Our Trip to Lake Tahoe (and our 5th Anniversary)

We went to South Lake Tahoe for our 5th anniversary back in August for a whole 8 days. Our anniversary is the one time a year that we always have decided that we need to do something alone together away from the house. We have explored quite a few places, and I am so excited to see what else comes of our ventures throughout the upcoming years.

Let me start off by saying, Lake Tahoe is absolutely stunning!! We had so much fun and enjoyed our time together. We happened to go there during the week of the Hot August Nights Car Show. I had NO idea what this was, however my dad and Janice kept telling us it was a big deal, and that we had better get everything booked before it was gone. When I got on to book the rooms, they were right, we could not find a full week at one hotel, so we "hotel hopped" a few times.. however it was alot of fun to go somewhere new and exciting. We walked thru the Car Show for a few nights, it is amazing the money that people have to spend on all of these cars. There were alot of cool ones. Here was a classic photo of the "hot" car at the show-- this cracked me up. Some people are extra creative:

The night we arrived, we found out that Aaron Lewis (old lead singer for STAIND) was in concert at our hotel that night, so we checked on tickets, and there were still some available, so we decided to buy them and go to the concert. Little did we know what we were getting into. This concert was absolutely CRAZY! I think for the 4 hours we were in there, we maybe heard 4 full songs. He would start singing, and then need a smoke, then would take a drink... then start a new song.... most of the songs he sang, were imitation songs, like "girls just wanna have fun" etc. He was telling live stories that happened to him on his trip to Tahoe, and all sorts of crazy stuff... needless to say... it was WEIRD! Here is a photo from the concert.

A random picture of me and Riley outside a hotel, just hanging out in the shade.

Next stop was on the ski lift/tram that takes you up the mountain to a lodge and activities that you can do once you are up there. I HATE these things... for some reason I thought that with the carts being "enclosed" it would not be as scary... i was wrong.. it was death defying... I clenched onto the bars in the cart and held on for dear life. Going up was not quite so bad, as long as i didn't turn around and look that the hotels, and lake getting smaller and smaller, but coming down was a different story... i was terrified. Here is the view from the observation deck that stops half way up the mountain.

Me and Riley on the observation deck up top.. trying to get the lake in the back ground :)

Me and Riley in the tram on the ride. (Me trying to not look scared :) )

This is the lodge/resturant that they have clear up on the top of the mountain after you get off of the tram. We ate lunch up there and hung out for a few hours. They had like kids activities up here to do... like riding tubes down a mountain, rock climbing, a bound house... all sorts of stuff.. It was pretty cool up there.

This was me on the ride down... clenching to the pole. Riley was laughing at me and kept telling me to relax.. i guess i have a slight fear of heights... or maybe it is the cable that you are dangling from with 5 million other people's weights.

The view of the lake on the ride down the tram:

The Next stop on the list was to go visit Virginia City. It is an old mining town that is famous for travelers... everyone kept telling us to go there, so we made it a point to go check it out. It was really quite cool, the main street is all a bunch of business chuck full of JUNK! Literally. Riley kept saying, I can defiantly see WHY your dad and my mom kept telling us to come here.. they are junk collectors. It was a lot of fun and I am glad that we went and visited it.

This was a candy store that they had there-- it was unbelievable... so much stuff.

Next up, we went to a gun shoot out show in Virginia City -- these gun shooter guys were walking up and down the streets to advertise about their show... they looked pretty cool, so we decided to pay to go to it -- it was a retarded show... that a bunch of crazies (all in the same family) put on.. lol good thing it was only $5 to get in. You never know unless you try... right?

Next up, was the drive around the whole Lake Tahoe. We stopped at a few sites to see, but there are SO MANY tourists there, that alot of the times you can not get off of the road or find anywhere to park, because it is so full. Here is Emerald Bay -- it was absolutely beautiful.

Here is a picture of the castle at Emerald Bay

Me and Riley with a picture of Emerald Bay in the background:

Next up was a day at the beach, this was our actual anniversary day. We decided to take it easy for the day and enjoy the beach and sun. This was the beach at Zephyrs Cove:

Me and Riley on the beach... just enjoying life together:

Well, another story, while we were on the beach we decided we had better pack up and head back to the room, as we had a sunset dinner cruise booked for the night. Riley kept asking if i wanted to go walk along the beach from one end to the next... i kept telling him no, i was fine just sitting on my rump enjoying my people watching. I think he asked 2 or 3 times... i guess i should have taken the hint from that. We we loaded up and i started walking back to the car, when Riley said, Oh man, i forgot to ask you to marry me -- (we had joked earlier, MONTHS earlier, about me wanting a proposal on the beach, and how romantic that would be, which all came from watching the Bachelor on TV) He said, well give me your ring, so I can propose, and i was like NO, the idea was to get a new ring... joking of course-- and OUT he pull this brand new fancy ring... i about fainted.. I had NO idea that he had hid this from me for this full week long vacation. (literally 5 days of being together 24/7) Of course, our original proposal, he NEVER asked the question "Will you marry me" -- i found the ring in his truck on the way to a hotel for my birthday, and he kept saying, So, So, Whats your answer... Although, this time around he did say, Natalee M, will you marry me, and continue to be my wife.. lol He is the best! I love him so much! Here are a few pictures of the new ring... he picked out all on his own, without me ever knowing he was missing :)

Our next venture, was our Sunset Dinner Dance Cruise, which was booked on purpose on our anniversary night. The dinner was absolutely great, the only thing that was weird, was we had to sit at an actual dinner table with another couple, which our couple spoke VERY little English... so it was a little awkward. But after dinner, then you get to to to the top of the boat, and over look while it is moving and do whatever you want... the middle floor of the boat had a live band and dance floor to dance on. I must say, we had a blast and enjoyed the cruise--- we would defiantly do it again. (I even got 1 slow dance out of Riley.. that is a miracle)

This is a picture of the Emerald Bay castle that i had a picture above earlier. The cruise went around the island in Emerald Bay:

Me and Riley on the top of the cruise boat:

Us on the boat showing off my new RING!

We had so much fun together, and I can not wait to spend the next 100 years with him!! Actually we are getting closer, we have plotted that when we are 85, that we are going to take off in an airplane and crash us so we can both die together... no one wants to be alone... right. I love Riley, he is my everything... Here's to another good year (and years to come)!