Lake Tahoe Here We Come

Imagine my delight when 6 hours into our drive from OC to Tahoe, my husband reminds me that I can access high speed internet from one of the laptops in the back seat. He borrowed someone's with a Verizon Broadband Wi Fi card (or whatever it is called), and now I'm blogging while he's driving up the I5!

Lucky for me, when I checked my RSS feed from Bloglines, the second article was about there still being time to ski at Lake Tahoe, our destination for today.

I put our ski gear away in January, and thought we wouldn't get it out again until next year. Luckily for me, I received an inquiry a few weeks ago from a fellow vacation rental owner via Great Rentals. I'll be staying at her cabin near Northstar, and she'll use my vacation rental in Palm Desert at a later date!

I'll give you my own review on her Enchanted Cottage and Northstar at Tahoe in a few days.

One week later...

I hadn't been to Lake Tahoe in nearly 15 years. I really can't figure out why I hadn't been back?! The lake is clear and beautiful. The skiing is good and reasonably uncrowded...now with a great place to stay, I've got no excuse.

Our hostess, Marci, made her North Lake Tahoe cottage truly enchanted. The cottage was thoughtfully appointed, appropriately themed and decorated, and perfectly cleaned and stocked. We loved the fireplace, the outdoor hot tub, and the in house washer & dryer. She even had snacks stocked for us after the long drive. I found myself envious of her ability to personalize and welcome each guest uniquely, that comes with living nearby her vacation rentals.

Our skiing at Northstar at Tahoe was typical spring skiing. The top third of the mountain was great packed powder, which turned to mashed potatoes as we moved lower. Northstart has great potential, but the infrastructure just wasn't quite there. It took more than an hour to get from the skiier dropoff to the top of the mountain. The mountain was crowded and the staff was short. Though we enjoyed the mountain, it was certainly evident that they were closing in a few weeks. Regardless, we viewed this trip as a gift! Skiing in mid April - I'll take it.

Unfortunately you won't see us buying and renting out a vacation condo at Northstart any time soon. We took a serious look, but at 1.6 million for one of the least expensive 3 bedroom village units - well, it's out of our league! Let us know if you buy one, we'll stay next time.