The next day we ventured out to a super fun activity at Treetop Adventure Parks. I had found them online and even moved our whole vacation around by a day in order to be in Tahoe when they were open. Since it wasn't the super busy tourist season they weren't open every day at this point. It was totally worth it to move our vacation around. In fact I would drive all the way to Tahoe to do this again and it cost almost $400 for our family, but it was that awesome!
Checked in and waiting for group to be called.
Once they called your group time you came over to this deck area where they had the harnesses. You stepped in them and they got them all tightened for you. Then you picked out a helmet and were ready to go. The nice thing for them was that during certain times they used certain colored helmets so when it was getting close to your time being up they announced, "Red helmets....15 more minutes". It made it super easy!
There were 10 courses to go on and they were labels like a ski resort so you'd know which ones were harder.
They even had a little beginning course for you to go on where they taught you how to attach your harness to the course, how to sit down into your harness and how to hold your harness so your fingers didn't get pinched.
After that beginning training lesson they let you loose to run to around and have fun. Michael took Ella, I took Zeke and the older boys went off together or separate I really don't know. We were all just having so much fun! Zeke was the only kid I was a bit concerned about. He tends to do better without a lot of information beforehand. If he gets too much info his imagination takes over and he imagines it being scarier than it is. So I basically didn't tell him anything and he did fantastic!
The course was way up in the trees. Some of the courses even crossed over each other so they were built pretty high up.
The weather was perfect...just a bit chilly which was nice since you were working!
Zeke was a superstar. I did have to encourage him on one spot and he was able to overcome it.
It was such a fun activity for all ages.
Each obstacle course was so different and they all had fun names.
It was very well built and you could see all the hardware they used to anchor everything together. I never once felt unsafe or like my equipment was going to fail.
Each course had at least one sometimes more ziplines.
Gorgeous view of the trees!
There were employees around if you ever got stuck. There were a couple people that had to call them for various reasons. They had big ladders they could move and help you, they would talk people through things or come up on the course if needed.
I was actually not sure how I would do with this. I am a bit afraid of heights and I hate when things are wobbly, but I did really well. There was one point towards the end when I was on a black diamond run with Michael and I was a bit scared. Thankfully Michael talked me through the best way to overcome that certain point since he'd done the run before. I think I was mainly just tired by that point so my muscles were starting to give out.
We did see a kid that just could not handle it. He was probably at least 10 years old and he actually threw up he was so scared. You have to really know your kids and know what they can handle.
My kiddos had a blast!
Ella did tell Daddy that she did not want to go on any black diamond runs, but then she came up to this one course and said that she wanted to go on it. She didn't notice that the sign said it was a black diamond, but Daddy just let her go for it. While they were on it she said that since this course was so hard she definitely didn't want to do a black diamond to which Daddy informed her she was actually on one. :) I believe she ended up doing the second black diamond course as well.
This was the run fittingly named Snowboard!
This was another section of Snowboard. You had to step on the boards and they would go down like a teeter totter.
Towards the end this was the black diamond run that I went on with Michael. It was called Rings. The only course I didn't get to go on was Wind Chimes.
My favorite run ended up being called Rainbow....unfortunately I didn't do it until the end or I would have done it over and over again. So fun!
We had 2.5 hours of fun in the trees!
It was a total blast and I hope we can do something like it again in the future!
Definitely earned some cool Mom points with this one!
So glad this guy had fun and enjoyed himself!
After all that fun we stopped at Jason's Beachside Grille for lunch. We had the opportunity to eat outdoors or inside, but we chose inside. The wings we got for an appetizer were some of the best wings I've had in my life. I ordered Nachos to share with Ella and I asked for no green onions which they accidentally put them on anyway. The guy was super apologetic! They ended up making new ones and didn't charge us for them at all since we had to wait longer. The food was super yummy and was definitely needed after all that fun!
After lunch we walked out to the beach that's right in front of the restaurant. It's called King's Beach.
I really wanted to rent bikes and go on the East Tahoe Trail that runs right alongside the lake and goes all the way to Sand Harbor State Park, but after all that work I didn't think the kids would have it in them. Plus it was going to be at least $250 to rent bikes. So we decided to drive down to the beach instead.
On our drive, there was a pull off spot where you could hang out for 20 minutes and look around.
The water was gorgeous...we could not have asked for better weather. Thankfully we were on the east side of the lake because at this time the southside was experiencing devastating fires. We did see some of the smoke in the distance, but nothing terrible really.
These kids were totally fearless when it came to jumping from one rock to the next.
Of course it's beautiful out and Owen is still wearing that silly coat of his!
At one point Michael was laughing at me because I couldn't make it from one rock to the other. My body is just not made for that. I was actually crying because I was so scared and he's laughing his head off. He of course helped me get across and I was fine. Looking back now I can admit...it was absolutely hilarious!
Here's a fun video of Jack slow-mo jumping from one rock to the other. Wait until the end because it speeds up and shows you how fast he was actually jumping...no hesitation at all!
After this we got back in the van and drove to the Sand Harbor State Park were we parked and walked over to the beach.
Look at that beautiful bluish green water!
Some interesting facts about Lake Tahoe is...it's the largest alpine lake in the US and it's the second deepest lake in US right after Crater Lake!
There were more rocks to climb and explore!
Hey look....Mama's in a picture!
I love these kiddos!
Beautiful Girl!
Look at how clear that water is!
So beautiful!
I can only imagine how crazy busy this place is in the summer time with how gorgeous it is!
It was so fun basically having it all to ourselves!
Of course we met more squirrel friends!
I'm pretty sure we're going to make our way back to Tahoe at some point. We only explored a very small section of it so I know there is more fun to be had!
After exploring the rocks we finally made our way to the sand and laid down and let the kids play. Jack and Ella were determined to dig a hole that connected.
It was so peaceful and nice to rest in the sand and just enjoy the warmth.
We laid down on the beach for probably over and hour. One of the fun things we got to see was a hang glider that was by that hill in the background. He was using the updraft to get himself to go up higher that he would slowing come down and then drift over to the hill again catch another updraft and go right back up....over and over again. I kept thinking he was surely going to land at the beach, but he never did. It was so cool to watch!
Lake Tahoe you have my heart!
After this we went back to the house and then later out to dinner. I can't even remember the name of the restaurant, but we had to wait forever. We were all exhausted and in the end they had to set up a table specially for us due to Covid restrictions. It was so nice! It was also inside which most of the tables were outside so I was happy about that. It was dark by that point and chilly. I do remember the food was delicious and very needed since we had worked so hard that day. It was a fabulous day and definitely one of my favorite of the whole trip!
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