Really Taking A Break...

[Lord Jim]

As I believe I may have mentioned (once or twice, or 100 times) The 4th Of July is also my daughter's birthday...

And this also happens to be her 16th birthday....

So we arranged to rent a group of cabins some months ago, at South Lake Tahoe for family members and a group of her girlfriends...

And being the kind of "cool dad" I am, I even invited her boyfriend...

(Though I made clear to him he'd be bunking-in in my cabin... and he's seen my Walther... he hasn't decided yet whether he'll be joining us... )

Right on the lake beach, a pool, our own Jacuzzis and grills...and a short distance from the downtown and casinos...(if one's inclined to want to shop or gamble)

Fireworks that we'll actually be able to see...(unlike in this July cloud-ridden burg...)

What's not to like?

We're leaving on the 2nd and coming back on the 9th...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Though I made clear to him he'd be bunking in in my cabin... and he's seen my Walther... he hasn't decided yet whether he'll be joining us...

I'd think twice if you showed me your Walther... PeePee 'K is it?


ETA sounds great! Have a good time

[Gob]

Have fun all.

[Long Run]

Enjoy.

It is always very cold on that lake shore in the night, but we had plenty of blankets and were warm enough. We never moved a muscle all night, but waked at early dawn in the original positions, and got up at once, thoroughly refreshed, free from soreness, and brim full of friskiness. There is no end of wholesome medicine in such an experience. That morning we could have whipped ten such people as we were the day before -- sick ones at any rate. But the world is slow, and people will go to "water cures" and "movement cures" and to foreign lands for health. Three months of camp life on Lake Tahoe would restore an Egyptian mummy to his pristine vigor, and give him an appetite like an alligator. I do not mean the oldest and driest mummies, of course, but the fresher ones. The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? -- it is the same the angels breathe. I think that hardly any amount of fatigue can be gathered together that a man cannot sleep off in one night on the sand by its side. Not under a roof, but under the sky; it seldom or never rains there in the summer time. I know a man who went there to die. But he made a failure of it. He was a skeleton when he came, and could barely stand. He had no appetite, and did nothing but read tracts and reflect on the future. Three months later he was sleeping out of doors regularly, eating all he could hold, three times a day, and chasing game over mountains three thousand feet high for recreation. And he was a skeleton no longer, but weighed part of a ton. This is no fancy sketch, but the truth. His disease was consumption. I confidently commend his experience to other skeletons.

Mark Twain, Roughing It.

If you are hungry like that, pass the touristo Red Hut and head to Ernie's at the Y.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Enjoy Lord Jim. I'm heading up to the lake house on the 3rd. The bar owner across the lake (licensed pyrotechnic) is having his usual tremendous display on the 4th at the firehouse property (right across the street from teh bar). And the firehouse is having a big bar-b-q to go along with the fireworks. Admission is $10 a head all you can eat.

[Gob]

Admission is $10 a head all you can eat.

Never eat anything bigger than your head.

[Long Run]

You haven't seen the buffets at the casinos.

[Lord Jim]

We're primarily planning on a lot of barbecuing, but one evening I'm definitely heading over to Boomtown... with anyone who cares to join me...

I never hit the Tahoe/Reno area without stopping in for their all-you-can-eat lobster:

http://boomtownreno.com/famous-lobster-buffet/

[TPFKA@W]

When I have had lobster on a buffet or all you can eat style I fine the quality suffers significantly. Vulcanized lobster-ugh. So how about this place, is it fairly fresh?

[Long Run]

I'm not going to say the better casino buffets are as a good as a good restaurant, but they are better than an okay restaurant, and really should not be thought of in the same category as the typical buffet-style restaurant. The casinos can provide the food at break-even of even a loss because of their main business. I haven't been to Boomtown, but it must be good if Jim is willing to drive an hour and half there, and 90 minutes back.

[Lord Jim]

When I have had lobster on a buffet or all you can eat style I fine the quality suffers significantly. Vulcanized lobster-ugh. So how about this place, is it fairly fresh?

@W, it's been my experience over the years that while the lobsters aren't huge, (I generally put down six, though part of that's because when it's -all-you can-eat you don't dig for every bite; I just go for the easy meat in the tail and claws) they taste pretty fresh...not rubbery or "fishy" tasting...(I've come across that on a couple of cruises)

Probably because this place is famous for it and they do a huge volume, they're constantly having them shipped in...

[TPFKA@W]

Six lobsters? You glutton. I bet you jog past the salad bar don't you, mumbling that salad is for suckers? Anyway, I really prefer just to order and eat the tails. Lobsters are unprepossessing creatures and I assume any presentation offered of a full lobster will scream giant cockroach to me. So let me know when they have a buffet of just the tails and I am in.

[Lord Jim]

I bet you jog past the salad bar don't you, mumbling that salad is for suckers?

Well of course...

Who the hell would fill up on rabbit food when all-you-can-eat lobster is on order?

[Lord Jim]

Well, everybody else is either up there on the way , and as usual I'm bringing up the rear...

Last minute work things that needed tying up, and shopping to do, but I should be on the road in the next couple of hours... (though at this point, I'm seriously considering leaving at like four tomorrow morning, because I'm sure the traffic is going to be godawful trying to get out of the Bay Area at his hour...)

[Long Run]

Safe and fun travels!

[Guinevere]

Have a great time and Happy sweet sixteen, Tati!!!

[wesw]

have fun jim!!!!!!

when I lived in MA the people were quite shocked to see me pick the rest of the lobster meat after I had polished off the tails and claws....

[BoSoxGal]

People who know how to eat lobster always pick it clean, in my experience. The leg meat is sweet divinity if properly cooked so it's not an issue of how many lobsters you can afford.

[wesw]

yeah the leg meat is good, the body meat not so much. I even pick the legs in blue crabs if they are big enough.

[Lord Jim]

Having a surprisingly little amount of family drama and a pretty good time...(though of course some family drama...)

Boyfriend decided not to come with us, (not because of me...or my showing him my Walther,...or that I'm a disciplined, trained assassin killer who could kill him and make it look like an accident...he knows that was I was just joking about that... )

But for a much more logical reasoning...

"I don't want to spend the weekend with my girlfriend's girlfriends .... "

Perfectly understandable reasoning...

What teenage boy (or any male) would want to spend six days with his girlfriend, and five of her closest friends...

Being the only guy around their age ....

Not one...