So Monday started our hiking days in Tahoe. We discovered that Nicholas liked hiking better than rocky beaches, although not as much as the sandy beach we found on the last day (Sand Harbor, in the Northeast corner, is the best beach ever - for families).

We went to the US Forest Service Visitor's Center. They have stream profile chamber, which is a piece of glass that forms one side of a stream bank. We saw lots of fish in the stream. Nicholas kept pointing to the fish and getting really excited. He actually did some hiking on the trails there too - but he also got a lot of rides in his stroller.



The Smokey the Bear picture is from a short trail they have at the visitor's center. They give the kids a little badge when the complete the trail and answer the questions correctly at the end - but Nicholas is too small to take a quiz, so we didn't get the badge :( But we did get the picture with Smokey the Bear.

Only you can prevent forest fires :)



The Rainbow Trail is a mile long loop that has the stream profile chamber towards the end. It turns out there was a group of preschoolers at the center the same day. Nicholas wanted to follow them around - especially once he saw the girls. It was pretty funny. We had to keep pulling him out of their groups. They were all holding hands. So my son, who is not shy at all, walks right up to them and starts holding one of the girl's hands. It was fairly cute. Everyone thought it was cute. Too bad there was kind of a fit when we had to leave the girls.



This last picture is from our hike that afternoon. Nicholas was hungry because he didn't eat lunch. So he had a chocolate granola bar, an orange, and some water. Hence the mess on his face. But he really loved hiking. he did a good job going up the hill. He simply crawled over rocks, and roots, and wandered around the trail - and off the trail. He thought the whole forest was his kingdom. He really enjoyed himself.

Jon and I enjoyed hiking too (when we weren't carrying Nicholas). It was a fun family activity. We did it together, everyone enjoyed it, and we got to point out things to Nicholas. Nicholas has a love of trees, he loves to point at them and say "tree." Or sometimes feel them. And grab their leaves. So he had a lot of fun hiking around in the trees.