Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Weekend Getaway- Lake Tahoe & Reno





















Last weekend, we made a road trip to Lake Tahoe and Reno. On a sunny Saturday morning, we loaded our car with a bag full of food- idlis, tomato chutney, capsicum rice, potato curry, curd rice and snacks. Carnatic music CDs from India, ipod and the camera went in next and we started our 4 hour trip to Lake Tahoe. Since my parents were accompanying us and i wanted to horne my freeway driving skills, special K let me sit behind the steering wheel and took charge of the audio controls.

After a brief stop for a breakfast of idlis and hot coffee at Starbucks, we made it to Lake Tahoe at noon. This is my first trip to the lake and i was awed by the size of the lake, it seemed to stretch forever, as long as the eyes could see and was a shining blue. We played in the water for a while, ate lunch and drove to the local beaches.

Later around 3 pm, we drove to our hotel in Reno, checked in our bags and walked around the downtown area where the casinos are located. The streets outside had a cheap and poor appearance, though once one enters a casino, its all very different. Cigarette smoke, perfurmes, food odours etc. inside the casino make you aware that there are no windows inside. We played ths slot machine and won and lost some money, $20 investment for all 4 of us.

My mom was taboo to playing with any more hard earned $$$ and so we ended up going back to our lousy hotel room to eat rotis and sabji that we had brought from home. On Sunday morning, we drove back to the newly opened Southern Spice restaurant on El Camino Real in Mountain View for a father's day brunch and got home afterwards.

Recommendation- Visit Lake Tahoe during the summer for a nice day trip and probably spend a night there. Reno isn't worth a visit.

More about casinos on my next blog after my coming weekend trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

5 comments:

tt_giant said...

Nice recount. I heard Lake Tahoe is known for its watersports.

LOLed at "lousy hotel room"!

Take care - GC and Las Vegas would be soooper hot! Don't miss hoover dam.

Balaji said...

"Reno isn't worth a visit" - i think reno is defly worth a night's visit. its a nice alternative to vegas since its so close(relatively speaking) and the bright lights r always a nice sight. i think your "lousy hotel room" spoiled ur whole experience for u! i'll make sure i don't stay there :)

those r ur fotos right? the reno strip foto and the 2nd lake tahoe snap look great...

so, what did u think of southern spice??

mitr_bayarea said...

ttg: Yes, am looking forward to GC trip.

balaji: reno wud probably be ok for a night's visit as an alternative to Vegas, but, i don't see myself going back to the place we stayed in.

Southern Spice was ok, my folks liked it, but i would still go with some other places like Passage to India bakery, a small desi place on Lytton Ave in Palo Alto etc. as better choices.

Sachita said...

Tried out any water sports in lake tahoe?

One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Suprised you had not gone earlier!

You know me:)

Marutham said...

Hello Mitr,
Remember? I remember ur ID so well!! Very interesting Id...Have seen u some very long time back. Saw ur Id while bloghopping :) So came back here to give a visit. How are u?
Yeah nice suggestions!! Wonderfull pics too..