Truckee

The final weeks of summer vacation arrived - uncharacteristically, I'd planned ahead, and asked for the time off from work months ago.  So many months ago, in fact, that I'd just gotten a better-than-expected tax return and vaguely thought we might finally take that family trip to Hawaii that Brennan's been begging for.  (his good buddy William goes to Hawaii every summer so he's obsessed with going too)  But the fates - and responsibilities of Our Very Small Real Estate Empire - directed us elsewhere:

Our Very Small Real Estate Empire used to consist of a bungalow in Atlanta, aka, the house I was stuck holding after the 2008 Financial Crisis.  After almost 10 years of accidental cross-country landlording, the market rather abruptly bounced back in Atlanta, and the time seemed right to sell. Which was all well and good until our accountant gave us an estimate of the capitol gains tax.  So now I know a whole lot more about a real estate transaction called a "1031 exchange", and we have a vacation property in the mountains.

What the kids know is that we now have our very own place to stay in North Lake Tahoe, and the neighborhood has two pools.  Downtown Truckee is just a short drive away, where they enjoy stuff like -

Dinner at Moody's Bistro

Hand-dipped ice-cream bars on Truckee Thursdays

Biking the path along the Truckee River

Daddy stayed with us on the weekends, and went back home to work during the week.  Poor Daddy.  On the other hand, Daddy hates hiking, so he wouldn't have been sad to miss out on our trip to Northstar.  We took the gondola as far up the mountain as we could and hiked the ski trails -

Roux included!

Roux wasn't too sure about getting on the gondola, but she was a much better hiker than the kids.  She didn't mind the heat, and she doesn't freak out when wasps buzz around.  Because what happens when you freak out and flail your arms?  You get stung.  On the neck.  Any guesses who was flailing their arms?  Luckily, we had a water bottle and some kleenex, because applying a water-soaked tissue to your injury cures it.  Alert the New England Journal of Medicine.

Other popular Truckee past-times included:

Our almost-every-day trip to Mountain Hardware, which we learned the local construction and repair guys all call "the jewelry store", which could either reference the cost of items OR the amount of floor space devoted to teddy bears over wrenches.

Inviting friends over:  Brennan did some calculations for the couch we got from Craigslist and declared that 20 kids could fit on it.  While I'm not rejecting it out of hand, I thought it best to start smaller.  We bumped into some classmates at the pool - Maddie & Aiden, plus their little brother Connor, and invited them over for baked-from-a-box brownies and watching the original "Ghostbusters".  Then we had my friends Kristen & David - their Tahoe wedding featured here for anyone wanting a blog flashback - come to stay with their 2 boys, Zachary and Theo.  We corrupted the little guys with too much screen time, including Wii sports.

Pestering adult pool chaperones for snacks.  I made the fatal error of allowing them to choose a popsicle from the pool-side freezer one day - they had me out-numbered!  Daddy was installing the fancy keyless entry lock and we weren't allowed to come home! - and Pavlovian conditioning was rapidly established:  Pool = cold sweets.

Most surprisingly, one of the most requested activities was...cardboard recycling.  I don't know if it was facing our initial challenging run:  I put the bike rack on the rear hatch door AFTER filling the back with cardboard, preventing unloading - AND the dumpster was stuffed to the gills - so we folded down Brennan's seat and Lucie passed the cardboard forward, while he & I tried to find ways to jam it into the bin.  By comparison, our next day drop at the airport was a breeze, since no one can be bothered to drive an extra 4 minutes to find an empty bin.

I'm not sure what the appeal was - surmounting the first challenge, or feeling like we'd beaten the game at our second attempt?  But they asked every day if it was time to take more cardboard.

The 10 days flew by - I thought it would be loads of time, but we barely got all our projects finished (acquiring a couch, installing smart locks and thermostats, figuring out what cabinets to put the dishes in, etc).  On our last night, we celebrated with dinner at Lucie's favorite Truckee restaurant - the Lodge at Tahoe Donner, conveniently located by the Rec Center and overlooking the golf course.  (also overlooking the tent where a wedding reception was happening, so we were serenaded by the bride and groom's first dance to John Legend's "All of Me")

Despite being what is basically a country club restaurant, the menu has some interesting items and the food is pretty good, and it was a perfect evening for deck dining a little before sunset.

And Lucie got fistfuls of after-dinner mints and new wiki-sticks, which is why the Lodge is her favorite.

No one wanted to go back - but we couldn't miss Monday, because it's the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!