"Will they wear hats?"

While Maeve was very excited to see fireworks, we couldn't truly convince her that she would not be seeing firemen. We showed her pictures of fireworks and described them to her but as we were sitting on the beach waiting for them to start, she asked, "Are they going to wear hats?" Later on she asked about the ladders. Lake Tahoe had a variety of fireworks going on all around the lake and you could really get a perspective of just how big the lake is by how small the fireworks looked on the other side of the lake. We thought we were waiting to the "big" show that's set to music and includes fireworks that are shapes. This show was several miles away from where we were watching, and while we could see them, our attention was divided because a pretty great show was being set off right in front us from a boat. Maeve also didn't expect the fireworks to be so close or so loud. Her look of terror eventually subsided (and she was again able to to speak so she could ask about hats and ladders) until the grand finale when it appeared that she would rather bury her head in the sand than be subjected to such hoopla.

In an attempt to not get caught up in the crowds that have appeared at Lake Tahoe for this holiday weekend, we set off to find Skunk Harbor (a secluded beach on the Nevada side of the lake). We hoped that people would be turned off by the name and decide not to go there. After finding parking on the side of the road, we hiked the mile and a half down a trail that led to a beautiful beach with lots of large rocks to climb around and jump off of. The water, of course, was frigid but that didn't stop us from swimming around. Overall, it was a rather fun 4th of July.