This is my entry into this week's Fifty Words Stories 5, Theme: Islands
~ Fanette Island ~
I stepped onto that little island during my honeymoon. I had seen the little island and the teahouse for years, every summer while on childhood camping trips. “What was in the teahouse?” I wondered. Nothing. It was an empty room with stone walls, no ceiling. But, I was really there.
This story is about the little island that is located in Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe, “Fanette Island.” I was always curious about the island and the teahouse when I was a child. During the tours of Vikingsholm Castle, I remember hearing that the original owner, Mrs. Lora Knight, used to have tea in the little teahouse on the island. To me the idea of having tea on that island seemed like a story from a fairytale.
I was never able to get out to that island as a child. But, eventually in 1994, while on my honeymoon with my ex-husband, I got there! We canoed over to the island, and I finally walked around the island. It was interesting to see just how small the island really was. There was a trail that went up to the top/center of the island where the teahouse sits. The teahouse itself is not much – and, it has deteriorated quite a bit since Mrs. Knight lived there and used it as a teahouse. It is now just a shell of a building – one little room, no roof. But, it was very satisfying to finally get there after all those years of looking at it from afar.
You can find out more about Vikingsholm Castle here.
Original Emerald Bay Watercolor Artwork by Crystal Pyren (
Photo of the Teahouse on Fanette Island found on Google Image search, from laketahoecam.com
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