This month started with a bit of a bang – quite literally!
After picking some friends up at LAX I got hit by a motorcycle. You can read a little more about it here, but let me just say that things were handled quite differently than how I remember them during my youth. Of course, that was just the start of the month.

Susanne and Walter stayed with us for a few days on their way back from Australia. Short of getting them to experience VR using a HTC Vive Pro, we just took it easy, went for Dim Sum, enjoyed the community pool, and had a great BBQ before heading off to Sacramento with them to see Walter’s sister. In Sac, we chilled out in 110°F weather and did a quick picnic at a winery with them before Ayano and I headed up to Lake Tahoe.

In Lake Tahoe we spent a few days at the Ritz and did the Squaw Valley 8-Miler along the Truckee River from Tahoe city along the lake up to the Olympic Valley Ski Resort. It was a perfect day and there were still a few people enjoying their last days of skiing once we made it to the village. Again we just wanted to take a few days off and be pampered a bit – hence the Ritz during shoulder season. We drove around the lake as there are a lot of places you can stop for going on a hike, taking dip into the lake, kayaking, swimming, or even ice cream! In our case, we chose to do a little hike up to Eagle Lake were the views were magnificent, followed by some goat’s milk ice cream – yummy!

After a quick couple of days it was time to head back home, bring the car into the shop for repairs, and to get back to work. Other than enjoying a few days at Newport Beach, the month was over before I knew it. Oh… and when we finally did get the car back, they did a great job with the repairs except that they returned it with an upside down license plate! Go figure.