Tahoe Alpine Adventures

After our coaster adventure was cut short in Germany, Charles found another coaster adventure closer to home in Tahoe but all the way in Heavenly. Since we had to check on the house anyways, we headed there on Saturday despite it being a whole hour away. Along the way, I noticed a new bike trail on the eastern side of Lake Tahoe that looked gorgeous and turns out it's a new 3 mile bike path  dubbed the Tahoe East Shore Trail that got unveiled this summer. Definitely on the list for next time! Also turns out there seems to be a great uphill hike from that same parking lot that should go on the list as well.

Once we got to Heavenly, we got our all adventure pass which gave us access to many activities at the top of the gondola. Straight away we headed to the coaster which was super super fun! It was a lot longer and faster than the one in Germany but it was also 15 x more expensive. Heh. But it did allow for unlimited rides. After that we hit the tube hill and the kids loooved the gem panning. Of course it helped that they seeded the gem panning with lots of crystals to find so it was little effort for much gain.

Lots of crystals to be found

Charles took the kids to the rock climbing wall afterwards while I relaxed in a chair to watch. It was Christopher's first time and he unfortunately fell just a bit up the wall and bumped himself and gave up after that in tears.

Charles and Hannah

We went to go wait for the ropes course after that and it was super crowded but we finally got on. It wasn't that big and didn't have different difficulty levels. Basically everyone just went on at the same time. It was a lot safer than the last ropes course in Zurich sthough ince there was no possibility of getting unclipped but the kids struggled a lot more clipping and unclipping. It was also pretty nerve wracking for myself with the transitions. The course itself was really scary for me. Hannah went on the wire course as the first one and I had to follow trembling in fear right after. Then when we got to the middle of the course, they had us jump and rappel off the platform which was super unexpected. I liked the Tahoe city ropes course a lot better and it was shadier.

The next day on the way home, we stopped by a bike trail in Sacramento to check out some sights. The trail itself was great. The portion in Discovery Park was shady and we ended up in old town Sacramento which was super cute (the train museum there looked amazing and we should make sure to go next time). But we also passed so many homeless people on the trail and the area had a lot of litter and trash that it was disconcerting. It's just not like the bike trails of Europe alas.