Last week was Eric’s spring break (and possibly the last official spring break of our lives, unless he decides to get his PhD someday). Since I have the most flexible job in the world, we decided to embark on an epic spring break trip. And since we’ll probably never live further south on the west coast, we opted to hit up some of our southwestern must-see destinations on the way to visit Eric’s parents in San Marcos.
Our first stop was Lake Tahoe. We snagged a pretty sweet deal on lodging from Groupon (our favorite way to discount travel), so we stayed on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe. If you’re looking to visit, it seems to be a bit cheaper to stay on the Nevada side, but it looks a little nicer on the California side. Lucky for us, sleeping in Nevada let us both cross a new state off our list! We rolled in around dinner time, so after a little Yelping around, we opted for a meal at Base Camp Pizza. It was the best decision. And possibly the best pizza we’ve ever eaten. And we’ve eaten a lot of pizza.
We finished dinner just in time for the sunset, so we strolled down to the closest beach to watch.
Originally, we were thinking we’d ski at Lake Tahoe. But knowing we only had the morning for our Tahoe activities eliminated that from the list of options. Then we thought we’d snowshoe. But temperatures were in the 60’s when we arrived on Thursday evening, and the only snow around was on the ski runs. So we opted for hiking instead. We started at the Emerald Bay Vikingsholm Trailhead and just hiked for a couple of hours.
We walked down to Vikingsholm, which was one of the first summer homes built on Lake Tahoe back in 1929. It’s open for tours in the summer, but was still closed when we visited. But what a place for a vacation home. Seriously.
We hiked around Emerald Bay and enjoyed some seriously beautiful views. Goodness, a lake surrounded by mountains is about as good as it gets.
And after a morning of hiking, we were pretty hungry and dreaming of Base Camp Pizza again, so we returned (slightly ashamed) for the smoky BBQ chicken pizza, which, once again, was one of the best pizzas we’ve ever had. Like, so good that we spent the next week of vacation staring at pictures of these two pizzas. So. Good. Plus, it was warm enough (with the help of some stand heaters) and sunny enough to eat outside, which improves any meal, in my opinion. Hello, spring break!
-Ally
tokyohamster says
Beautiful photos! I especially want to reach in and grab a piece of that first pizza!
ericandally says
I’m sure most people don’t go to Lake Tahoe and return talking about the pizza, but it was that incredible!
Jakita Keehn says
Pizza and hiking a good combination? Oh well your hiked off what you ate before the hike so you needed more to replace it. Enjoyed the pics. Our email address has changed so you might want to update it on post. djjb5104@twc.com