Day 10 - San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, CA

Today was an exciting and fun-filled day.  We woke up early and headed out of San Francisco to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.  Our dolphin encounter started at 10:30 and it did not disappoint.  Our experience began with a classroom session in which we learned many interesting facts about mammals.  For example, they’re born tail first unlike us humans; they nurse for 3-5 years; they nurse for 8-10 seconds at a time for 4-8 times per hour!  We also learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  It is apparently a bunch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean about TWICE the size of TEXAS!!!!!!  The time with the dolphins in the water was amazing.  We swam with three dolphins: 3 year old Maverick (we saw a video of his birth in the class!), his half-sister Mattie, and last but not least 51 year-old Terri!  Maverick had an under-bite which made him look like he was smiling, while Mattie had a black spot behind her left eye, and Terri who only had 16 teeth.  A normal dolphin has 88 teeth.  Dolphins live to be an average of 25-30 years old, which explains why 51 year old Terri was missing so many teeth!  During the hands-on experience we got to pet the dolphins, be kissed by Maverick on our cheeks, ride Maverick’s dorsal fin, and feed each dolphin!  It was amazing!  As much as Erin loved the experience, her favorite part may have been the hot showers afterwards!  It was a chilly 53 degrees outside!   After that we watched the killer whale show, the tiger show (Jason’s favorite show), and the dolphin show.  Next we headed to Lake Tahoe.  The drive started off with interstate but ended on a nice winding road with amazing views!  We started seeing snow about 30 miles from Lake Tahoe and the closer we got the more snow we saw.  Tonight we are staying at a Vacation-Rental-By-Owner house with an awesome view of the lake and snow filled mountains.  We are supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow tonight, YAY!!!!!  Tomorrow we are going to see what the ski resort Squaw Valley is like, Jason just might go skiing!  After that we will tour the lake and see the sights!  It should be an AMAZING day.  As much as we liked the cities, this is what it is all about!!!!

Miles Traveled: 210

The view from our VRBO!