My Life In South Lake Tahoe

I first came to Lake Tahoe as a child, on a family vacation each summer. My father was a Lake Tahoe boater, and I grew up as his deckhand. As an adult, I came to ski and I spent many years participating in the International Police Winter Games, which were often held at Heavenly Ski Resort.

It was a long-time dream to own a home in South Lake Tahoe, where I had seasonally rented for many years. In 2003, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I bought a small condo near Heavenly.

Over the years, I have been a renter, an owner and a landlord. Together, we purchased three homes and sold two homes in the Heavenly area. We rented them when they were unsellable. We lost a significant amount of money selling a home in a down-economy. We have also remodeled an abandoned, one-bedroom 1965 house, where we live today. In doing so, we had to become experts in TRPA rules, coverage, permits, plans and changes. I managed this myself.

Our remodel taught us more about the Tahoe community. We worked with every business in town, including local hardware stores, fireplace companies, roofers, plumbers, tree services, fencing companies, electricians and flooring experts - many of these people became close friends. We came to understand how South Lake Tahoe is a community of people that work and play together, supporting each other throughout life. Our general contractor, Andy Mora, helped us in a snowstorm, where he fixed a large number of frozen pipes, twenty-three years ago, during a power outage. I first met Andy in the parking lot, during a rare sub-0 freeze, where he offered to help. He later built our current home, and today he is one of my dearest and closest friends. This to me is the essence of what living in South Lake Tahoe is all about and why we love it so much.

I spend my spare time hiking, biking, boating, beaching, and skiing with my husband. We love to hike near Emerald Bay and ride our bikes from town out to Taylor Creek. On a warm day we often walk out to Nevada Beach and visit the beavers at Beaver Burke’s pond along the way. In the winter you’ll see us on the slopes at Heavenly, our home mountain and our happy place.

While we’ve experienced all the great things South Tahoe has to offer, we have also seen challenges. We lived next to a difficult vacation rental, cleaned up after tourist/locals’ trash, struggled with the over-tourism of Covid, and evacuated with our elderly neighbor during the Caldor Fire. Every community has its difficulties and we are no different.

We feel very fortunate to call the most beautiful place on earth our home. We care deeply about the community and its future.