren't big fans of this quote on the memorial. The quote on the back says "Near this spot stood the Breen cabin of the party of emigrants who started for California from Springfield, Illinois, in April 1846, under the leadership of Captain George Donner. Delays occurred and when the party reached this locality, on October 29, the Truckee Pass Emigrant Road was concealed by snow. The height of the shaft of the monument indicates the depth of the snow, which was 22 feet. After futile efforts to cross the summit the party was compelled to encamp for the winter. The graves cabin was situated about three-quarters of a mile to the eastward, the Murphy Cabin about 200 yards southwest of the monument, and the Donner tents were at the head of Alder Creek. 90 people were in the party and 42 perished, most of them from starvation and exposure."

Twenty-two feet? Yeeps. We were pleased we had the opportunity for this historical interpretive side trip.

Hiking to the Top!

Denim mini-skirt and flip-flops ain't stoppin' us.

We ended up hiking to here. Uh-huh. Cause we're bad-ass.

Mostly across this terrain. Click to enlarge panoramic.

Yay!

We had to take a wee break en route. What!?! We were hiking at altitude here people -- right around 10000 feet elevation! Yeeps!! White arrow? Yeah, that's our ride.

OMG. We did it! Surveying the sights.

Including Donner Lake in the background.

 Such a cool side adventure!

Let's Go on a Ladyhike!

Hey look! A big rock. If you look closely, you will see a couple of rockclimbers in the middle of that rock. We weren't down with that, but would try to to up there another way.

Ooooh! Petroglyphs!

Tiny chipmunk!!

While I love art as much as the next girl, this is kinda not awesome.

We considered sacrificing Shelby in this rock circle, but decided against it.

The last snow at China Wall. Likely a glacier from when the oceans covered Nevada...err..California.

Here it is! China Wall, built by Chinese laborers so the railroad could come through. Kind of a ton of work, really.

Hangin' by the Lake

The lake really is quite clear. My company was instrumental in the clean up and maintenance of the lake in the 1960s, the project that really put us on the map.

Tiny fish that looked like sharks!

What is it with the three of us being together and followed by weird little Moonrise Kingdom boats?

Kickin' it by the lake.

There was still snow on the mountains! The informative signage said " The water in Lake Tahoe could provide everyone in the United States with 75 gallons of water for 5 years." Really? What, was this back when we had populated the planet with only 5 billion people?

Lady of the Lake? YES!

Such fun touring about. This was the first time i'd ever been to Tahoe, if you can imagine!

Where Else Would We Eat in Lake Tahoe?

Saturday morning...breakfast! Avocadoes with a bit of margarita salt, and saltines from my purse. I brought enough to share, of course.

Then off to Lake Tahoe! Still a quiet little resort town.

When we spied Captain Jon's...where else would eat lunch?

Yes, yes. THIS i can get behind. Plus they had great fish and chips. Just can't get good fish and chips in Boise.

This Captain Jon looks slightly different from mine.

 Vacation is the best, regardless of the length.

Friday Night: Get your Country On

After a leisurely morning in Winnemucca, we made our way to the Cowpoke Cafe in  Lovelock, Nevada. Seems about right.

We were looking for vending machine tats at mini marts, but no luck. Until we found these.

And then, we arrived at the resort, where Aisha had flown in earlier that morning. We met up and made our way to our room! Yay!

Our voucher had us at the Grand Sierra Resort. Our totals came to $11 per night? DONE.

Plus they surrounded the pool with sand and called it "The Beach." Totally down with that.

Totally not down with this vat of people soup.

First up: Friday night out! Get your country on! Cowboy boots all around please!

We were ready to do it up big...until we discovered the country saloon and dance hall had closed down the week earlier to make room for the indoor pool. Hmm. Well, ok. We had a good steak at Charlie Palmer's steakhouse, and mostly hit the hay early. Woooo!

Road Trip: Winnemucca!

Shelby had a travel voucher she had to use or lose.

And this swankified ride that was in need of a-road-trippin'. So we hopped in and made our way to Reno...via...Winnemucca!! My first visit to this cultural and social Nevada hot spot.

We leisurely made our across three states in the first evening, stopping by the Old Basque Inn in Jordan Valley, Oregon. Hi Oregon!

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our $14 bought us the most lovely four-course meal EVER in this bucolic little burg. A soup course, a salad course, a lovely Basque cod dish, and wine. Yes, wine is a course. I listened to the locals rant about seceding from the union and the blasted governor for about an hour before I realized we were in Oregon. Oh right. That changes everything...

Our destination for the evening: the Holiday Motel. Hopefully you aren't confused into thinking it's a Holiday Inn. Cause it ain't.

Winnemucca is bigger than I thought it would be. but the vibe was what I expected.

I was not a fan of this mobile surveillance van tailing us. I know Christopher Robin wouldn't have approved either.