Lake Tahoe Americana
There might be Fourth of July celebrations that are as good as South Lake Tahoe’s, but they certainly are not better. Visually said, the beaches of Lake Tahoe are a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The sky was as blue as you could find across the country, the temperature settled into a comfortable low 80 degree range and smiles spread from shore to shore.
For those of you that have never spent a 4th of July in Lake Tahoe, try to imagine a community of 25,000 swelling to approximately 4 times its average population. And everyone is feeling a festive mood. Enjoying a reprieve from the daily grind (I personally took a nap, hubby took a bike ride,) the majority of these folks, visitors and locals alike, begin the annual pilgramage of staking out their choice locations from which to view the fireworks. Beaches, boats, high vantage points, all focusing on one area, the waters near the casinos. Radios are simulaneously tuned to the one station from whence the upcoming show will be broadcast. And they wait. They wait for the sun to go down, the stars to rise. Eyes and ears wait.
Finally, THE WORDS, “Ladies and Gentleman ….” The music commences, voices from every direction join in the singing, applause, cheers, hugs, toasts and flag waving. For a magical 30 minutes, a common pride in what America philisophically stands for reaches a crescendo. ”From sea to shiny sea” AND especially, the shores of Lake Tahoe. America the beautiful.