Rangers Are Badass

Monday, June 13th – Lake Tahoe to Sacramento, California - Day 122

Our morning was highlighted by a visit from a Ranger. The kids interviewed her for their junior ranger booklets and she was fantastic. She showed everyone all the tools in her toolbelt. She was a park ranger but also had the title of park police, she could perform all the duties of a police officer and was similarly equipped. She showed us her retractable baton, notepad, bullet proof vest, her ammo and pistol (she didn’t withdraw her firearm unfortunately); we got a thorough showcase of her handcuffs and taser (she even let us hear what it sounds like but declined to demonstrate the effect of a taser on a human even after i volunteered Gen). We talked her ear off for a while about her career history and role in the park before letting her go.

We drove up the west side of the lake to Tahoe City. We found street parking in front of a grocery store, ate some lunch and then headed to the Tahoe City Public Beach. The kids made friends on the play structure and ended up flying a kite. I relaxed near the water and eventually got my swimsuit on to go for a dip. The lake bottom was really rocky, I slowly kept walking out into the water but it didn’t get any deeper and I was forced to swim in a foot of very cold water. On our way back to the car, we walked the lakeside trail to admire the boats and the scenery.

We had two options, keep driving up to the north end of the lake or start heading west towards the coast. We needed to get all the way to Big Sur, a five-hour drive, so we decided to skip the rest of the lake. We started driving down the long windy roads out of the mountains. We stopped at a viewpoint where settlers heading west would lower their wagons down the mountains using ropes to get through a pass.

We drove into Sacramento to stop at Gen’s favourite buffet, The Golden Corral. It was delicious as always. With a full stomach, we headed to Julietta Winery, our Harvest Host, for the evening. We purchased a $30 bottle of wine that we intended on drinking on our wedding anniversary in a few days. The evening was very pleasant. I tried to help get a chicken down out of a tree but then settled into a very quiet spot near a creek for the night.

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