Itinerary: Lake Tahoe Wedding Anniversary

By: Lake Tahoe Staff

A huge advantage to living in Reno is that you are a quick 60 minutes away from one of the most beautiful natural beauties in the entire world. This also provides a perfect setting to enjoy an anniversary. South Lake Tahoe offers a lot of things to do for couples. And here’s what I recommend for a full day at the Lake:

Breakfast

South Lake Tahoe gets breakfast right. There are a lot of great cafés and restaurants close together that you can get a good start to the day.We had breakfast at Driftwood Cafe, a nice restaurant tucked near the Heavenly Gondola. Remember though to go early! This place fills up quickly and we waited 30 minutes for a table. In the meantime, we grabbed coffees and enjoyed the Saturday sunshine. Once we got in, the 4-star Yelp ratings shined through as the food was great. My Loaded Waffle was a great way to start off a busy day.

Enjoy the Lake

Lake Tahoe beaches — Baldwin Beach, South Lake Tahoe, CA. | Photo by Markus Spiering via Flickr. Shared under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

“That’s not a lake. That’s a sea!” was once heard by my wife from one of her European coworkers in her description of Lake Tahoe. Tahoe has plenty to do for everyone: beaches, hiking, sailing, scuba diving, boating.Our adventure took us Paddle Boarding. My wife had previous experience, and she mentioned that it’s almost impossible to fall off the paddle board. Well, I’m one to try the impossible, so I wanted to experience this firsthand.

We rented two large paddle boards and loaded them into my truck. Because paddle boards are heavy, the store owner recommended we go to Baldwin Beach since the parking lot is close to the beach. This was a great idea. I had to carry both my wife and my paddleboards across the beach. I felt as if my workout was already done before we even hit the water.

But, the workout was just beginning. Now, keep in mind the water was a bit choppy, or at least that’s my story. My wife jumped up on her paddle board right out of the water. Easy peasy. Well, there I was still on my knees after five minutes trying to get enough balance to stand on my feet. 1… 2… SPLASH. Well, the impossible was now just made possible with the paddle board falling out from below me. This carried on for quite a bit, but finally after a few attempts, I could stand up. Once you got up, it was nice to cruise along the water as if I was a graceful swan. But, then a ripple in the water would send me diving back to my knees.

Local Favorites

The Tahoe area offers an amazing outdoor experience with smaller towns nestled around the lake. This offers great local shops to visit experience. And one of those offers a famous drink.

Oh! the choices! The Wet Woody menu at Riva Grill.

Looking for a way to relax after my battle with the paddle board, I found my tonic. It was time to drop the paddle boards back to the rental shop and grab a local favorite drink. The Wet Woody takes its name from the classic wooden boats; it’s a frozen rum drink filled with different versions of amazing. We enjoyed the lake view sitting in the outdoor patio at the Riva Grill.

Icing on the Cake

Tahoe offers a lot of extras that you can enjoy around the lake. From our hotel window at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino Tahoe, we unintentionally enjoyed the distant sounds of the sold out concerts of Elton John and Jackson Brown performing at Harvey’s outdoor arena. If only I would have thought about the concerts sooner. Instead, we grabbed tickets to check out the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. I’ve heard about this event for many years, and I wanted to experience it firsthand. This was the perfect opportunity, and what better play to watch on your anniversary then Romeo and Juliet. (I might enter myself for husband-of-the-year for getting tickets to this.)

lake tahoe shakespeare — The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival runs through July and August. | Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival | Photo by Reno Tahoe Territory via Flickr. Shared under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0.

The outdoor stage is setup on the North shore of Lake Tahoe. And the setting is really relaxed. People can bring in picnic baskets or you can buy food, beer, and hot chocolate within the venue. The atmosphere is great watching Shakespeare with the sun setting behind the mountains. A stunning setting to finish off any anniversary celebration.

Tahoe offers that assortment of things to do without feeling trapped within the cage of a big city. It’s the perfect getaway, which we get to enjoy for anniversaries, weekends, and random week days. Until next time!