A Weekend in South Lake Tahoe

Rob, Ender, and I went to Lake Tahoe for a few days this weekend and had the best time. It was so nice to spend a few days together with no real plans other than skiing, eating, watching Harry Potter on TV, and relaxing by the fire or in the hot tub. We don't travel with Ender very often, but it's always so fun when we do--he got to go on lots of walks and especially loved jumping in the snow.

Here are a few details from our trip, in case you ever plan on visiting South Lake Tahoe:

• Where we stayed: A magical little cabin we found on Airbnb--use this link to get $40 off your first stay. The place was perfect--a little pet-friendly studio apartment with a fireplace and a hot tub in an adorable neighborhood just a few minute walk away from a couple of restaurants. The listing has old photos so I was expecting a dumpy little place, but they've done some decorating and updated the TV recently so we were pleasantly surprised at how charming the place was.
• Where we skied: Heavenly. It was, well, heavenly. I used to ski several times a year but haven't been in a long time. These slopes were amazing--the intermediate ones were perfectly long and wide and had gorgeous views. We went on a Friday and luckily the slopes weren't too crowded. Also, you can't beat the gondola ride up the mountain. 
• Where we ate: 
  • Bear Beach Cafe: We walked here from the house and it was great. The food was delicious and the portions were so large that we brought home half of our entrees for the next day. Everything comes with a warm, fresh muffin that was worth the gluten.
  • Blue Dog Gourmet Pizza: After a day of skiing, all we wanted to do was get dinner delivered and hang out in the hot tub, so that's exactly what we did. Rob got a pepperoni pizza and I had the gluten-free pesto chicken pizza. They were great. Somehow we wound up with free cinnamon sticks but they weren't great so we ignored them (ever since we adopted keto, we want our carbs to be super worth it).
  • Tamarack Lodge (at Heavenly): We had lunch on the mountain the day we skied. The food was really good but super expensive (two beers, a bowl of chili, a burger, and garlic fries were $63)--next time we'll probably bring some granola bars or something.
  • Free Bird Cafe: This place is the tiniest coffee shop I've ever been to. They make their own chai and the whole place smells amazing. There's nowhere to sit, so be ready to take your drink to go. I got a dirty chai and Rob got a regular latte. The cafe is next to a sweet looking diner that we're planning to hit up on our next visit.

We ended up having to leave a day early because there was a big winter storm coming and we didn't want to get stuck, but two nights was better than no nights! We're definitely going to be back next year (and maybe even this summer). 

Do you ever visit Tahoe? I'd love to hear your favorite spots so I can add them to my list for next time!