The forecast is calling for a heatwave, so what better way to start our new Friday feature, Fun Photo Friday, with a blast of winter from California's Warner Mountains.

When the haze takes over the horizon!

As I am sure you are aware, wildfire season is fully upon us. Nevada has been lucky the last few years in that we did not have many large wildfires. It looks like this year fires are back in full force!

Last week Reno was inundated with smoke and haze from area wildfires. Wildfire after wildfire have been breaking out all around northern Nevada and California. Making the enjoyment of the great outdoors tricky. Wildfires are either in places I'd like to play or are creating poor air quality and gunk that I rather not breathe in.

On Wednesday, Wild Women Wednesday, I headed up to Lake Tahoe for the afternoon. I had been planning this Tahoe outing for a couple of weeks and I didn't want the smoke to cancel it. Honestly, I was hoping that Tahoe might be above or out of the smoke "plume," unfortunately it was not.

I ended up going to Chimney Beach, on the east shore of the lake. I had planned to head to this beach because you can typically find parking in the little lot there and the walk to the beach helps keep the unmotivated away.

As I walked down to the beach I could see that the haze was quite thick, obscuring the mountains and creating a false horizon. When I reached the lake it was awesome to see the amount of water there. Our big, wet winter greatly benefited our water supplies and bodies which so desperately need replenishing. However, with all this wonderful water, many of the nice, sandy, beaches were underwater, making it difficult to find a spot to spread out. I walked around for a bit and found a nice little niche nestled down amongst the rocks, next to and a little above the water.

The water was really rough and choppy, creating intense, tumultuous waves. Larry was having none of it, but I did wade in a little, however, since we were in the rocks I didn't really want to swim with how rough the water was. I waded up to my knees and cooled my toes, but mostly I just spent my lake day beach side, relaxing and enjoying the boisterous waves which would occasionally lap so hard against the rocks that they would send up a cold, refreshing spray of water that would surprise and cool Larry and me as we basked.

It wasn't quite the Tahoe beach day I had expected and hoped for, but it was a really unique and memorable experience.