Week 52- Welcome to the Lake

We’re headed for Tahoe! We spent the morning packing, working out and cooking some food before picking up Alfred and heading North to Nevada. The drive took about 2.5 hours but it flew by (with a slight detour) and we reached the beautiful Donner Lake. We were staying at Dom’s family’s cabin and it was pretty spectacular! A cabin doesn’t really do it justice, with the pictures showing best. They had a golf cart, 3 bikes, 2 kayaks and a jet ski to go with it. When we arrived the others (Dom, Sarah, Katie and Nakoa) were gone to lunch so we took the golf cart for a spin round the neighbourhood to view some cabins. After this we went to jump off a bridge, swim and throw the frisbee. On our way there Nakoa’s brother and his girlfriend arrived. They caught up with us on their skateboards and we messed around for a while until the lunchers also came to swim. We chilled at the cabin for a while with Kaola getting high on weed using his bong. He then managed to burn his throat so I had little sympathy.

Sarah wants to be a chef once she leaves college so she had us working well to prepare food for our BBQ burgers for dinner. Sadly, Alfred managed to burn the sweetpotato but otherwise it was a fantastic meal. By the time we finished eating it was sunset so we headed to the bridge to watch. Somehow, we all one by one got into the lake. I warmed up in the shower after and hung out playing silly games, telling jokes and fireside stories. I went to sleep on the sofa around 01:00 when Dom, Sarah, Katie and Nakoa went off in the golf cart.

Monday 9th July, for some reason, in the morning, Quinn decided that I had visited his room during the night and lain down on the floor for an hour. It was of course untrue but he was absolutely adamant that I had. We watched tennis in the morning and Alfred cooked us breakfast. After Nakoa had dropped off Katie and the weed heads went paddle boarding the remaining 6 went for a hike. I wanted to walk some of the Pacific Crest Trail and go lake hunting. We hiked for about an hour and a half before finding the stream I was looking for and began to climb up until we came to ‘Flora Lake’. We all stripped off and swam out to a rock in the middle of the lake. Here we sunbathed and ate lunch. When I was suitably afraid of getting burnt I swam back and with some difficulty, put up my hammock to read. I’m not sure how much time passed but eventually the others were ready to hike out.

Reunited with the hut, Quinn took a nap, some people went to get groceries for dinner and I put up my hammock once more. When they returned from shopping I helped prepare the food for dinner- Tacos. Sarah made great asparagus and courgette on the BBQ and it was another delicious dinner. The weed heads decided to go home with their tails between their legs and their burnt throats. As we didn’t make it to the caves the previous night we decided that that would be the entertainment for the evening. Armed with torches we climbed over rocks to get to the old railway tunnel. It was very long, dark, musty and full of bats but it was fun to explore and we kept it light hearted with our singing. Every so often we could go outside to see the stars. When we returned we decided to watch ‘The Shining’ but we only managed to watch about half before falling asleep.

Tuesday 10th July, I was first up again and did my workout while I waited for the others to rise. I read a bit of my book in the sun with Quinn while munching on toast and Nutella. Alfred decided to go for a run so Quinn, Nakoa and I followed him for about 2 miles in the golf cart, hollering abuse. Eventually we could go no further and tuned back. Dom cooked a mince, egg, Mexican thing for breakfast while we watched Belgium sadly lose to France in the world cup. Itching to get moving after all the sitting I persuaded the group to do some more of the PCT thought they got tired after an hour and wanted to turn back. From there we rather comically used the golf cart to go to the beach with 2 kayaks.

The broken shoulder men that were myself and Quinn went swimming and threw the frisbee from platform to platform before playing plenty of ping pong. We snacked as the day went on and ping pong was the main activity until I convinced everyone to go back to the platform so I could throw the frisbee at/to them from the shore. I certainly had a great time. After we had all showered and warmed up we drove up the valley to catch the sunset from on high. A quick stop dinner and then it was time for Quinn and I to head home. Back at Napa, Heidi hadn’t unlocked the door as we had asked so we ended up waking Sabine, unfortunately.

Wednesday 11th July, when we first woke we watched the tennis where Federer lost to Anderson. We were slow to get going which meant we were late to collect Ignaz and his two friends from the airport, though we did solve the 12 ball riddle. On the way back we learnt Nadal beat Delpo, sealing my fate in the bracket. We caught the end of the England vs Croatia match which Croatia won, thankfully. Samantha also joined us for lunch. After we ate, we played more die and ping pong before walking to a park to throw the frisbee, ‘play’ baseball and we also played three flags up. Quinn and I always won. Once we had freshened up, we played hearts, tulla and president. Lindsay joined in and Moon was not very good. Quinn took charge of the chicken for dinner and Samantha joined once more, bringing with her a two-year-old Christmas present for me. After Dessert we played cards against humanity. Apparently, I’m hilarious! Time for bed.

Thursday 12th July, it was my last morning in Napa so Sabine made blueberry pancakes specially for me. I packed up, worked out and then Alfred came to say his goodbye. The ‘tourists’ wanted to get In-and-Out for lunch so Quinn and I ate at home. From there we drove towards SFO. The boys got their burgers and then we packed up and walked the full length of the Golden Gate bridge. The cyclists were annoying. We kept up the tradition of spitting off the edge. We continued our tour, raiding the free samples in Ghirardelli square, saw Lombard street and wandered around. Ignaz got swindled by two black guys for a terrible CD which we listened to as they dropped me to Elliot’s. It was an emotional goodbye to Quinn and then he was gone. Elliot is the American frisbee player that I bump into all over the world. While I waited outside his place there was an explosion down the street that didn’t seem to bother anyone but me. After an hour or so Elliot arrived and it was fantastic to see him again. After seeing his place we went to an authentic Mexican eatery to get burritos and catch up. I heard all about his Asia trip, his studies and what it was like playing pro frisbee. After, we watched baseball at his place so I could embrace the American spirit before Elliot had to leave to the airport. He was going to pay to get a 'Lift' but I suggested I could drive his car home. So that was how I found myself driving a big Jeep around SFO on my own on the wrong side of the road. It was pretty terrifying but I made it safely back and went to bed.

Friday 13th July, I was first up in the flat which was strange considering I didn’t know any of the people who were still sleeping. I plonked myself down on the sofa and watched the second longest tennis match in history where Anderson overcame Isner 25-23 in the fifth set. It was pretty dull tennis but I was glad Anderson won the 6.5 hour marathon. I had some cereal and did my exercises, as well as researched about hikes and booked my bus for Connecticut. All of this took place while the Nadal-Djokovic match was happening. It was a truly incredible match but it had to finish with Novak up 2 sets to 1 because of the Wimbledon curfew. Luckily this was just as I needed to leave for the airport. I walked the 45min to the BART, only getting slightly lost, to get to the airport. I thought I was cutting it tight but there wasn’t much of a queue at the airport so it worked out fine. I wrote for the entire plane journey (until my pen died) and then I walked to the baggage claim to see my amazing friend Charlotte. I was so happy to see her face. We drove to the ferry, catching up along the way, ended up waiting over an hour for the ferry but soon we were on Anderson island where she grew up. Her dad collected us in a crazy old car and we discussed hikes at their northern house before shooting to their gorgeous southern house to sleep.