Nothing like playing tourist somewhere you used to live!

It's an interesting phenomenon, when you move from a place, you realized all of the things that you never took the time to do when you lived there. This happened to us when we first left WA to move to Nevada, and then again, when we moved from Nevada back to Washington. There are still some things in WA that we must do (Ride the Ducks, visit the EMP...) but for now, we will have to be happy with doing some of the Nevada things on this visit, as well as reliving some of the fun that we had while we were here. Playing "chick or dude", people watching and hitting some of our favorite spots.

Since arriving, we have had a wonderful time here in Lake Tahoe / Carson City. We have had a chance to drive around (gas is under $3 here!) and see what all is new, what remains unchanged and marvel at how beautiful the changing colors are around here. Yesterday we headed out to Taylor Creek for an interpretive nature walk with Uncle El & Carol, to see spawning Kokanee salmon and hoping for a bear sighting. There have reportedly been many lately. I think Lloyd and Carol are going to go back out tomorrow morning to try again if Lloyd can get his behind out of bed. HAHA

The girls have really taken to being here at Uncle Els! Madeline came running into the house yesterday afternoon, searching all over the place saying "where are my friends?!" El and Carol have been spoiling the girls rotten with attention. Last night they were kind enough to watch the girls for us for a couple of hours while Lloyd and I enjoyed an adult dinner with Bob & Kat Riser at Fire and Ice there at the base of Heavenly. Lloyd worked with Bob at Lyon County Fire, Bob is now a Captain (yea!) and Kat is a Starbucks store manager for the Dayton store, who just made Manager of the Quarter and her store also placed 1st NATIONWIDE for Customer Voice Survey! Both of which are great accomplishments! YEA KAT! :) Afterwards, we all came back to El & Carol's so that Bob and Kat could see how big the girls have grown since we moved.

We also spent some time at Station 39 in Dayton, visiting with the folks there. They were kind enough to let the girls not only sit in the brand new engine, but honk the horn as well!

Today we spent the day really touring around town, both Carson City and Virginia City. Actually - it gave the girls a great nap in the car. We woke them up once we got to VC, and asked them if they wanted to play "dress up". Note the picture at the beginning of the post. They were both happy to do so, and really did a great job of cooperating. We also had to take a photo of them at the Camel Races sign. For those of you who visited us while we were living in Dayton, you will recall that this is a "must do" when you go to Virginia City.

We also stopped at Cave Rock for some pictures, what a beautiful fall day!

Finally, we ended the day with some time at Mills Park in Carson City, with our friends Sarah and Eric. Sarah and I played soccer together while we were living here, and then ended up having our 1st (and in my case, 2nd) babies just 5 days apart. After some play time and then of course some photos ops, the kids LOVED not only running across the little footbridge together, but insisted on holding hands, we met up with husband/father Josh at Reds 395 BBQ. Another of our favorite places while we were living here. Food was just as good as ever, service was just the same Nevada-quality that we remembered. Ahhh.... And for those of you who joined us for a meal at Reds, my mint-snaging abilities have rusted. I only managed to get 5 - and then I thought I was going to have to share those with the girls. Lucky for me, I still had a bag of "Smartees" ready for the next bribe.

What a wonderful vacation we have had, and are still having. We are planning on heading north out of Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning (hopefully after Lloyd gets a photo or two of a bear eating breakfast) and taking our time driving into somewhere in Oregon. Hopefully we will have a "trooper-free" drive home!