Insider Tips to Tahoe



Lake view from Pine Lodge. 
Photo: LJ Bottjer

Summer is here and the sirens of Lake Tahoe are calling.


Their chorus of activities can be almost overwhelming. From kayaking to biking, hiking, horseback riding and stand-up paddling, days in Tahoe are spent outdoors. Add in the nightlife from gambling at casinos, to going to outdoor events, to sipping wine with locals and fellow tourists, and it appears that a ton of luggage is going to be required to fit in all the different outfits needed.

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Mark Twain's Sagas on Frank, Marilyn and others

Since the age of Vikings, sagas have always told a story. Often they were robust accountings of great battles, brave action or outrageous behavior.


Having performed as the spirited Ghost of Mark Twain for a quarter-century, McAvoy Layne knows how to spin a good story, especially shocking ones about Nevada. It was during the height of state's Comstoke Lode bonanza that a young writer, one Samuel Clemens, first used his pen name, Mark Twain.

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The Female Side of Mark Twain

Becky Thatcher and Tom Sawyer

“There is nothing comparable to the endurance of a woman. In military life she would tire out an army of men, either in camp or on the march.”


— Mark Twain in his autobiography

To celebrate the American master writer's great appreciation of, and inspiration by, the female sex, Mark Twain impersonator McAvoy Layne offers “The Women in Mark Twain's Life” at Incline Village on Friday, March 25. The event will be held at the Mark Twain Cultural Center.

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Becoming Mark Twain in the Sierra Nevada

There is something to be said for a writer whose work continues to entertain 101 years after his death.

Sheer brilliance proclaims most, however Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, offered a more self-effacing opinion.

“All you need is ignorance and confidence,” he wrote, “then success is sure.”

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