Tahoe Vacation

Wednesday July 2, 2008 Phase Two Day 72:
Today we are off to Tahoe – Yea. But there are things to do before we leave. First, one boiled egg down and off to walk with friends. When I got home, I churned and burned to get ready for an 8:00 appointment at the office. A made it all right but the appointment did not. After waiting a ½ hour I came home to pack. By 10:00 the house was clean, I was packed and ready to go. Stephen has arrived and now is doing his gathering up. Oh, I cleared the frig of things that would spoil and consequently ate the leftover tuna with three crackers.

We are off. Stephen & I like to read out loud or listen to books on CD while traveling. For today we chose a murder mystery and are tootling up the valley. Stephen did not sleep very well last night so a couple hours up the road we stopped to change drivers. A Wal-Mart was handy so we stopped for snacks and drugs. Just a side note– I started my period today. Maybe that is why I haven’t been moving down the scale this week. I&N say not to be bothered by anything during the period week so I won’t. Anyway I had cramps pretty bad and needed some Pamprin. As snacks I grabbed Jerky, almonds and sugar free Dove dark chocolate. It is very good. OK, so we are on the road again. He reclined to rest a bit as the story continued.

A few hours later we stopped for a bathroom break. I was able to call Sonnet in Washington. She is doing well and eating pretty good. Her good friend Diesel was there for a work thing and they had a nice weekend together. We talked eating and exercise. It is wonderful to touch base with her about this – keeps it real and alive. We decided to catch dinner in Placerville. Had a wonderful Oriental chicken salad. We reached the cabin around 7:00. It is so beautiful here. The air smells mountain fresh. Ran into Railey’s from some groceries. I found some cookies that look interesting. We will try them. Lots of grains – kind of like a granola bar.

Thursday July 3, 2008 Phase Two Day 73:
Sooooo wonderful to be here in the Tahoe cabin. Our cousins are some of the most gracious people we know. They have always been extremely generous with this beautiful vacation home. We can’t wait for them to arrive this evening and join us. Stephen & I both had cantaloupe and cottage cheese for breakfast. We are heading out on a bike ride this morning. Not sure how far but sure to enjoy the beauty of the day………It was a great ride, about 25 miles. Boy it is hilly up here. I have ridden 25 miles many times but these hills wore me out. We stopped for lunch at a marina on the lakeshore. I ordered the Cobb and Stephen had the Shrimp Louie salad. Just hit the spot. Home and showered and feeling good and pooped. Stephen is preparing kabobs for tonight’s dinner. We plan to eat early, around 5:00, so we can get in some fishing tonight. Before bed we had a peach smoothie and watched an old movie.

Friday July 4, 2008 Phase Two Day 74:
Happy Independence Day! Cousins rolled in around midnight last night. This morning we all got up at our leisure. Breakfast was lovely, as Betsy brought the entire produce section of Costco with her. We had bacon, eggs, honeydew, blueberries and raspberries. So good. A contingency has just left for the first adventure. A few will climb Mt. Talac and others are off 4-wheeling. I am here alone to wait for my Mom’s bus to arrive. I made a carrot cake and hope it will turn out OK. I picked up pineapple chunks instead of crushed pineapple by mistake so it won’t have as much moisture, flavor or actual fruit – bummer.

The bus was late so I shopped around while waiting for Mom. Bad news, I ate peanut M&M’s. Mom and I got back to the cabin and I will admit – it has begun. I served up sandwiches, the carrot cake, ate cherries galore, crackers with cheese and ham…what else….oh, and popcorn. Later I had some toast and jam. Mostly we sit around, visit, play games and you guessed it – eat.

This afternoon Betsy & I played tennis or should I say, played at tennis. It was good exercise and good fun. Around 6:00 I was left to make dinner while Stephen & Bets went to pick up the hikers. All went well on the mountain. Except for sore mussels, exhaustion and starvation, our hikers are fine. For dinner I made a wonderful salad with greens, carrots, eggs, feta cheese, tomatoes, both green and red onion and celery then covered the whole thing with fresh squeezed lemon. We had chicken thighs but very little seasonings, in fact only salt and pepper. So, I crushed up some brochette crackers and after dipping the meat in eggs I rolled them in the crackers then fried them in butter. The chicken turned out surprisingly well and was appreciated by all. I rounded out the plates with asparagus. Although we had plenty of dinner, Marshall broke out the lemon meringue tarts of which we all partook. If that wasn’t bad enough I had another piece of carrot cake.

Saturday July 5, 2008 Phase Two Day 75:
The plan was to get up and go fishing. Plans were made to be changed. We woke up at our leisure and visited most of the morning. Eggs, bacon and fruit again this morning – so yummy. We did make it out the door and on our way to Echo Lake for fishing about 1:00. We ended up taking Marshall & Johanna with us. It was Johanna’s first time fishing and she was adorable. Peanut M&M’s was not the best choice for a snack but it happened. We of course did not catch a thing, but a good time was had by all. We were headed back to the cabin but Marshall had his mouth set for a fish dinner so some of the group went to the fishing hole where they could make sure they caught something. At the cabin we snacked terribly. Cookies, cheese & crackers, and an ice cream treat.

The fishing crew came home with beautiful trout. They had not eaten all afternoon so I made fruit smoothies while Marshall cooked a lovely dinner of trout, spinach and corn on the cob. They were very good and tied us over until our delicious dinner was ready. Betsy & I enjoyed a nice evening walk around the neighborhood.

We stayed up very late playing Liars dice, Hearts and Sequence. Popcorn and the last of the carrot cake was heartily munched during the games.

Sunday July 6, 2008 Phase Two Day 76:
Mel was up and fixing tasty eggs this morning. Steph, Mom, Johanna & I left for church around 9:30. We got back at 1:30 to find Mel, Betsy & Marshall gone 4-wheeling. We were scheduled to eat our final meal together at 3:30 so I began preparing taco salad fixings. The 4-wheelers came in and started munching, well. Let’s be honest, we all started munching on fruit and some very gooey cream cheese pastries. Betsy brought them so I bear no responsibility for their presence in the cabin. Unfortunately, that is where my absolution ends for it was I who brought them out and warmed them in the oven. They were heavenly but I was sick to my stomach afterwards. When I do not have sweet, sweet things like that for a long time, my system cannot handle it.

I took a break from the kitchen to stretch out on the floor and put Marshall to work cutting up a watermelon. A rousing game of Phase 10 and Mel’s trip to the hardware store set dinner back a bit. Every time I caught anyone snacking on anything I made them promise they would eat a lot of taco salad. That really was not a problem because the salad turned out exceptionally well. I used the mixed greens from Costco combined with a head of shredded iceberg lettuce, two avocados, tomatoes and green onions. Then diced together, red onion, cilantro, red & green bell peppers. Limejuice was squeezed on the mix. Seasoned taco meat and Fritos were available on the side. Scrumptious!
Thus ended another wonderful gathering wrapped up in Tahoe.

Monday July 7, 2008 Phase Two Day 77:
Cleaning up, packing up and heading home. We stopped at McDonald’s in Placerville for a breakfast of an egg Mcmuffin, potatoes and orange juice. Down the road, we had In & Out for lunch. What can I say – we were traveling and not even trying. Home at last. Dinner was turkey, cheese and crackers. We did have to run to Wal-Mart and I got a tollhouse ice cream cookie sandwich. Gratefully this day is over and tomorrow I can get back to some sense of order in my menu.

Tuesday July 8, 2008 Phase Two Day 78:
Yea, I got up and went to step class. At home I made eggs and bacon with a couple pieces of watermelon for breakfast. So far three glasses of water down. I feel like purging all the sugar from my system. I have made and interesting retrospective observation; both times I ate peanut M&M’s over the last few days I remember thinking, “What is the big deal with these?” They did not explode with flavor as I thought they should or remembered they did. I am finding there are certain things I indulge in that give me satisfaction worth the indulgence. I should stick to those when making a choice. The smorgasbord of sweets so readily available may tempt but usually leave me unsatisfied, disappointed and even feeling physically sick.

Today is weigh in day but without Sonnet I will wait another week. Maybe not – she arrives back home tomorrow and might want to weight in Thursday because we will be gone next Tuesday. We will see. OK, after running a few errands I came home to eat a piece of chicken, a peach smoothie, a handful of almonds and one piece of chocolate for lunch. Next I am off to my weight life class at the gym……..Good workout - I love that class. It kills me but I feel so good. I came home and fixed a quick Taco salad before Stephen had to leave for interviews.