Trip 2005 - Lake Tahoe

The plan was to stay here for the night because apparently Lake Tahoe is a very popular resort for vacationers and tourists alike. People flock to this mountain retreat year round - in the winter people can enjoy it's countless ski hills. In the summer it's lake is used by boaters. Year round old people can gamble in its casinos. And people that are just passing through can stop in and buy things and keep the tourism industry chugging along. Lake Tahoe is just like Wisconsin Dells, only with a little more class.

Even though it was only a 2 hour drive from Sacramento, we must have wasted a lot of time getting here, because it was nearly dinner time by the time we arrived in town. We tried to check into the hotel that Dad booked for us, but it turns out that there are two of the same hotels in town (I think that the hotel was a Days Inn, but I'm not sure. See what happens when I don't write things down?) We kept on driving into town, then finally found the right hotel. Out tummies were rumbling, so we each found a restaurant that suited our individual needs. Sarah went to a sushi place called the Naked Fish, which serves items from the sea without clothing. I wasn't allowed inside because I have a staring problem and a juvenile sense of humor. Tim took the safe route and went to Subway and got his cold cut combo Jared-sized. I opted for a brand new eatery called Taco Taquiera, and got much more than a quesadilla and a few tacos. Hanging out at the Taco Taquiera that night was a older gentleman named John. John was, well, crazy. He spoke fluent Spanish and fractured English. He was chatting with me and flirting with the girl behind the counter at the same time, so when I did understand what he was saying, I never knew whether or not to answer him. He was talking about some really crazy stuff and he was being very outrageous with his behaviors and tone of voice. It got to a point where I was afraid for my life, so it sucked that my order took forever to get made. I didn't have any reason to leave, so I stood and listened to this John character for a good 10 minutes. Once my tacos were ready, I booked out of there like the road runner, leaving a cloud of smoke behind me.

I saw this store and immediately fell in love with it. It had the finest knickknacks this side of the Mississippi. It was then that I caught the name and thought to myself, Alpacas don't have any advantages, except that their fur makes warm sweaters, socks and blankets. In fact, I think it would be a disadvantage to own an alpaca. 

I took a picture of one of the ski slopes because I wanted to show you that they actually do exist and I wasn't making this stuff up. Also I wanted to say that this is the closest that I will ever get to a ski slope again because I don't fancy flying down a hill with slippery plastic things attached to my feet with no brakes and a chance of death involved.

When we checked into the hotel, there was no one in the lobby and it was littered with old typewriters and miscellaneous boxes of junk. There were at least 3 mangy cats wondering around the lobby, and it stank like a junk yard with wet cats. We didn't know what to do to ring the desk clerk (this place looked like someone's living room instead of a hotel lobby) so we waited for a while until someone came. In the meantime, the phone rang and no one answered it, so we sat and waited some more. Finally this lady came (her cats must have told her that someone was there) and she checked us in. Tim and I wanted to check out the hot tub, but Sarah was too scared to go in. We honestly thought that someone would come in and murder us while we were relaxing. You might think that I am exaggerating, but to be quite honest with you, even I was reluctant to go into the sauna because then we would be enclosed within an area that we couldn't see out of. We sat in the hot tub, but kept our eyes open the entire time, always looking for someone coming with a gun or knife with murder in their eyes. We were also afraid of someone really turning up the heat on the hot tub and boiling us alive, so we only stayed in the tub for around 30 minutes. We dried up, looked around for murderers, then made our way back upstairs.

I honestly believe that we were the only 3 people staying in this hotel. I never saw anyone else while I was walking through the halls, nor were they any other cars parked in the parking lot. I also did not hear any noise coming from the other rooms, and that only added to the terror striking through our hearts. This hotel looks like it hasn't been updated since it was built in the 1960's, and it terrified us even more when we started making comparisons between this hotel and the one in the 1980 Jack Nicholson film The Shining. Despite making comparisons to the movie, I have yet to actually see it. The basic plot line is this - Jack Nicholson gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, and Jack and his family are the only occupants of the hotel. When snow storms block the family in the hotel, Jack's son Danny discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. He then freaks out and wreaks havoc on his family. Shows such as the Simpsons and Family Guy and movies like Toy Story and Scary Movie have made references to this film. You'd recognize scenes from this movie once you actually see it. Regardless of whether or not you have seen the movie, you can still emphasize with me for our scary night in the hotel. At least Hook (1991) was on TV, which made us smile especially when Peter was remembering who he was. You're doing it Peter, you're doing it! BANGARANG!!!!

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