Visiting Lake Tahoe with GMC

First, let me take the time to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!  I’m very excited for this new year and can’t wait to see what the new year holds for all of us.  A new year and a new chapter in life.

With Christmas last week and a whirlwind trip the week before, I’m just getting my thoughts and pictures together on the very fun trip I recently took,  hosted by GMC in Lake Tahoe, CA.  It was my very first time to the area and wow, was it spectacular.  I would love to go back!  We don’t get much snow here in Georgia, so to see the entire ground covered in the white stuff just a week before Christmas made my heart sing.  The temps were about the same as when I left Atlanta, mid-40’s in the day and not that cold at all to enjoy being outside in the crisp air, as long as you are bundled and have gloves on.

I am so grateful to get to experience blog trips like this and certainly do not take any of my good fortune for granted.  It’s been a pleasure to work with so many great brands and now I can add GMC to the list.  They were wonderful to work with and treated us so well.  The highlight of the trip was getting to visit the HGTV Dream Home, built in a beautiful golf course community near Tahoe.  I can’t wait to show you those pics, but it will be at least 2 parts to show them all, so come back tomorrow for the first post on the dream home.

We all arrived late afternoon on a Monday and it’s an all day event to travel to Reno, Nevada from the East coast.  I changed planes in Phoenix and ended up on the same plane with 2 of my blogging peers, but we didn’t realize that until we arrived in Reno.  I met some wonderful new friends and that was so fun too.  This blog world has opened up my world to so many great folks and that too, has enriched my life in so many ways.

In the meantime, before I get to the actual HGTV Dream Home that we toured, I’ll start with the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort we stayed at in Lake Tahoe.  Gorgeousness to the max!

As I mentioned, GMC (yes, the humongous US car company!) hosted this event and invited about 10 bloggers to come to Lake Tahoe and experience the Denali Dream Drive.  We all got to take turns at the wheel of a beautiful GMC car (SUV) and had fun trying out these beautiful vehicles.  I’ve never had an SUV, but they sure are comfortable to travel in.  I’m thinking my next car might be a small SUV,  but as long as my current car keeps going, I’ll keep it.  My car is 8 years old and paid for and I’m one of those who drive them til they die.

We stayed at the beautiful Grand Hyatt resort at Lake Tahoe and it was decked out for the Christmas holidays so that was extra special.  Picture beautiful snow covered mountains, a lodge feel and bears and that’s the vibe of the area.  Really pretty!

A life sized gingerbread house was in the lobby area and made it extra festive.

Trees in the foyer were beautiful and sparkly too.  It made for a wonderful couple of days to experience these surroundings.

Everything we saw was rock, wood and natural materials and that goes hand in hand with the mountains in this region.

These vintage wood wall art accents in the Hyatt caught my eye.  I can see my DIY blog friends making something like this. These really were chunks of reclaimed wood, all together on a big board.

Check out this view outside my window.  Our suites were beautiful and comfortable too.  I couldn’t get over the views!

Those pools and hot tubs are all heated for year round enjoyment.  Brittany and I took our suits and dipped in the hot tub the first night and it was glorious!  So fun to see snow on the ground and be sitting in hot water all comfy and cozy.

It’s a magnificent place with the beauty surrounding the hotel.  It was a treat for this Georgia girl!

I’ve never been skiing out west, but I am sure it is such a fun thing to do. I’ve skied in NC, but it’s not the same as the mountains in the west.  Not sure I’ll get the chance again, but I enjoyed skiing and I am sure at a resort like this, it would be a blast.

Those heated pools and hot tubs would certainly be a draw for me.

There are terraces all around to take in the views.

The color scheme outside just goes with the beauty outdoors.

This was really cool!  An indoor area to walk into the pool and swim outside, without walking out in the cold.  How neat is that?

Me and Brittany, my friend from Pretty Handy Girl, got to drive this red GMC Denali Terrain to the HGTV dream home and it was so much fun.  Just seeing the mountains on the way was exciting.

There are several models of Denali and we got to check them all out.

They are beautiful cars with lots of bells and whistles.

Driving the 45 minute trip to the HGTV Dream home was breathtaking, with ski slopes in the distance.

I made some new blog friends, Jeff, Rene, and Dan, not to mention several other new bloggers that I met, some in my blog niche, but most from different niche groups than me.

The gate going into the HGTV dream home neighborhood, which is on a golf course.

I imagine that things look really different around here in the spring, but the Lake Tahoe area is just beautiful.

Such a treat to take in these beautiful homes in the neighborhood as well as enjoy the snow on the ground.

Along with mountains, a rustic home just goes along with that vibe.

These were all beautifully built with stone and wood accents.

The magnificent trees were so beautiful too.  We don’t have evergreens quite like this in Georgia.

We arrived at the HGTV Dream home for 2014 and couldn’t wait to see it all.   The lucky winner who wins this stunning home also gets to take home a brand new 2014 Denali as well, along with a cash prize of $250,000.  Now THAT’s a winning prize package!!  I think I’ll enter my name just in case.

We got a great group shot of all the bloggers and it was fun to hang out with them for a couple of days.  We were a diverse group of bloggers.

Left to right:  Dan, Liz, Brittany, Odette, Chelsea, Jeff, Rene, me, Dawgelene and behind us peeking around is Larry, the GMC car product specialist.

Larry shared a lot of information with us about this 2015 GMC Denali Yukon, a big beautiful hunk of a car.  We roadtripped in style in these babies.  With wood and chrome accents, heated leather seats, Bose sound system and all the bells and whistles from a safety standpoint, these are impressive vehicles.  We felt perfectly safe on the roads that had been plowed even though there was some icy spots still around in the area.  Denali has several models to choose from, including the Terrain, that Brittany and I drove in.  We were very comfortable in our all-terrain GMC vehicle.  Equipped with the most safety features available and showcasing side blind zone alert, OnStar, and 6 air bags, now that’s impressive!  I would feel very safe in this vehicle.  I really liked the smaller Terrain that we were in, the red one.

Larry gave us the grand tour of this beautiful vehicle, a GMC Denali Yukon that one very fortunate person will win along with the HGTV 2014 Dream Home package.  That would be amazing!  There are a lot of pics and videos of this mountain retreat dream home in Truckee, CA over on that link above, so check it out for lots more details. I’ll be back tomorrow to share more of our inside scoop picture tour. It’s a beautiful rustic, yet modern home set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Schaffer’s Mill community.  The contest has started so hop on over and sign up if you haven’t already at HGTV! Someone will win!

This is the pretty deep red Denali Terrain that Brittany and I car pooled together in.

The whole lineup of GMC Denali vehicles that we drove in the Denali Dream Drive.  And a dream drive it was!  The folks at GMC, Chris, Jocelyn, and Laine were all so wonderful to work with.  I so appreciate the opportunity to be included in this fine group of bloggers. I know we all had an amazing time enjoying this beautiful part of the country, the dinners and touring the home.

What a wonderful end to the year it was!  Come back tomorrow for more scoop on the HGTV Dream Home 2014!

Note:  This trip was a sponsored trip by GMC and all travel expenses were paid for by GMC.

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