Lake Almanor - Two weeks of Sun, Laketime, and Tradition

July 2025: Every summer, our family migrates north to Lake Almanor for our annual Fourth of July ritual — two weeks of swimming, grilling, boating, and pretending we’re better at fishing than we actually are. The rec areas become our daytime playgrounds: swimming, tubing, and skiing until everyone’s sunburned and hangry. Evenings are for grilling, watching ospreys and bald eagles swoop over the water, and telling “the one that got away” stories that get more dramatic every year.

We hiked Mount Lassen (because someone always suggests “something active”), grabbed milkshakes from the local gift shop like clockwork, and capped off nights with the kind of sunsets that make you forget the consumer, commercial-oriented world exists. The annual golf cart parade rolled through, complete with water balloons, the Star-Spangled Banner, and enough patriotic chaos to make the Founding Fathers proud.

It’s not Tahoe, but that’s the point — Lake Almanor is where we hit pause on life and remember how good the simple stuff is. Family, fireworks, and a lake full of almost-caught fish and early morning glassy ski runs. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.