POSTCARDS FROM FAVORITE LAKES

 

I’m going to assume those framed pictures the couple have put their leg and head through are, unfortunately, lovely paintings of their favorite lakes.  What a shame they’re ruined and we won’t be able to see them.  I shall hereby endeavor, then, to remedy that unfortunateness with a few postcard pictures of my favorite lakes.

Technically, Lake Merritt is not a lake. It’s a natural salt-water lagoon connected to the Oakland/Alameda Estuary.  The Estuary can be seen in the upper left.  Beyond is the Bay with San Francisco in the distance.  But it’s called “Lake Merritt” so I shall treat it as a lake for my post!  I suppose it could be called Merritt Lagoon, but 'Lake' has a classier ring to it.

Anyway, lighted walkways surround much of the lake, and there are tree-shaded grass areas all along to just sit and enjoy the view.  Before I was married and working in Oakland I would sometimes, on my lunch hour, take a bag lunch and hop on a bus over to the lake nearby to relax for a while.  

The 10 acre Children’s Fairyland at Lake Merritt opened in September of 1950 and is still going strong.  It has all manner of small fun rides for children including a Ferris wheel, carousel, & the Jolly Trolly train, as well as wonderful depictions of children’s favorite childhood rhymes.  I remember coming here when I was 10 or 11.  I don’t remember any rides at that time.  I think at first it was just the artistic depictions of childhood fantasies which I thought were fun – even without rides!

These two ducks are a pair named Ebony & Ivory by those who watch the ducks around the lake.  They were pet ducks abandoned at the lake – something that happens all too often.  The wild ducks on the lake are not very accepting of domestic ducks.  It’s not known if Ebony & Ivory were abandoned together, or found each other at the lake, but they became inseparable – Ebony, dark and handsome, and Ivory with a lovely ‘up-do’.

What people, needing to get rid of those little pet ducklings they give their kids for Easter and have grown up don’t realize when they dump them in a salt-water lake like Lake Merritt is domestic birds are not meant to live in salt-water.  Along with having to battle their way with the wild ducks on the lake for acceptance, they develop other problems associated with the salt water.  Luckily people began to notice this couple was not doing well, began texting about it on various sites, and soon enough they were rescued and taken to live at a refuge for abandoned domestic farm animals (including birds) and are now well and happy.  A story somewhat akin to Ella’s. Y

When my husband and I were first married we lived near the ocean, but soon moved to a small community on a river.  Eight years later we were living in Oakhurst, Calif. only a 15 minute drive from Bass Lake.  In the summer, after my husband got off work, we’d head up the hill to the lake for swimming and a picnic dinner.  It was a great way to beat the heat.  All 3 of our kids learned to swim through Red Cross swimming lessons here.  The moms who had kids in swimming lessons were said to have the best tans in town as we sat on the beach day after day watching our kidlets take turns in their different swim classes. J

One of the many resorts around the lake.  My eldest daughter caught a good-sized catfish here one time when the kids were fishing off the pier!  She was 7 years old and caught it with a simple fishing pole – her dad reaching out to pull it up out of the water for her.  I can’t remember if we kept it or tossed it back?  I think we tossed it back although . . . catfish are good eatin’, except her fish looked kind’a old so I’m pretty sure we tossed it back. J

“Recreation Point” run by the U.S. Forest Service (for which my husband worked) was our usual destination.  There was a nice big sandy beach and swim area, and excellent picnic spots.

The main/Marina beach of Pine Mountain Lake, a private subdivision in Groveland, Calif.  We lived here and enjoyed this lake for 28 years! J

The Marina beach is both lawn and sand with picnic tables and lots of shading trees as it can get rather hot here in the summertime - like triple digits!  Across the way is Dunn Court Beach.  There are three beaches on the lake: the Marina beach, Dunn Court Beach, and the Lake Lodge Beach.  There is also Fisherman’s Cove which is not a beach but has a pier which folks swim off of.

Dunn Court Beach is both a swimming beach and also a sail boat beach popular for both catamarans and single hulls.  This beach, like the Marina beach, has both shaded lawn with picnic tables, and sand.

The Lake Lodge swim area.  A nice big sandy beach is just below the Lodge deck.

Strawberry Lake at Pinecrest.  The lake’s name was formally changed to Pinecrest Lake sometime in the 1960s.  I couldn’t find out why?  I always knew it as Strawberry Lake – so named because wild strawberries used to grow in the meadow where the lake is now.  The lake was created as a reservoir in 1914 to provide water and power to communities below.  My Mom’s best friend’s family owned a cabin here so we visited them and the lake quite a few times when I was growing up.  At the time I was living in the East Bay Area (across from San Francisco) and it was a bit of a drive to Pinecrest.  Now, I only live a half hour away. J

A beach scene prior to the 1960s.

The beautiful old Pinecrest lodge – all gone now.  I believe it burned down some while back, but I couldn’t find anything to confirm it?  Whatever, it’s no longer there!

And then there’s THE lake. J

An Old Meeks Bay postcard.  Meeks Bay was the place where my family always camped in the early days. 

This postcard of Meeks appears to be from the 1950s

We also liked to camp at D.L. Bliss State Park just south of Meeks Bay, but they only allowed camping for 10 days back then and my Dad had 2 and then 3 week vacations, so we’d start out camping at Meeks, then move to Bliss.  There was a beautiful beach there – a beach on which I met my future husband. J

Me and my eldest younger sister on Bliss Beach in 1959.

Rubicon Point and Calawee Cove Beach – part of Bliss St. Park.

Rubicon Bay.  That point down there is Rubicon Point followed by Calawee Cove, Bliss St. Park beach, and then private beaches from then on.

Farther south along the west side of the lake is Emerald Bay and Fannette Island

Stateline where California meets Nevada and the gambling casinos begin at the south end of the lake.  I won $400. on a quarter machine one summer in the casino on the left!

Heading north up the east Nevada side of the lake is Zephyr Cove Resort and the M.S. Dixie II paddle-wheeler.  Beyond the patio is a wide sandy beach and the pier out to the boat which takes folks across the lake, into and around Emerald Bay, and back.  I’ve made the trip twice – observing everything on the top or front deck on the way over, and having lunch in the Dixie’s restaurant below on the way back.

Farther north is Sand Harbor.  The water is stand-up shallow way on out there and in the afternoon big waves come rolling in making riding floaty things super fun.  Sand Harbor is also home to the lakeside Shakespeare outdoor theater where we’ve attended some of the plays.  Everyone sits in low beach chairs on a sandy hillside to watch the plays.

The Nevada/California state line in Crystal Bay at the north end of the lake where the Cal-Neva Lodge supplied gamblers a chance to win or lose.  I won a $7.50 jackpot on a nickel machine here in the early ‘60s.  I almost didn’t get to collect on it, though.  I was waiting for the gal to come around and pay me, but my Dad was waving me out of the resort and into the car because we were on our way home and it had begun snowing like crazy and he wanted to get over the pass before it was closed.  And yes, we made it over the pass, and the gal came around just in time to pay me my jackpot winnings. J

Anyway, the lodge was closed in 2013 for renovations but never reopened.  There are plans to reopen it as a hotel and restaurant without the casino, but no one knows when that might be?  It was a hoppin’ place in the 1960s when Frank Sinatra owned it.

Tahoe City where we usually do our grocery shopping and peruse all the neat little shops like the “Tahoe T-Shirtery” of which we are good customers every year – both for t-shirts and they have the best array of Tahoe postcards of any place on the lake.  There’s also a great place for lunches and dinners on decks overlooking the lake called “Jake’s on the Lake” where one can get a yummy dessert called “Hula Pie” which is a block of vanilla ice cream sitting on a dark chocolate fudge cookie base, sprinkled with Macadamia nuts, covered with whipped cream, and drizzled with chocolate sauce.  It’s a dessert meant for two, or maybe three!

Leaving Tahoe City and heading south down the west side of the lake you cross Fanny Bridge and it’s obvious where the name came from.  Everyone’s leaning over to see the huge trout who have figured out people will throw them food, and they don’t have to worry about being caught because fishermen are not allowed to fish on the lake side of the bridge.  So they hang around in their safe spot and grow big and fat and are really something to see.  They’ll ‘sit’ there in a line facing the bridge and watch to see who will toss them something.  I didn’t know fish were that smart!  They have to be fast, though, because the seagulls are also sitting around watching for those hand-outs.

Sunnyside Resort where we have often gone for dinner always managing to secure a table on the deck overlooking the lake.  (Sometimes we have to wait for one, but it’s worth it.)  This is another place where one can get Hula Pie for dessert. J

And now we’re back to Meeks Bay.  There are other places around the lake I’ve been to, but they don’t have postcards to their name, so too bad. J 

:->

La Nightingail

The red dot below Meeks Bay is Rubicon Bay.  In later years we also camped in Sugar Pine Point State Park just above Meeks Bay.  When camping became a bit too arduous and not so much fun anymore, we started finding cabins in Tahoma to rent!  Much nicer for 'old folks'. :)