It’s hard to take a bad picture of Lake Tahoe, not that I was trying to.

We were debating this morning where to go – should we spend the day again in San Francisco and try to see Alcatraz, should we go to Lake Tahoe just for laughs, drive 3.5 hours to Yosemite National Park, which also meant another 3.5 hours to get back, or simply spend the day at home as a cheap rest day? After weighing the pros and cons of each, in the end Lake Tahoe won the day. It was only a little bit longer to get there than San Francisco and would surely be more relaxed, and likely more interesting as we’d already done the highlights of the bay city. Staying home would be too boring and a waste of good weather. And Yosemite was just too far a distance it would have been exhausting in the least. So off we went, with little expectation, good spring weather in the horizon, and enough time on our hands for a freewheeling commune with nature.

Since I’d been to Lake Tahoe before and could barely recall any interesting details about it, my motivation for going was to satisfy Teko’s desire for a long-distance drive to someplace he’d never been yet. As with L.A. and San Francisco however I’ve been very lucky to discover some new and exciting things I missed out on before. The drive first of all seemed to be more beautiful this time around – the mountains even this late in the season were still snow capped, which gave off this fairytale alpine glow. The roads were completely manageable we barely encountered any heavy traffic. And did I say that the weather was perfect – 70 degrees and sunny. Teko was having the time of his life driving the twists and turns up and down the mountain while I was sitting pretty in the passenger side either napping or writing about our trip.

After stopping by some breathtaking vistas along the route – I would have been happy for our trip if only for that – we finally reached the lake which the region is named for, specifically the southern part, and could only marvel at how big and clean and lovely it was. The drive going there and the whole area surrounding the lake seemed to all be very well maintained, and I was relieved and grateful at the thought. I’ve been living in Europe for almost ten years now and have been inclined till recently to put down most things about the U.S. One thing that would certainly change is that while the history of this country pales in comparison, its natural beauty is on par if not on a league all its own. It was a wonderful trip to Lake Tahoe today – and I’ve got the pictures to prove it.