The morning to leave Utah came so quickly, even though I had the worst insomnia stint that night.  Robert on the other hand, was way too tired, but was ready to get a morning head start. We left around 7ish, hoping to get to Lake Tahoe by early afternoon.  We had about 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us; but what we hated more was to face the first 2.5 hours of drive through Utah. The night before, we checked google map and saw that we again will have to go for hours without towns, service or rest area. After 20 minutes of civilization thanks to the Salt Lake City metro area, again all we saw was sand, This time, they look like dried salt fields, as far as the eye can see – panning to the sandy mountains.  The eerie, overcast skies didn’t help our travel through this barren land.  I think the only structure we saw was this crazy thing that was tall that look like a tree of balls.  We took pix of it, coz, it was so unusual.

When we are getting near the border, we start to see glimpse of buildings among the sand, of course, that would be in the Nevada side.  As we crossed the border to Nevada, we finally took our first break at the land of casinos and buffets. West Wendover, the first exit, have a few casinos, that were decent looking that of course advertised buffets.  Took the time to get some breakfast at the McD’s and we were off again.  Even though it’s not developed region, Nevada, proved to be much more “happening” place than Utah.  There were always some type of town or some signs of civilizations every 30 -40 miles of nothingness. Signs for “ranches” were also amusing.  Robbie said that each rest area boast some slots if the weary traveler need to feed their gambling needs.  We didn’t make any gift shop stop but did put gas a few time, but we did enjoy the different landscape the drive brought us.

We passed by the Reno metro area.  I was so amazed how in a decade the place has changed from the dilapidated gambling mini-city of my younger years to a more modern metro area. When we are finally about an hour from Lake Tahoe, we again encountered some crazy steep driving to get to North Lake Tahoe and our resort – Hyatt Lake Tahoe.  We even video taped some of the crazy winding road, which brought us some spectacular views.  When we finally got to Hyatt, Robbie really liked the cottage feel of the resort.  They welcomed us with some champagne but with some bad news. At first they informed us that for some reason they did not have any more rooms with King Size Beds, but alas they find one.  When we got to the room, we were a little disappointed at the view of our scenic view room but to we thought that that was the only thing available.(next day – couldn’t take it anymore we were able to fix this and finally got the room we deserve.. bad front desk in this hotel though.. I wanted to strangle them)  Aside from that it was really situated in a very scenic area. We were both tired, so we opted to just go to the restaurant in the hotel which served a very delicious luau buffet with hawaaiian music and dancing, and not to mention a roast pig. After dinner, we tried our luck ih the Csino but retired to our room early to regroup after the driving that we did for that 2 days.

The second day at lake tahoe, brought us poolside and lake side. I thought the pool would be much more warmer than it was. Even with the sun beating on your back and over head, my teeth ws sill chattering when we were in the pool. My fave was the hot tubs they were more quiet and they gave the heat that I needed to keep myself from shivering as we laid under the sun to dry up.  After drying up, Robbie and I went to the other side of the resort, to finally see Lake Tahoe up close. It’s one spectacular view that no words I may use today could not describe the beauty the beauty of the surrounding mountain and the clear lake.  i went right next to the water and went up to my ankle in the cold freezing water. Robbie on the other haand, took a dip in the 62 degree Lake Tahoe. He said it’s refreshing, as I thawed my numb foot and ankle. Simple italian dinner at the restaurant followed by some time in the casino ended our 2nd day in Lake Tahoe.

Our third day in Lake Tahoe, we ventured to drive the scenic route to South Lake Tahoe to Harvey Casino.  We collect Hard Rock glasses from each Hard Rock so we had to pick our Lake Tahoe one.  I found a lucky Star Trek slot which quadrupled my $20 – twice. It was fun too! We rested and pack the rest of the day so that we could have an early morning departure from Lake Tahoe.

The next morning brought a short drive to Sacramento.  We got there in about 2 hours, only because we encountered during our descent from the mountain.  We got some Jack in the Box before going to see the family.  The family cooked and bbqued for our arrival. My mom was very happy to see us, and have cooked my favorite food – Kare Kare (peanut based meat dish with chinese long beans & eggplant), among other things like lumpia (filipino version of eggroll).  After having lunch with the family, we took our godson to Toys ‘R Us for his birthday presetnt.  He was so happy there, and he even got a birthday balloon and crown.  Sacramento was so hot considering the highest temp in Lake Tahoe was in the early 80’s. Despite the heat, there was minimal humidity so it was bearable.  My friend since high school, Tracy, and her family came down and visited. The babies were so cute and had a good time playing in the yard. Family also had some cake for my belated birthday and for graduation + cake for our godson’s birthday. To top it off, they had a filipino dessert – Halo Halo topped with some Ube Ice Cream (shaved ice with milk and some tropical coconut-based fruit + sweetened beans).  The cake was incredible – it was from a Filipino Bakery – Red Ribbon.  They got the Variety Kind with 4 different flavors. Everything was good.  We topped the night with a very noisy game of Password. We got so into it (women v. men –> women came back from 4 point deficit to beat the men) that at one point Robert fell off his chair. At least no injury or broken glass – just lots of laughter.  We ended the long day at around 11pm at our hotel – The Hyatt Place in Rancho Cordova, 5 minutes from my relatives house.

Next day, we slept in and then spent more time with family.  Robbie got some great massage then we were taken to Thunder Valley Casino. Great Buffet. Not much time for gambling, as we were flying out that night. I got a short massage, but was told we had to go. We got to the airport on time, only to find out that our flight is delayed 3 hours. I never saw so many people napping at the gate, as I did that night. People were laying on the floor and just made make shift pillows out of clothing or bags. I think we were the last flight to leave tha 3:30am. The last stores and restaurants closed at 11:30pm.  We were so tired, the 5 hours in the airplane flew by and when we woke up we were about 30 minutes away from JFK.  At about 3:30pm on August 13th, after picking up Lily, our cross country road trip finally came to an end.  We closed it by getting some well-deserved sleep with our Lily!

P.S.

Lily was a bit upset with us for two days, but that place did take a good care of her.  She’s now back to normal – as hyper and as crazy as she was when we left :)

We had such a great time this time, that after a day or two, here, we already planned another trip in the near future of going cross country again with a different route(NJ to San Diego), a south eastern road trip, a northeastern road trip (NJ – Maine) and a northwestern road trip (OR, WA, Vancouver).

-Paula