Tue, 8/23/11:
Goose Meadows NF Campground, Truckee, CA:  Up early this morning—for us anyway.  Crawled out at 7:00 a.m. because I booked us on an 80-foot yacht, the Sierra Rose.  Had to drive over to the western shore and needed to be there by 10:00.  We left before 9:00 and just made it.  We shoved off at 10:30.  This was the most pleasurable day.  There were only 16 people on board and a crew of 3.  And instead of stripping this boat down and putting in all kinds of chairs to fit more people, the boat was in its original, luxurious state.  A beautiful salon, an afterdeck with lounging chairs, and the bow had a divan, chaise, and a table with chairs. There were three staterooms—a master suite with two baths, and two others with twin beds and its own bath.  Most of us were on the upper deck outside.  And they let people smoke up there.  Mike was very happy.  We sat with a couple of girls from Chicago who were smokers and had a great time.  Had several drinks from the bar onboard  and they served a great lunch of beef and chicken kabobs, rice pilaf, Caesar salad, fresh fruit, and brownies.  We were on the lake for 4 hours.  We saw a bunch of historic boats go by—mostly woodies, and the captain gave us a great history of some of the homes and establishments on this beautiful lake. One of the homes was the Fleur du Lac—the home that was used in Godfather II.  We also cruised into beautiful Emerald Bay.  A perfect day on this beautiful lake.  Back to our site and relaxed the rest of the day.

Main salon

Aft of the main salon.

Way up on top.

Vikingsholm Castle--built in 1929--Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

The only island on the lake, owned by the owner of Vikingsholm Castle

A little tea house built on the island by the mistress of Vikingsholm Castle.  She took guests out there by boat.

Fleur du Lac--Mansion used in Godfather II

According to our Captain, this is a very rare sight on Lake Tahoe.  It's a 1930s era racing boat, built out of aircraft quality aluminum.  It's very fast.