Lake Tahoe - 2015

6-24-15

We left the house at about 10:00 AM and stopped for lunch at the Buddhist monastery in Ukiah for a tasty vegetarian meal.
The house, Mr. Big and the foster cats, Dusty and Rusty will be taken care off by Doris's house guests Skip and David. Skip is a retired college professor and David a retired high school teacher. They are involved in the Golden Rule project.

Dusty and Rusty live in the garage and have to be put in a cage when the garage door is opened. Rusty took off several times but she came back when it was feeding time.

We arrived at Mary Beth’s house, in Fairfield, near San Francisco, at about 4:00 PM. Mary Beth is one of Doris’s best friends.

Mary Beth has a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home. It has a lot of windows and sliding glass doors.

At the end of the backyard runs a small creek. There are large trees and bushes and the landscaping is pleasing to the eyes.

The front door has a cast steel outer door which is matched by an opening in the opposing wall with the same cast steel design.

Mary Beth has her own paradise here.

After the tour of the house and garden we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

6-25-15

I woke up at 5:00 AM. Doris had left the sliding door in the bedroom open and the peacocks, who are roaming the neighborhood, made a lot of noise. The birds in the trees were chirping too. I rested for the next two hours.

In the morning we went shopping. Mary Beth bought Garage Sale signs. I have a feeling the Lake Tahoe trip will be a working one. I had planned to show Doris the Vikingholm Castle on Emerald Bay.

Early afternoon Mary Beth went to her physical therapy session. She had a hip replacement and still has problems moving around.

When she came back we packed the car. We had to move the back of one back seat forward to get a small ladder and some other items in the car.

In Vacaville we stopped at Kohl’s to buy some sheets for one bed. By then it was past four o’clock and the traffic on I-80 towards Sacramento was atrocious.

We arrived in South Lake Tahoe at about 7:00 PM and went straight to a restaurant which specializes in spare ribs. We all ordered a full slab so we had leftovers.

Then we went to Mary Beth’s house. It is another beautiful home. It is spacious and Mary Beth likes to decorate and it shows. Her daughter and husband have a house here. When they retire they will move here. They live now in the San Francisco area. Mary Beth will then move here too. In the mean time the house will be a vacation rental house. She has two more rental houses in Eureka.

This house has four good size bedrooms. The master bedroom has a large tub and a large shower.

6-26-15

Today was a work day. We cleaned, painted and helped move a new hot tub from the delivery truck to the back of the house. The driver did not have to do this, he only had to drop off the merchandise on the drive way, but Mary Beth talked to him and he agreed to bring the hot tub to the back.

It was not easy. The fork lift had small wheels and we had a difficult time in the grass and sand at the side of the house. I was pushing and Doris was on the side keeping the hot tub from falling off the fork lift.
This was not good for my back.

We also drove through the neighborhood and attached garage sale signs to posts.

Mary Beth has furniture and other stuff for sale. Some of it came with the house.

6-27-15

This was another work day. We moved the tables with the stuff on the drive way and got ready for selling.

Mary Beth had bought three television sets; I flattened the boxes and put the small packaging papers and plastic in garbage bags. I did the same with the boxes for the new BBQ grill and other items Mary Beth had bought. The garbage bags we can put on the side of the street, but we have to take the flattened boxes back to Fairfield. It seems they have no recycle center here.

The dining room table with six chairs did not sell. 

Mary Beth wants to hand over the house to the vacation rental company starting with the 4^th of July holiday. She could get $ 500.00 a day. I do not know whether we get the house ready.

We are leaving next Tuesday. The hot tub has to be still installed. The slab was finished this morning.

6-29-15.

Yesterday and today were working days again. I would have liked to have at least a free half a day for going to Vikingsholm Castle. I went there two years ago and was more interested this time in the hike one mile down to the castle.

The hot tub was moved in place today with people power. The guy brought three steel pipes to be used as rollers. They were too short. Luckily the gardener had not installed the poles for the new planted trees. We used the poles and they worked fine. 

 I had to go to the store to get some paint and drove along the lake. It was a beautiful sight. People were walking. I would have liked to stay there for a while.

This was not a pleasant experience. When we moved the hot tub to the back yard I hurt my back and I am still in pain. I get headaches very seldom, but the last couple of days I experienced them.

I did not say anything and just kept on plugging away. I am glad when we get home so my back gets a rest.

Doris was going again like gang busters. She cleaned, put new linens on the beds, prepared the meals and was unstoppable. Mary Beth cannot do much right now.

6-30-2015

Today we drove back to Fairfield. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and then enjoyed Mary Beth’s backyard.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading home.