Oh F*** It's Friday! Why Weekends Just Aren't the Same for Full Time Travelers

Our home for the week in Tahoe: Nevada Beach

People often ask us if our life is now like a permanent vacation. I always say no, it's more like a weekend, by that I mean you have more leisure time than a weekday but you still have chores to do. Well this last week in Tahoe I have been rethinking that idea. It's not really like the weekend either.

When we worked full time we had to run with the rhythm of the regular working world. If we wanted to take some time away from home, we looked at booking a getaway for the weekend. We competed with everyone else who needed to travel from Friday to Sunday. We paid weekend prices and braved the crowds on trails, and in restaurants and of course we sat in traffic with everyone else too. This is especially true when you live in populated areas. We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 11 years. We visited Lake Tahoe for the weekend precisely TWICE in that time. Even though this area is wonderfully beautiful, offers all the activities we enjoy and was only a couple of hundred miles from where we lived, the truth is we just couldn't face dealing with traffic and crowds. We preferred to stay closer to home and visit less popular areas.

Looking back to Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf lake from the trail

The beauty of our new life is that we are on our own schedule, we no longer have to go with the flow of the crowds on the weekend. We just spent a whole 7 days in Tahoe, more time than in all of the 11 years living in Northern California. On Tuesday we took a beautiful hike to Cathedral Lake, in the shadow of Mount Tallac. The trail wasn't empty, but it also wasn't mobbed. On Saturday we drove to Emerald Bay for a short hike with new friends Christine and Josh. We had a lovely morning hike followed by a lakeside lunch with them but this weekend drive was a very different experience than earlier in the week. We encountered hoards of people and parking was a challenge at the trailhead and the restaurant.

Just us on the trail!

I actually don't like to complain about crowds too much, especially if people are getting off their sofas and hitting the trails or generally doing anything to move out and about rather than parked in front of a screen. But it makes sense for us now to plan our week more carefully and decide when best to hit the trails, and when to get cosy in the trailer with a movie - usually at the weekends.


Links:

Here are some photos we took while at Lake Tahoe
Campground Review: Nevada Beach Campground