It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

May 2 - 6, 2013 (5 days) Tahoe Valley Campground, South Lake Tahoe, CA

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RV LIFE:
I woke up this morning and put Devin outside and...it's SNOWING!! I love it!

We are finally in greener landscapes. I see beautiful pine trees, our site is covered with a bed of pine needles, and now snow. I'm so happy. Enough of the desert. I miss snowy winter days. 

Yesterday, we actually had a rain & thunder storm. We haven't had a good rainfall in months. Today we welcome snow. It was a beautiful morning. I opened up all the shades and had my morning coffee enjoying the view. I'm glad we weren't traveling today. The weather soon turned to more rain. It was nice while it lasted. 

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CRAFTS:

I crocheted these cute little flowers to add some interest to the cardigan I made.

But since I'm frogging the cardigan, now what do I do with these?

I mentioned before I was re-using the yarn from a cardigan I made and didn't like. Instead of taking the time to make another sweater out of acrylic yarn, I'm going to use this yarn for more practical purposes. I have plenty of nice wools stashed in many little hiding places in the RV. Time to start using the "good stuff".

This is one thing I made with the acrylic.

No, it is not just a doily. 

I'm using it as pan protectors for non stick frying pans. I was using old kitchen towels, but this looks so much prettier.
This pattern is really supposed to be made out of cotton and used as a dishcloth, but I like my idea better!
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RESTAURANT REVIEW:
Passaretti's Itallian, South Lake Tahoe, CA
Our rating 3 out of 5
This restaurant is right outside the Tahoe Valley Campground where we are staying, so we walked to dinner.
Cozy little restaurant. Very relaxed atmosphere.
Even though our meal came with a decent loaf of italian bread and a scoop of softened butter, we ordered
Garlic Bread: Don't bother. Just tasted like toasted italian bread with melted butter and a hint of garlic.
House Salad: Nice combo of veggies with romaine, sliced carrots, cukes, beans, grape tomatoes. But the house/italian dressing was bland, bland, bland. No seasoning and I don't think they dried out the lettuce, so it was also watery.
Clam chowder: Nice and thick with plenty of clams, but bland.
Spaghetti Marinara & meatball: Large meatball with little seasoning, but still pretty good. Marinara was very good.
Manicotti: The menu gives you an option of a half portion for $3.00 less which I opted for. The half portion was perfect for me. Unfortunately, the manicotti was a disappointment. The marinara was very good, but I never tasted the pasta, ricotta, or spinach. The mozzarella melted on top overpowered everything else. I was able to distinguish in one bite the pasta, which I think was home made. Too bad I couldn't have tasted more of it.
Cheesecake with Berry Sauce: I suppose the berries change according to what is available. We had raspberry sauce. It was fresh and delicious. A huge, high piece of cheesecake. I thought it tasted slighly stale but hubby really liked it.
Tiramisu: I ordered this because of the good Yelp ratings. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. It was just average. Not great, but not bad.
I think the prices were a little high for pasta, but we are in a resort town, so I guess that should be expected.
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SIGHTS:
I think of seen too much.  We took a ride down to Tahoe Keys where there is a nice path to walk to the shoreline. So there it is, Lake Tahoe. Ok. Yes, it's beautiful, but no more so than many other places I've seen. The backdrop of the snowcapped mountains really does add a special framing to the lake.
We took a ride along Emerald Bay Rd. and that was very enjoyable. Lots of pine trees and log cabin type buildings.
I originally was thinking of going on one of the many Lake Tahoe cruises available. But when really thinking about it, we opted out. Again, maybe I've seen and experienced too much. Growing up 3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in NJ, I've had quite a bit of outings on the Ocean, on the Bay, on the River.  I've gone deep sea fishing and caught a Bluefish, I've lost my lunch on another fishing boat trip, we floated along the Shrewsbury River with a beautiful view of NYC in the distance. I've been to New England and taken a fall foliage cruise on the Great Lake Champlain, as well as a Caribbean cruise. I don't see the need to cruise Lake Tahoe.
I wanted to tour the Tallac Historic Museum, but again, we're too early. It doesn't open until mid May.
This is a very pretty area of the country and I'm glad we visited, but time to move on to hopefully cheaper prices.

Friday Evening Farmer's Market, Stateline, NV
Our rating 4 out of 5
This was only about 7 miles from our RV, which is good because I wouldn't drive far for this market. Granted, this was the first event of the season, so not much of a vendor turnout, but still enjoyable and made quite a few purchases.
This is an outdoor market, held in Kahle Park. We brought our dogs along for a walk in the park and just to get out. As we entered the outdoor farmer's market, we were turned away. No dogs allowed. Huh? You can bring your dogs to outdoor cafes, what's the matter with an outdoor market? It's not so much the market's fault, Kahle Park does not allow dogs in the park at all! Double huh? I thought the further West we went the more dog friendly. A park that doesn't allow dogs?
So in this case I'm glad the Farmer's Market was small. Scott & I took turns shopping, while the other stood by the truck with the dogs, waiting to be told to leave (never happened).
Fresh citrus fruit available, home made bread, fresh veggies, and cupcakes.
We picked up some bing cherries which were nice and sweet. Also picked up some whole wheat raisen bread, which make a great bread for tuna or egg salad sandwiches. The same vendor with the bread had huge whole wheat oatmeal raisen cookies. Yep, a 6 pack of those too. I bought a bunch of multicolored baby carrots. I thought maybe they'd be sweeter than regular carrots.

I steamed them up with some dill and topped with some butter spray. They were good, but I wouldn't say sweeter than regular carrots. I would call them milder than regular carrots.
We picked up 3 pints of huge, red, sweet California strawberries. Yum!!!
And lastly, the cupcake vendor, Tiny Cakes Cupcakery. I have no willpower. They had a choice of 4 flavors, so I took one of each.
In general ALL the cakes were dense and moist which I really like.
Chocolate chocolate chip w/dark chocolate buttercream: Deliciious. Great dark chocolate frosting, and a dense dark chocolate cake. Only negative, the chips were at the bottom of the cupcake and stuck to the wrapper.
Carrot cake: I felt the cake was a little blah, but the icing was delish.
Fresh Lemon: This was my runner up. Great lemon flavoring.
Blue Velvet! (Vanilla bean cake with fresh blueberries and vanilla bean frosting): MY FAVORITE! The blue color draws your eye. This is a simple white cake with bits of FRESH blueberries throughout. Delicious, delicious!
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MOVIE REVIEW:
I Love You, Man, 2009, Romantic Comedy
My rating 5 out of 5
Very cute movie. A "nice guy" (Paul Rudd) is engaged to be married. His fiance has her bridesmaids lined up but he has no male friends, so no groomsmen to balance out the bridesmaids.
So Mr. Nice guy is in persuit of finding a man friend (Jason Segel).

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WHERE WE'RE GOING:
May 7, 2013 (overnight) - Kelly's Family Kamground, Upper Lake, CA
May 8 - 19, 2013 (12 days) - Azalea Glen RV Park, Trinidad, CA
Crater Lake, OR
June 14 -23, 2013 Armitage County Park, Eugene, OR

OR, ID, WA, MT, ND, SD, WY, then south for the Winter of 2013/214