Reno with Lauren!

Ah! Where to start? I’ve got so much to write about I feel I need to just start typing before it all starts draining out of my head.

I don’t think the reality of what it was I’d chosen to do this summer really hit me until I neared the end of my flight from D.C. to Salt Lake City. The plane took off from the normal, busy city center and I soon after turned to writing my four-page “hey here’s how my life has been the past nine months” email that I sent to family and friends at home. At the close of my writing, and just as it was announced that we were beginning our descent and at that time it would be in our best interests to turn our laptops and ipods off lest they be the cause of our utter demise by interfering with the airplanes frequencies, I chanced to glance out my window. I drew in my breath and felt my eyes enlarge a degree as I realized the gray and washed out scene of suburbia had been replaced with a red-colored mountainous landscape. At that moment I realized the leap I had taken and I felt a twinge of panic course through my nerves though it was quickly washed over by a wave of anxious excitement. After one more layover in Salt Lake City, my day that started at 7 am in Portland finally came to an end with my 1 am arrival (Louisville/Portland time) in Reno. Lauren picked me up at the airport, we exchanged hugs long overdue, and she swept me off to her apartment where I stayed up far later than I should have and finally crashed with exhaustion.

Lauren began her “let’s get Carolyn to move to Reno” plan the very next day. After getting breakfast burritos and smoothies at a local coffee shop she wasted no time in introducing me to that which persuaded her to settle in Nevada – Lake Tahoe. We took the long scenic drive up there and we finally came around a bend that opened and revealed the expansive and incredible scene. I thought I’d seen blue waters before, but I fear I’ve been gravely mistaken until now. The waters were a shade of turquoise I can compare only to that of the ocean around the Virgin Islands, but the clarity of the Lake’s waters is one that has no rival in any body of water I’ve seen before. As we drove on we passed segment after segment of this massive body with each view as astonishing as the one before. Lauren eventually stopped at the head of a trail down to the beaches. I wiped the drool from my stunned face, manually closed my dropped jaw, and followed Lauren down to the cove, stopping to take a “me in front of” photo above the nude beach (solely to capture the clarity of the water, not the nudity of the sunbathers mind you). Lauren and I set out our towels on the rocky beach and began an afternoon of alternating between wading ankle deep into the frigid waters and playing with any one of the score of dogs that were also enjoying the beach that day. I eventually got the great idea that we should jump in the Lake. The combination of the amazing weather, the gorgeous surroundings and the freshwater of the mountain lake made for a temptation far too great to refuse. So we found a rock off which to hurl ourselves into the 50-degree water. After devising a careful escape route, I jumped. Describing it as a “shock to the senses” would be putting it lightly I think. But man, what an awakening! Afterward I stood motionless and just felt and listened to the quiet of my surroundings, the still thin air allowing the sun to just lift the moisture off of me. It was the most alive I’ve felt in a long time. The rest of my time in Reno was a good time well spent – meeting Lauren’s friends, going hiking, taking a driving tour of the city, taking a driving tour of the rich people houses and being lucky enough to hot tub in one of them, having a near-death-by-tubing down the Truckee River, and eating a score of delectable cuisine at several fine establishments. After four full days with Lauren, we made the trek to my real destination on Sunday morning.