The Donner Memorial, depicting the emigrants who traveled across the US for a promise of a better future. For those who were trapped in this path, the top of the base was the level of the ‘record’ snow in 1846. No wonder they couldn’t find food or a way out of there. I appreciate their sense of survival, adventure, determination, and willingness to take a risk. Those who survived did just what they set out to do.
The interpretive center and the movie provided us with the information we needed to understand what really happened back in the winter of 1846-47. They made a poor judgement call when they decided to take the shortcut to California, based on poor information. It turned out that close to half of the people that got stranded there perished and those who survived did so by eating the flesh of their friends and persisting on the few nutrients that they got from boiling the hides of animals they either killed for food or that had died from lack of it.
From there, we took the scenic roads that go around Lake Tahoe and again, the level of the snow that remains on the hillsides and roadsides was incredible. At times, we noted roadside signs that were buried in snow. Sometimes, the signs were visible, other times, they were buried. The mountains and natural areas around Lake Tahoe are gorgeous, but I don’t feel like I would want to live in the condensed living areas surrounding the lake. At South Lake Tahoe, it was bumper to bumper and stoplight after stoplight. I can’t imagine how congested it might be during the in-demand summer season. Regardless, it was well worth the drive.
Multiple views seen along Lake Tahoe.
Tonight, we took the shuttle to the Boomtown Casino Steakhouse and we splurged on a very fine dinner. A bottle of La Crema Chardonnay from Monterey started us out and Tom chose the Prime Rib and I chose the Filet and Prawn special for dinner and we both really enjoyed it. It was even better considering that it was free $$$ that paid for it - thanks to Costco’s money back policy. We toasted to Tom’s birthday, my upcoming birthday, and our almost 1.5 year anniversary together.
My dinner.
We went to the Guitar Bar and the music was ‘iffy’ but we had another drink and gambled away a few $$$ - making a donation to the casino. It is a very nice place, clean, with plenty of options for a place to stay, to gamble, and to eat. I would definitely choose this over a big town casino in Las Vegas or Reno.
