August 1989-Tahoe #6

I have a couple of new readers to my blog. In case you are wondering why I am posting ancient pictures of my family, it's because I'm doing a series on all of the vacations that we have taken and how much each one has cost. It started out as a way to tease Hubby about his insanely annul record keeping in which he has the dates of every vacation we have ever taken and how much it cost. I have to eat a little crow now though, because I am having a lot of fun walking back down memory lane. Looking at pictures, remembering what happened on each trip and wishing that we could take a vacation for that cheap now. We are currently up to August of 1989. Our family spent two weeks at our favorite hang out-Lake Tahoe.

Every time that we would take the kids we would try and do something new that they hadn't done before. That is, of course, until we had done everything there was to do and had to start over again. This year was no exception. We decided to go to the Ponderosa Ranch. It was based on the television show Bonanza. The original show was actually filmed in Lake Tahoe. You could tour the ranch house from Bonanza and stand in the Cartwright's living room or peek into Hop Sing's kitchen. When you went to the Ponderosa you could walk down the street of what was supposed to be an old western town. They had shops, museums, old western buildings and places to eat. If you got there first thing in the morning, you could ride a hay wagon up to the top of a mountain and have a pancake breakfast. We decided to do that this particular year. It was cold and we bundled up for the hayride. We had no idea what to expect. About halfway up the hill there was a staged robbery of our wagon and a bag of money was taken from us. The driver of our wagon shot the 'bad guy' and he fell off of his horse. He was laying on the ground holding the bag of money. The driver asked my 5 1/2 year old son to get off of the wagon and retrieve the money bag. Being the brave little boy that he was, he eagerly complied. As soon as he bent down to grab the money bag the 'bad guy' grabbed his hand. My son jumped a mile, but he didn't let go of the bag. He ran back to the wagon like someone had lit a firecracker underneath him!



The rest of the wagon ride was pretty uneventful and we arrived at the pancake breakfast. This quickly became tradition. The food was so good and the view was amazing. There is nothing better than hot pancakes, sausage links, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate and fresh juices on a cold morning. After eating, you could either ride back down on a wagon or hike down. If you hiked, you just might see a few deer. Once back down in the town, no visit was complete without purchasing a tin cup with an icy drink. If we timed our trip right we would get to see a western show complete with a gunfight. At different times both of our children have been chosen to participate in the show. Here is a picture of both of them with one of the cowboys.



That year we also rode the cable car at Heavenly Valley up to the top and did a little hiking. Below are a couple of pictures of us taken at the top. The one of myself and the kids got torn taking it out of the album, but I'm going to post it anyway.





Back then, school always started the week after Labor Day. We usually took our vacation the two weeks right before that. When we left the lake we were well rested and ready to start the school year. This year's cost....$435.00. Next vacation...February 1990. Skiing in Brianhead.