I still remember my first glimpse of Lake Tahoe, more than a decade ago. I’d lived all my life in the East and South, and whenever anybody talked about Lake Tahoe, their descriptions tended to begin and end with “It’s beautiful.” It seemed pretty silly that they would be reduced to a cliche.Now, here I was, peeking between the pines on a mountaintop, and as I turned to my family, all I could say was, “Wow.