A quick over night in Bend and we are back at the airport loading up to go to Tahoe. The plan is to fly into Reno and rent a car to get to Lake Tahoe. We’re staying in Incline Village and it is about a 45 minute drive from the airport. From Bend to Reno is a 2 hour flight, but the visibility is low due to smoke. We picked Tahoe since the air quality was good there; but new wildfires have started in the past few days and the air quality isn’t looking great.
After taking off from Bend it is obvious the smoke is thicker than we anticipated and we pick up an IFR clearance. We get closer to Reno and start setting up to execute the ILS approach. The area is very mountainous and the controller is quite busy. We end up high on the approach and have to be vectored back around. At this point in the plane the kids are done, Plane Girl’s nap is over and The Little Dudes iPad has died, we are low to the ground and it is hot in the cabin. This adds an increased workload to the approach. We get turned in back on the ILS and get the runway insight and land.
It is HOT on the ground. The heat of the tarmac and the smoke makes getting out of the plane gross. Our car is ready and we load up. We have a surprise for The Little Dude. Since we weren’t able to bring his bike (and probably won’t in the future) we’re planning on going to get a scooter for him. We stop at a local store and load up on snacks and drinks for the room and get a scooter.
We head to the Hyatt Regency Tahoe and still have time to go to the lake for a bit. We load up the wagon and play in Lake Tahoe before heading back to change into dry clothes for dinner.
Papa pilot has a unexpected work project and now has to fly back to Seattle early in the morning. We wake up the next day and mama pilot and the kids lay low playing at the pool and beach and enjoying the Hyatt kids activities. Hyatt always does a great job of keeping the kids active in their resorts.
Papa pilot returns from work in Seattle and is back in time for dinner. He has lived in the Reno area before and knows many places around the lake, plus it’s his birthday so he gets to pick dinner. We drive around the lake to the Bridgetender, a casual riverside restaurant with an expansive outdoor patio.
We wanted to do a few hikes on the trip, but are limited due to the air quality. We decide to take the Heavenly Gondola to the top. We find the forest trail and learn about the animals on the trail. There is also a kids club that the kids can do crafts, get water and learn about the area.
We head to Sushi Pier for lunch. The Little Dude loves “fish and rice” so its an easy go. When we walk in we see something; a sticker wall! We just ordered “A Plane Family” stickers and haven’t put up our first one yet. Upon leaving we place our first sticker!
The next day is all business. We are going to fly home, but not without a stop for a hike on the way to the airport. The Mount Rose trail head on the way. We plan to do the lower meadow hike, but decided to continue on to the middle meadow hike as well. It was probably a bit much for the kids as they got tired and didn’t want to continue. We were over half way and had no choice but to listen to the whines and finish the hike. We post photos of the kids happy on the internet, but no adventure is 100% happy all the time. Our hope is the good memories are better than the tough moments making them.
We stop for a quick lunch at our favorite fast food in and out before returning to the airport. We did call the FBO and request the mains topped off for a quick departure, but that didn’t happen. We were a bit delayed leaving, but it was fine. The kids were happy for the first 1:30 (that seems like their max these days) then they wanted out. We let Plane Girl out, then The Little Dude wanted out of his seat too. It was musical chairs trying to keep them happy for the last bit of the flight. The coolest thing was Plane Girl crawling into Papa Pilot’s lap, grabbing the controls and thinking she was flying the plane at 15 months. We finally got them back into their carseats and landed in Auburn. We have a few more days of vacation, but after 2 weekends of flying were going to take a break from the plane and take the car.
