Going West

Going West Elk Grove, CA

Elk Grove, CA

Leaving Minneapolis, I took another little detour in order to stop and visit my granddaughters in the Sacramento area. The predicted snow flurries made for a tense journey through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. No little side trips to photogenic scenery stops! I did stop at the Echo Reservoir viewpoint on I-80 in Utah, knowing it would be the last safe place to stop on the gorgeous but hair-raising drive down into the Salt Lake basin.

Having read about all the rain and snowstorms in the West this year, I was prepared for things to look a bit different. I was still a bit shocked to see the Bonneville Salt Flats completely underwater! I don’t think that happens very often. This is a lousy photo taken from inside the car but you can see the reflection of the mountains in the standing water where there is usually a big white wasteland!

I have passed through Lake Tahoe years ago but never really had a chance to spend any time there. This year I got a great hotel deal in a beautiful location in South Lake Tahoe, CA. This was a bit of a sleepy little place 50 years ago, but today it’s got insane traffic and year-round crowds. I didn’t see much snow in the mountains, but there must have been some somewhere, because lots of people were clomping around this little mall in their ski boots, waiting to ride the gondola.

My hotel not only had a great view, it was within walking distance of two great restaurants. I had Indian dinner at Nikki’s Chaat Cafe, and french toast for breakfast at Heidi’s Pancake House, both highly recommended.

Leaving Lake Tahoe I made one stop in Placerville, a cute little gold rush town with a historic downtown. Then on to Elk Grove to visit my son and daughter-in-law and my three granddaughters. I got to watch Isabella in her last high school track meet (she’s headed to Cornell in the fall), and had a tour of Emma’s impressive Lego projects. Didn’t get a photo of Katherine, she was off on a mission to help a friend by a prom dress!

Sunday I headed up to Portland. My traditional stops to document the water situation around Mt. Shasta yielded some positive results. For the first time in I don’t know how many years, Lake Shasta is full of water, and the mountain top is covered with snow! This is taken from my favorite Mt. Shasta viewpoint, behind the Burger King in Weed, CA.

Now that I’m back in Portland, I’m resting up and getting ready for an exciting trip May 20-June 3– to Belarus and Ukraine, where my great-grandparents lived until they came to the US in 1903!

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