Lake Tahoe

You read about the California drought?   This is a boat dock on Lake Tahoe.

In looking around the lake most of the docks are in concrete pilings and they cannot be moved.  Instead, if you look off in the distance on the right, you can see boats anchored off shore.  People use rubber rafts to get out to their motor boats.

We are staying the the Northstar resort.  It's a ski village.  Like Stratton Mountain, but on a much larger scale.  The road system inside the village is extensive.  It has it's own fire department and transit system.  

Jan Pricelined a studio condo so we have a good rate.  I imagine this place is mobbed during the winter.  Everything is geared towards skiing although they certainly do a brisk business renting the units out to people who want to spend a summer vacation near Lake Tahoe.

Our original dinner plan wasn't going to work.  The restaurant is at least 45 minutes from where we are one way.  With traffic it could be more.  Instead, I selected a place inside the Ritz Carlton which is right next door.  

The hotel is settled into the ski mountain.  There are chair lifts all around it and some of the trails end in back of the hotel.

Last night we were treated to a live episode of Law and Order.  This night we got a wedding based reality show.  There were two weddings out back.

Both weddings took place outdoors.  In the distance, behind the pavilion, you can see an outdoor fireplace.  The people sitting under that covering are enjoying drinks or dinner.  The wedding in progress was small and is behind them.

Dinner was spectacular.  It will be hard to top the food served here.  In honor of the Santacrose family we took pictures of our meal.

We started with a grilled peach and radicchio salad.   It was accented with some sort of sheep's milk cheese and we forgot the name.  It was yummy!!!

Jan had salmon with heirloom tomatoes and green beans.  The piece on top is salmon skin.  It's a garnish.

 My meal is a pork chop with shaved fennel and apple slices served over a bed of Swiss chard and  black eyed peas.  Our entrees were delicious.  Below are two views of a dessert we shared.  It's cherries served with chocolate sorbet, pistachio flakes, crumbled chocolate bits and the back side is some sort of dark chocolate dusted with cocoa.

We were tempted to return there for brunch tomorrow, but we think once is enough for our wallet.  Dinner on Sunday will be simple fare.  We are seeing a play so we'll be dinning close to the theater.