Girls Trip – Lake Tahoe 2017

The last few years, we have decided to keep it low key and just spend a few days in Tahoe instead of traveling far.  It has been really nice to keep it simple and close.  We have really enjoyed ourselves.  We stayed at the Zephyr Cove RV Park, which is right across the street from the beach.  You can’t go wrong, especially now that I have a paddle board.  The girls decided to leave early afternoon on Thursday to make it up to Tahoe before dark, to settle in, and to begin the festivities.  This always begins with a cocktail or two or…..

We decided to stay in the first night and play games and drink.  It was a relaxing evening, and we even got Steph to belt out a tune (with Poppy).

And Chef Steph making an amazing meal

The next morning, Steph made us breakfast and mimosa’s

The next day, we planned to go to the beach and paddle board.  Stephanie’s friend Marianne came over from Reno for a visit.  She brought her paddle board so we all were able to enjoy the water.

That evening, Stephanie (our amazing chef) made us a wonderful paella for dinner and we played cards and many drinking games.

The next morning, we had mimosas and an amazing breakfast made by Chef Steph.  

And then onto some lunch…

We spent the day hanging out, drinking, relaxing and play games.  That evening, we went to town to check out Scott’s friends night club/restaurant.  We saw some of Scott’s old friends, who were generous on the drinks :)~

These girls trips are always a good time.  A great time to relax with the ladies.

After getting home, we had to continue the food fest.

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Clios Rivers Edge Camping/Dual Sport Ride

Another camping trip in the books at the Rivers Edge.  Love love love this place.  It is a great area to ride the street bikes or the dirt bikes.  Sometimes it is hard to choose whether we bring the dirt bikes or the street bikes.  This time, we brought the dirt bikes.  We didn’t do a lot of riding this trip but we did ride to eat :). We tried a lot of new food spots this trip, which we enjoyed.

We did take a ride up into Plumas National Park where we have been a few other times.  It is always so beautiful.

Some yummy food at Cuccia’s.

We had some of THE BEST pizza I think we have ever had in Blairsden.  It was SO good.  A must have.

After that, we took another quick ride up in the mountains.  Can’t help but take in the breathtaking views.

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Trip to Murrieta to Pick up the KTM 350

There always comes a time when you need to upgrade.  Scott has put so much effort into making this dirt bike the best it can be.  He wanted it to be perfect before I even set eyes on it.  We decided to take a road trip in the RV down to Murietta to pick up the beauty.  We arrived to So Cal on Saturday at KTM of Murietta.  I was so excited to see this bike.  I rode it around the block and was already in love.  We spent some time there at the dealer making sure she was perfect.  And she was.  I was so excited to be bringing home my new toy for the stable.

That evening, we thought we would catch up with Hugh and Joan so we rode to town from our campground and had dinner with them.  We walked the old town and had a great evening.

We were also able to meet up with Tony for some brunch!

On our way home, we had to stop and have some Harris Ranch for an early dinner

This was a short trip but it was for a new toy that I would take on some great adventures.

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Sunday Drive to Muir Beach & Mill Valley

We decided to take a nice, leisure Sunday drive to Muir Beach and Mill Valley.  We visited the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center which was beautiful.

We had an awesome brunch/lunch at the Pelican Inn.  The restaurant daily menu is a hearty blend of country English fare that included bangers & mash and shepherd’s pie.  They had a great variety of cheeses also.  Very tasty.  We took a stroll from there to the beach.  It was a beautiful day.

 

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4th of July Camping – Graeagle/Clio

It seems to be an annual tradition that we have 4th of July at the Rivers Edge RV Park.  This is our “go-to” place for some great camping.  Ted joined us this trip.

Graeagle puts on a great fireworks show.

Graeagle also puts on a parade which was a lot of fun.  Bob and Pat (whom we have friended at the park) really wanted us to come watch the parade and live music with them.

 

Bob and Pat have become some great friends of ours.  That evening, we were able to get tickets to see an old country star, Lacy J Dalton.  That brought back a lot of old memories of me singing her songs.  Love her now as much as I loved her then.

It isn’t camping without a little bit of card playing!

And some homemade lunch… paninis and fruit salad.  Yum

And our beautiful babies enjoying their naps

That evening, Bob and Pat had us over for Happy Hour.  They love to entertain and we love to have them entertain us.  They are known as the Bickersons.  They have been married for over 50 years and are so adorable.

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Ducati West Coast Meet 2017 – Topaz

Our annual Ducati West Coast Meet was in Topaz Lake.  We booked the Topaz Lodge and had a great group of guys (I am always the only girl).  The last few years, we have taken our motorhome, but this year we decided to ride.  I am really glad we did, like old times.  We made it to Topaz pretty late that evening.  When we arrived, there were about 4 others that had arrived early.  We hung out with them for a bit until it was time to turn in.  The next day, we decided it would be fun to take Sonora Pass over to Sonora to have some lunch at Diamondback Grill.  This was a great ride with some amazing roads.  There was a total of 5 of us (Scott, Jess, Victor, Bill and John).  We came back the same route because it was very warm.  

That evening, John (RedPato) and his son cooked up some delicious burgers for us at the hotel.  We sat around and chatted with all the guys until it was time to turn in for the evening.  We would be up early to meet for breakfast and decide on another ride route.  Today we decided that we would ride to have a little lunch in Lake Tahoe.  We would take Monitor Pass, through Kirkwood and down to Tahoe.  We had a great lunch at the Riva Grill with everyone (total of about 10 guys).  Then we would head back over Monitor back to the hotel.  The ride back was some of the best riding I have ever had on my RR.  I was in such a groove that I left all the boys in the dust.  Sorry boys!

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Havasu Falls, Arizona Trip

This trip is one of those “Once in a Lifetime” trips…  We booked this trip with our great friends Jill and Justina.  We flew to Phoenix, where they picked us up at the airport.  We spent the afternoon hanging out with them and then we drove to Sedona where we had a great dinner and took in the breathtaking views.  

We knew we needed to be up pretty early to drive to the Havasupai Trailhead to meet up with the group.  We were there bright and early as we knew we had a 10 mile hike into the Falls.  It began at about 8am and we were off… boy were we in for a treat.  

Honestly the 8 miles into the village did not seem like 8 miles, the first 1/4 of the way was downhill and the rest was pretty flat through the creek beds and beautiful picturesque landscapes.

Can’t help but share these amazing photos of the landscape!

We made it to the village where we stopped and checked in with our group, BG Wild, who we would have dinners with, hike with, hangout with.  It was a great group of folks who we got to know very well throughout the trip.  From the village, it was another 2 miles or so into camp.  This was still mostly downhill/flat area (we thought to ourselves, it was a good thing we got the helicopter ride out of the canyon).  We came upon our first set of Falls and couldn’t believe what we were seeing.  This was beautiful turquoise waters…

Right before our camp, Havasupai Falls showed all its glory to us.  What a beautiful site this was..

We made it to camp and found our spot to set up our tent.  This is a first come, first served area.  BG Wild does have a group area where we all congregated for meals (#1 camp in Supai).  The guide, Mikey, is a health nut who has his own Paleo food company, so he provided us with scrumptious breakfasts and dinners throughout the trip.  The downside was that lunch was not provided, but when you are out on the trail all day, it is hard for them to provide you a lunch when you don’t all stay together.  They do provide you with lots of snacks to take with you.  The next day, we decided to take a long hike to Mooney Falls and beyond to Beaver Falls.  When we arrived at the steps to descend to Mooney Falls, we didn’t realize that you would be descending down through rocks and ladders held on by chains.  It was quite intimidating at times but was surely worth it to see the breathtaking views…

Once we made the full descent, we waded in the beautiful waters and got to know some of the other peeps in our group.  We met two awesome chicks from San Francisco, Julie and Sophie and met an awesome couple, Jessica and Andrew from Colorado, along with a few others that were traveling as couples and as singles.  Mikey our guide was a hoot, along with Marisa, the massage therapist.  

We then continued on through the plush trees and landscapes that took us to Beaver Falls.  We would have never guessed this amazing landscape could be in the middle of the Grand Canyon Basin.

Jill and Justina!

The evenings sitting around chatting with our new friends was surely a highlight of our trip.  Getting to spend a few days with Jill and Justina and getting to know many new people was a treat.  We listened to great stories and it was so nice to meet people from all over the US, who have now become great friends of ours.

The last evening, we thought it would be great to go take some night shots of Havasupai Falls.  Come to find out, Ricky planned to propose to his long time girlfriend at the Falls that evening. Scott took some amazing night shots of the Falls.

Night Timelapse

Our last day was an early morning.  We decided before the trip, that we would take a helicopter out of the canyon instead of hike back out.  Come to find out, it is a first come, first serve to get a helicopter ride.  We were up at about 4am to make the 2 mile hike to the village where we would stand in line to sign up for the helicopter (helicopter ride out of the canyon is approx 10 minute ride).  We were pretty close to the front of the line when THE local that you sign up with showed up.  This is when everyone swarmed him and that is when we realized that it is a free for all and there is no line.  We ended up 4 pages back on the sign up sheet.  We expected to be the 5th flight out, at most the 10th flight out of the village since we were so far up in line.  It was a cluster and the biggest shit show ever.  We ended up sitting around ALL DAY and not getting out of the canyon until about 3:30pm.

We still had to drive to Phoenix to make a flight back home.  We ended up missing our flight but we were able to get on the later flight, thank goodness.  The upside of missing our flight, we were able to hang out with Sophie and Julie at the airport for bit before our flight.

All in all, it was a great trip with great friends.  Word to the wise…. Hike out of the canyon next time, you will make it faster than the helicopter, wear moleskin on your feet so you don’t get blisters and wear the best hiking boots possible so you don’t lose 3 toenails.

UPDATE: It is now November 2017 and my toenail has not fully recovered and is still growing back :/

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Skiing at Squaw Valley

We have Sierra passes for the ski season.  With the pass, they give you 4 tickets to Squaw/Alpine.  We decided that there couldn’t be better weather than today.  Clear blue skies with a crisp breeze, we couldn’t resist.  What a beautiful day it was.

 

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Daffodil Hill Motorcycle Ride with Ted Shred

Always a good time with Shredder.  We decided it was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride.  When I first started riding motorcycles, we attempted a ride to Daffodil Hill.  That actually never happened due to my first motorcycle crash.  Fast forward about 10 years and I finally made it to Daffodil Hill.  It was a great motorcycle ride and such a beautiful day.  Here are some photos of Daffodil Hill.

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Death Valley National Park, March 2017

This annual Death Valley trip is one for the books.  With some awesome friends who travelled from afar, to so many awesome rides and trails, it was surely a trip to write home about.  So many beautiful landscapes, some picturesque moments and what is a dirt trip without some gnarly crashes.  We have some amazing photos to share with you.  Sit back and enjoy.

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