Stawberry Lodge Near Tahoe; Ode to Laptops
(The post below was written three days ago. Currently we're staying up in El Dorado Hills near Sacremento for Christmas with my parents)
Ivy and I are staying for two nights at the Strawberry Lodge which everyone sees on the way to Tahoe. It’s about 5 miles south of the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort and I’m sitting in front of a nice fire in the lodge on Thursday afternoon while some slushy/rainy “snow” is coming down pretty heavily. Not many people are here mid-week and it’s very peaceful to sit here with a laptop and do some writing and reading.
The younger generation is going to wonder what people did before the days of portable computers. We’ve been taking a laptop on most of our trips these days and have been loving it. It’s a great tool for finding out information (if you have internet access—we don’t here), but also of course it’s fabulous for watching dvds and avoiding watching tv in your room with all those commercials. Also, laptops are fantastic for saving digital pictures from your camera after spending a day shooting to your heart’s content at wherever you’re visiting. The first big trip we brought our laptop on was to Paris this past April and we unloaded pictures and videos we took with it each night. It was fun too to see the pictures displayed on a bigger screen and immediately re-live the beautiful sights of the day.
Also, being able to watch a dvd while on the road is a very satisfying way to unwind and get away mentally from the occasional hassles of travel. Ivy and I have become huge fans of Alias (tv show starring Jennifer Garner as a CIA agent) and in the last year and a half, have gotten through nearly all 5 seasons. We like that each show is 45 minutes long and fits in well on “school nights” unlike 2-hour long movies. The international locations featured on each show are a lot of fun and we think it’s well-acted and intelligently written. We obviously became very drawn in to the story-line and the characters and are going to be sad when we’ve gotten through it all. The show “24” is apparently also highly regarded and we may check that out next.
Merry Christmas!