Only one week to go!!!

I know it has been way too long since our last vacation (almost 3 months) so we really deserve this one :o).
Some of you know what a mess our vacation planning has been. We have considered majority of the world... starting with our favorite pick - Thailand - but they started to demonstrate and do similar crazy things that made us reconsider. Then we moved on to Cambodia and Vietnam but we weren't all that excited by it. Then Egypt came into play... but we realized that in order to do it right it would cost way too much money so now finally, for many reasons we have finally decided to visit Nicaragua, Guatemala & Belize and we are both very excited by these countries. Chris has already been to Nicaragua and loved it. He also has an extended family down in Managua that we hope to visit with for a lil bit and I would love to meet them. After that we will fly to Belize City where we will meet up with Erinn & Patty - spend a few days in the jungle and head to Guatemala - Tikal to see the ruins. We will finish our trip on the Ambergris Caye relaxing and diving the second largest barrier reef in the world. We won't be taking our computers but hopefully we will have some way of updating this darn thing. If not... we will have to catch up once we get back. Stay tuned....

Bushwhacking - Part 3

We didn't really have a plan for the last day of our trip. We had some ideas from the map but we were not really sure whether the hikes would be worth it or not so we decided to seek an expert advice from the local ranger station.... yeah... that worked out well! Let me just say that one shouldn't expect any help from those guys. After this unsuccessful attempt we started yet another hopeless quest -the search for coffee. The one shop that we found the previous day was closed on Mondays and that was THE only shop in town. Luckily we were able to seek out one lil stand by the road that was able to provide us with this life saving liquid.

On the way towards Downieville we stopped by Sardine Lakes - a hike that we found the previous day online. We thought we remembered the trails from the map... but we realized that maybe our memory was not serving us so well when we found ourselves bushwhacking around the lake. We made several efforts at looping the lakes only to finally give up and settle down by the Upper Sardine Lake for a nice lunch, wine & dip in the crystal clear water.

We stopped for a lunch in a very cute miner town of Downieville. We got sandwiches, bottle of wine and took our chairs and umbrella down to the beach by the river (well actually in the river) and had a wonderful and relaxing afternoon.

Nine Lakes in One Day - Part 2

Ok back to our anniversary... the second day.
On the second day of our trip we found a beautiful hike in the Gold Lake vicinity - The Bear loop with Round lake extension. All together about 8 miles. This hike was nice, relaxing and relatively easy - not much elevation gain. One thing we have learnt though - is to do the loop counter to the direction we did it. Our problem was that we hit all of the lakes in the first part of our trip and then we had a big gap at the end where we didn't see any lakes and just walked through the forest (Zoe wasn't a fan of that one). If we were to do it again we would have started with the forest part first, at least that way we would feel like we've deserved the lakes that much more. I think that day we broke our record - nine lakes in one hike and they were all beautiful (Big Bear, Little Bear & Cub Lake - get it the the Bear loop? then Long, Hellgrammite, Mud, Silver, Round and Gold Lake). We also started to work towards our goal of having a nice cold white wine with us for our lunch break. This time it still go little warm... but at least we had it. Next time - thermoss may be in order! (work in progress).
We finished the wonderful day with nice apptizers in a surprisingly great restaurant - The Longboards in Blairsden (great atmoshpere and beautiful views of the golf course and the valley) and of course... great wine.

Our Anniversary Getaway - Part 1

Unfortunately, our anniversary fell on Monday so in order to truly celebrate it we had to take the following weekend off and have some fun. Chris planned the whole thing and he did a wonderful job at it. At first we couldn't decide where to go... Monterey, Mendocino, Wine country..... but in the end - Sierras won as there is really not all that much to do around the coast, well besides sit and drink on the beach, which is ok too... but the dog doesn't get as much exercise.
We decided to mix it up a lil and not go for the usual Tahoe area. Instead Chris researched the area around Graeagle (nope not misspelled... that's how it is, some book keeper came up with that name - took Y out... and made this.. got to love accountants huh?) Graeagle is in the Plumas National Forest (about 40 minutes north on 89 from Truckee). The whole area is a golfing and hiking paradise (the first was lost on us - although the restaurant on the golf course was fabulous) but the hiking... we did love - tons and tons of lakes all over.
The first day we stopped on the way up to do the Sand Ridge and Five Lakes Basin trail. It was a moderate hike with spectacular views and plenty of lakes (Carr, Feely, Big & Little Island, Long, Round and Milk Lakes - and many more unnamed ones) for Zoe to swim in. After the hike we went to find our cabin in Blairsden where we arrived lil after 6 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing... and of course... drinking.