Day 88: 13th 0 Day in South Lake Tahoe

Date: 04.07.2018 Miles hiked today: 0 miles Total Mileage: Mile 1090 Today is America's independence day, which is a big thing here. Most people wear a shirt or something showing the American flag. There is a small parade this morning at 10am but I think we will miss it. It took my quite a while to move to bed last night with that hurting belly and another while to fall asleep. I only got up after 8am, when I suddenly remembered that today is the famous 4th of July and that JP and Melva have a busy schedule today. We didn't talk about it yesterday when we should leave but I remembered that JP and Melva wanted to head out rather early this morning. So I get up and move downstairs, where JP and Melva are sitting. They're leaving soon but we can stay as long as we want and just close the door behind us. There is fresh melon, peaches and strawberries in the fridge and some cereals are available too. JP and Melva are just incredibly nice. I had one Swiss chocolate with nuts left which i gave them to express my gratitude for their hospitality otherwise they would not accept anything. While we are getting ready to leave, our bellies still to full to eat, a car stopps and picks us up to drive us to town. It's nearly lunch time and soon joannes Mum, Dad, sister (Irene) and brother (Peter) are coming here to meet us for the independence day. They have booked a nice camping spot at Lake Taho. Peter hiked the Sierras with us and Irene is joining us here till Sierra City. I'm excited to see them soon again! But first we head to the pizza place and get a yummie pizza. I'm not sure if that was a good idea, I still feel stuffed and suffer again afterwards. Irene calls they have arrived. We meet them, they drive a big truck loaded with stuff! We throw our backpacks on top, squeeze all 7 of us in the car and off we go. We have camping spot number 1, it's quite hilly but very nice. There is so much delicious food joannes family has brought, we need to eat enough to be able to fit it all in the bear box tonight! Apparently 47 bear encounters have been noted only last week so we better take care. Joannes mum is preparing nachos and guacamole. She is Mexican so I will get some real Mexican food today! Once everything is packed out we are heading to the "beach" of Lake Tahoe in the camping area. It's a very small beach but the water is absolutely beautiful! There are so many boats out today, all the families are enjoying this day either on or around the Lake. We are enjoying yourselves, swim in the water and enjoying this day off trail. It feels like vacation! When we return to our camp site joannes Mum and dad have already prepared dinner! And what a sweet supprise, joannes Dad bought some flowers for me and Joanne! For dinner we have Mexican tacos, mmmhhh yummie! For desert Irene brought a cake with the miles we hiked written on it, how sweet is that?! We have had some incredible nice days in lake Tahoe. In the evening there is a big firework on and everyone seems to be very excited about it. I'm not so much into fireworks but after hearing from everyone it's one of the best fireworks in California I'm looking forward to it too. We make sure we have a good view to the lake and leave before 9pm to reserve the sports. We waited and waited and waited and finally after waiting for more than a hour at 9:45pm the fireworks starts. It's quite far away, on the other side of the lake, so it looks very small and we also don't hear the noise. It feels awkard and I don't really feel it. It goes on for about 30 minutes and end in a Grande finale shortly after 10pm. The show is over and we rerun to our camp site. That was not really what I expected but as I said I'm also not that much into fireworks. We all cowboy camp, tightly squeezed next to each other. The stars are our and are as beautiful as I have not seen them on trail so far. Good night all!