When we arrived in Shanghai, Emersyn become friends with Mimi & Kate. We called them the 3-musketeers and the terrific trio. The girls were together all through first and second grade…until Kate moved back to America.

Kate and her Mom, Mary Major came to visit for a week. They arrived the same day Jim arrived for his 10-day summer holiday. We began our adventure with a trip to Lake Tahoe. Terri and Andy joined us for the adventure. Kate & Emmy loved this as they rode with Terri & Andy. Elle got to ride with Jim, Mary and I. Good thing she doesn’t really care.

The first stop was the Jelly Belly Factory (FOR THE FIRST TIME). The Jelly Belly Factory is about an hour & half from our home. We have NEVER been there. A few years ago, friends from Hong Kong visited San Francisco and told me how fun it was…still didn’t make it to the factory. We arrived at the Factory when it opened so we didn’t have to wait. It was interesting seeing all the candy being made and the smell of sugar. We learned that popcorn is the most popular flavor, the one I like least. Then, we hit the candy shop at the end of the tour. We purchased 5 bags of the Belly Flops…ONLY available at the factory. What a way to sell the non-perfect belly!!

We took Kate & Mary to “IN and Out Burger” for lunch, just because it is a California icon. It is a fast food burger joint that began in LA about 20 years ago. In/Out has always used fresh potatoes and natural oils in the fries long before it was an issue. Most people just love their food. I really love the fries the best. The In/Outs are always packed. Since it was a beautiful day, we sat outside to enjoy our burgers, fries and strawberry milkshakes.

Mary has a very fun personality. By the time we arrived at Tahoe, she had realized that Terri and Andy are one of those fun Aunts/Uncles. She called them the fun-doughs…. just like play-dough, always fun and available to play. Andy is the biggest kid of them all…sometimes Andy gets in trouble along with the girls when he gets them all wound-up (all in a good fun).

Day one of the Tahoe adventure was our bike ride to The River Ranch. Before kids, we would ride from the house, as it is a great work out. With kids, we drive to the park and ride the path starting from town. The bike path of Tahoe goes along the lake and it is very beautiful. It also crosses the main highway many times based on what part of the road had space. The first stop was to rent bikes. Mary, Kate and Emmy needed bikes.

We asked Elle if she wanted us to rent her a tag-along bike. The ones attached to the adult bike so they can pedal, but really are not helping. Oh, no the little princess just wanted to sit in the bike trailer and be pulled. Next was loading the bikes on the car to drive to the park. Ok, good thing we had Jim along. He managed to get 5 bikes on a 4-bike rack. The guy at the bike rental place even commented he has never seen such an art of stacking bikes. I guess all the practice of packing boxes to Shanghai has perfected the skill.

We had a beautiful ride to The River Ranch. The River Ranch has a great deck over looking the water for lunch. We scored a table near the river!! We sat and enjoy the view, the weather and fun of great friends. We did have to pedal back at some point!!

Day two at Tahoe was the river adventure on the Truckee River. Emmy & Kate yelled, “we get to ride with Terri and Andy”. Elle yelled, “ I get to ride with Daddy”. Whew, no issues there. Emmy and Kate get to enjoy time without sissy. We only raft when Jim and Andy are with us. You can rent rafts down by the river at $55 PER PERSON. Some other family members were smart and purchased 2 rafts that wait in the garage to be used. The trick is that Jim uses the vacuum cleaner to blow up the rafts. He then ties them to the trucks. See, it is all out of my league when you talking about using the vacuum to blow out and not suck up!! We packed a picnic lunch to enjoy along the river. We take both cars to the river. Once car drives down to The River Ranch, the pull out point. This year the boys took the car down river, as they didn’t trust Terri. Last time, Terri and I drove the cars. We left Terri’s car at the RR and drove back. The only problem was Terri left her keys in my car at the top of the river. Jim had to hitch hiked back up the river at the end of the day.

Rafting down the Truckee is sometimes going through rapids and sometimes floating along. Whenever we were floating, it was water fights between boats. Elle being Elle had to bring a child’s swim float that was a shark. She attached it to the front of our boat. We became Team Sharkie and the other boat was Team Fun-dough. Another great day spent with friends.

Day three was a beach day. We loaded the car with chairs, towels, umbrellas, packed lunch, drinks, etc. Wow, what happened to the day when you went to the beach with a book and a towel…oh, pre-kid days. Lake Tahoe is one of the greatest places to enjoy the beauty of nature. The lake is big, clear and cold. The mountain rises up from the lake. The kids don’t seem to notice how cold the water temperature is as they are in it in no time. I do manage to get my ankles in the water.

There are two floating rafts out on the lake. Emmy loves to swim out there. Kate and Emmy decided to take the plunge by swimming out. It really isn’t the swim part, it is the cold part. Mary is thinking about it, but decided to watch. And, well, I can’t possible put my body in the freezing water, as I have to watch Elle. The girls go out with inner tubes; it helps to keep the body out of the water. Ok, watching our girls attempting to climb onto the raft was a video moment…where was the camera. In the past, there has always been a ladder. This year, no ladder. They had to use their arms to pull themselves up. They looked like beach whales trying to flop onto the landing. At one point, this boy gets up to pull them up. Mary and I are sitting on the beach laughing! They jump off to swim to the other raft. When they throw their tubes on the raft, Emmy’s raft goes flying off the other side. The rafts are roped off to keep boats away. This is America and there are actually safety guards. Mary decided this was her time to brave the cold to rescue the tube. She needed a good excuse to go in. And she was glad she did.

Back to the Bay Area for one more day of fun before the Major’s leave for home. One cannot come to the San Francisco area and not go to San Francisco. We may live close to the City, but we haven’t done any of the touristy City stops in a long time. Our first stop was the cable cars, as the lines get very long. Probably the reason Emmy doesn’t ever remember riding them and Elle has never been on them. We started at Fisherman’s Wharf, as this is where we wanted to spend the day. We paid the extra $2 for round trip muni-fares. When we arrived in Union Square, the end of the line, the line to get on the trolley was already long. The line to buy tickets was just as long…ok, good thing we have the round trip. The extra $2 for the muni-pass also meant we could get back to Fisher’s Wharf using other transportation such as buses and the train, Bart. We got out a map and figured the best route to get back with Bart, but it was going to take about 45 minutes. We were already hungry. We decided it was a good time for an early lunch. Kate picked the Cheesecake Factory. Since it was early, we got right in.

Again, it is Elle’s birthday when life is busy. Last year, it was Elle’s birthday at the Olympics. We did manage to sing happy birthday to her at lunch to make her feel special. We all got a bite of Elle’s piece of cheesecake.

After lunch, we were walking to Bart when I noticed a trolley that wasn’t very full. We quickly jumped on and saved ourselves the long line and the around about way back to the Wharf on Bart. We went back to the Wharf to see the sea lions and do a little shopping.

At the Wharf, one must always stop at Ghirardelli chocolates. We first stopped at the ice cream shop for big ice cream Sundays. No one split and it was very fun. A quick stop in the candy shop as the day was getting away from us.

Next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove to the bridge parking area on the SF side. We enjoyed a walk on the bridge. We walked 1/3 way across the bridge to enjoy the view of the Bay and Alcatraz (somewhere I have not been).

Final stop of the night was an Asian Fusion restaurant for dinner along the Bay. A very tasty meal was enjoyed by all. Another birthday cake and song for Eleri.