Nanjing China Teachers Reunion

On the 15th October we drove to Calgary in time for Church in the Somerset Ward.  We stayed overnight at Nathan and Tara's and the next morning Tara drove us to the airport.  We traveled to Reno with one stop in Salt Lake.  Marilyn and Doyle met us at the airport and we went to Marilyn's home for supper.

Marilyn's Back Yard

The next morning we set out for Lake Tahoe stopping at Donner Pass.  We wandered the grounds and visited the museum and learned some of the sad history of the 1846 Donner Party:

In the spring of 1846, a group of nearly 90 emigrants left Springfield, Illinois, and headed west. Led by brothers Jacob and George Donner, the group attempted to take a new and supposedly shorter route to California. They soon encountered rough terrain and numerous delays, and they eventually became trapped by heavy snowfall high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Purportedly reduced to cannibalism to survive through the winter, only half of the original group reached California the following year. 

After a picnic lunch we went on the Lake Tahoe where we stayed until Friday.

We did a cruise down Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay State Park

     Look down on this astounding bay and you can see why Mark Twain dubbed Lake Tahoe "the fairest picture the whole earth affords." While the main lake is as blue as a topaz, a color created by Tahoe’s remarkable clarity and depth, this somewhat shallower bay on the lake’s west shore takes on a startling and beautiful blue-green, made all the more striking by the perfect dot of tiny Fannette Island—the only islet in Lake Tahoe—right in the middle of the bay. There the ruins of a tiny stone teahouse perched on the top of the island. The teahouse, and the 38-room Scandinavian-style stone castle known as Vikingsholm that’s built on the nearby shore, were constructed by Lora Knight, an extraordinary woman who married into extreme wealth, then used her money to educate young people who could otherwise not afford it. 

We went back to Reno via Virginia City.

On Friday evening we went out for Chinese food.  One other couple that had been in China when we were joined us.  Later Marilyn took us for a drive around downtown Reno.

All too soon our reunion was ended.  Marilyn drove us to the airport.  We went by Salt Lake and Seattle and didn't get back to Calgary until midnight.  Nathan picked us up and we stayed over at his place.  We arrived home on Sunday.