Can things get any better than I had imagined? Yep. I wanted to see snow and boy did I get to see snow....well not falling snow. But huge deep piles of snow. We left our beautiful little room after a night of minus 8 degrees. Which actually didn't feel as bad as it sounds because there was no wind and plenty of sun.
Check out the photo of the pool area at our Resort it was so cool to sit in the Spa with all that snow piled up around you. We wimped out on going for a spa during the night..it didn't actually snow, so we used that as an excuse!
Lake Tahoe was a hard place to leave, we both enjoyed it so much. But the forecast was for incoming rain and snow for the next 4 days and we didn't want to get snowed in when we had a survey to do on Thursday and rooms booked and paid for in Alameda. We thought about buying chains, but again wimped out. So instead we left South Tahoe and drove up along the west coast of the 80 km long lake. Crossing into Nevada as you leave South Tahoe. It continued to be breath-takingly beautiful and picture worthy. So lucky I got that new digital camera in NZ!!
The water is so clear and the lake is about 1400' deep at the deepest point. It must be lovely in summer too. But so cool to see snow right down onto the sand! As we got to the northern end of the lake the snow seemed to get deeper and deeper. The snow sitting of houses looks like layers of blankets sitting on top of each other. And the way homes have to carve out their driveways and footpaths to the door is incredible. The last stop of snow frolic for us was Donner Lake, apparently infamous for when the pioneers were crossing the pass to find California, they got stuck there due to the snow and ate each other!!! I think this was what was really worrying Geoff about us getting stuck at Tahoe in the snow with no chains.....that I would eat him!!!
After throwing rocks onto the iced over Lake Donner, which seemed weirdly too much fun, maybe reverting to childhood here....we drove out on the highway towards Sacramento. And as we did our mood dulled, then depressed. It's just depressing after being in such beautiful scenic snow covered areas. The sky seemed to dull with our mood and by the time we got close to Sacramento it was raining! Geoff had been driving all day so we got through the city freeways and stopped for the night at the town of Fairfield. Which we found out the next day was a MAJOR Airforce base during the war. Our Motel last night was rotten, it was full of noisy dudes who seemed to be up to some mischief of some type. So I was a bit unsettled, and poor Geoff had to deal with a backed up loo that overflowed onto him in the bathroom this morning. The toilets over here are weird they have so much water sitting in the bowl you think you are going to get a wet butt!!
So, after that unpleasant start we drove on through the western hills of San Fran area and back into Alameda. Checked in with our brokers that all was go for tomorrow's survey. Tried to get some cash from the bank but, it had just been held up and as we couldn't get into our Motel. The checkin times over here are 3pm!! we went to a greasy spoon Diner called 'Tilley's' for lunch. Fast Food over here is actually not that cheap, we paid $5.40 US for a hotdog, then add tax and convert to Australian and it's pretty expensive. However the food was really fresh and the place was sort of funky cause of how old fashioned it is and the older waitress was just so lovely. Which, we found out when Geoff came back from the loo, to tell me then her that he had backed up the toilet!!!!!! Oh my god, what is American food doing to his system? And how will the poor little manual pump out toilet on the boat handle this? The waitress was really sweet to him and by the time we were paying she patted his arm and told him he just hadn't pushed the handle down far enough. Poor Geoff. I think he will be forever nervous to use toilets over here.
Engine survey has been done and all looks ok with it and tomorrow we will see what the survey brings. If that is ok we still have the formality of change of title, which must be done at sea if we are to not pay Californian Property Tax. This means before we can take ownership a Captain has to sail the boat out of San Francisco about 8nm to a bouy then record the GPS position, the date by way of a photo of the days paper and then when it returns we can take possession and remain in the country for 60 days to gear up. It's bizzare, we keep saying can't we just prove we are leaving by showing our Passports and temp visa's? But nope, so that could delay us moving onto the boat, particularly if the weather worsens. Which is what it is forecast to do for the next 5 days :(
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